BurkeLaGatta Enterprises   

Guidelines for Wicked Velvet  

The web's premiere publisher of erotic romance for women    

Wicked Velvet, (www. wickedvelvet.com) will feature writers and authors of erotic romance and their novels or novellas in chapter-by-chapter /serialized monthly posts. Our adult readers/members pay one monthly fee enabling us to pay our writers. 75% of our readership is projected to be female. 

Publisher Bethany Burke, partner of BurkeLaGatta Enterprises, is currently operating adult publishing websites, including Bethany's Woodshed (www.herwoodshed.com) a literature site featuring writers of discipline and spanking erotica. Bethany’s Woodshed is listed among the top ten and has the highest percentage of adult female members on the worldwide net.

Wicked Velvet, a new launch, opening Sept 1, 2001 is romantic erotica written for women. We encourage both male and female aspiring novelists to submit their work, or published authors interested in expanding their horizons and talents into areas and themes not normally allowed or encouraged in mainstream romance. Wicked Velvet is currently and aggressively being advertised on the web, in magazines, newspapers and at writer’s conferences.  

Before we take the time involved in reading the first two chapters of your manuscript, you will want to familiarize yourself with erotica novels, their style, and content, to be sure this is a form that is right for you. Most major bookstores have an erotica section. Author’s Melissa MacNeal, Eve Howard and Anne Rice (Beauty Series) are a few examples of excellent erotic fiction. Author’s Susan Johnson and Beatrice Small are only two writers who have managed to break the mainstream romance rules with borderline erotica. We strongly suggest that you read them. Learn the difference between erotica and porn. An art student, much like a writer, can portray a nude model as a sensual celebration of human sexuality, or a vulgar off-putting depiction. 

We are looking for provocative and innovative works that speak from your own voice, and show a positive outlook on women’s sexual fantasies. Especially those fantasies that are not considered ‘politically’ correct. Erotic content may range from supremely seductive to outrageous as they enter into forbidden areas of fantasy and sexual exploration. We expect works to include all the elements of good fiction: characterization, conflict and quality writing--particularly a sensuous use of language for your sexual scenes. Use straight sex, spanking, some BDSM, abduction fantasy, slave fantasy, orgies and exhibitionism--basically a bit of a mélange. The graphic content should be varied, not repetitious from scene to scene.  

While this is a forum for erotica and fantasy, above all it is still romance. It is difficult at times to draw the line between the fantasy of the reluctant slave ‘taken by force’ and overt rape. It is challenging to portray a discipline spanking delivered as a corrective measure for our feisty heroine's own good. However, our writers will have to understand these distinctions and must be able to communicate them. We are not interested in brutality, violence, torture, or rape.  

We are looking for all settings of erotic romance: historical, western, regency, sci-fi, vampire, contemporary, fantasy, suspense, time-travel. We are not looking for scene after scene of sexual fantasies without interlocking plot and romantic thread. Sci-fi, historical, time-travel and futuristic genres, for example, will allow more latitude than a contemporary. If your writing style is humorous--by all means have fun! Chances are your reader’s will too. Trust your instincts.  

All erotic elements should be blended with heterosexual romance: a lovely heroine and irresistible hero and their developing relationship. The emotional or external conflicts should spring naturally from the unique characters you've chosen. The love and lust is always erotic. Secondary characters and subplots need to blend with the core. The conflicts must be strong enough to drive an entire novel to its happy conclusion. Since our members and your readers will be anticipating your next chapter posting, ending each chapter on a cliffhanger is key. Creating sexual tension between characters through dialogue is essential if you are not ending a chapter on an erotic scene. Make sure you follow through with the ‘sexual promises’ in the following chapter. And remember all chapters are erotic in theme. Break the rules! 

To submit: DO NOT submit a complete manuscript and do not send us an Internet address where we can view your work. We wish to receive a cover letter: full name, e-mail address, snail mail address, and phone number. If you belong to any writer organizations or have any published credits please mention them. In one paragraph, give the genre, projected word count, and a brief blurb. Do not agonize over this: one sentence (Persian Nights is the recounting of a young French woman's erotic adventures after she's kidnapped into an 1850's harem) is fine. Include the first two chapters of your novel. No more than 13,000 words. E-mail submissions in MS Word OR compatible file attachments. Your submission will be acknowledged in 48 hours and we hope to respond in four to six weeks upon receiving your query, though depending upon our publishing cycle it could be as long as two months before you hear from us. Do contact us if you have not heard from us within a reasonable time. 

General: We expect cleanly written, edited manuscripts. We do not have the editing staff available for extensive editing, so for the most part manuscripts need to be ready to print, grammatically correct and checked for spelling. Strunk & White’s Elements of Style can be used as a general guideline. Please use 12-pitch font and normal white background. Unless special arrangements are made with the publishers, finished novel length should be 50,000 to 100,000 words, divided into chapters of 4000-7000 words. Works that are projected to be longer than 100,000 words will most likely be divided into two complete novels. Chapters will be posted one at a time, once each month until the work is completed. Each chapter must contain an erotic scene. 

On acceptance: Authors will be paid for the stories as follows:  

1.) Writers will be paid a per chapter fee. 50% of the fee will be paid for each chapter as it is posted; the remaining 50% will be paid as a lump sum upon completion of the entire work. 

First time authors must have completed a minimum of five chapters before we will use or pay for any chapters. We are willing to work a bit more liberally with writers who have published and have demonstrated the ability to finish a work.  

2.) Once the entire book has been posted on Wicked Velvet, it will remain up--in total--for two months. Then the work will be removed and reposted to a second, ‘archive’ site, where it will be available as a completed E-Book. Authors will receive an additional 15% ongoing royalty on all sales from this site. 

3.) BurkeLaGatta Enterprises will retain all internet publishing rights in perpetuity. We also have the right to publish the book in print, mass-market paperback format for up to three years after the month the book's final chapter is placed on the site. If the book is published in mass-market format, an additional $1000 advance against 10% royalties will be paid to the author. If we do not publish the work in print format within three years, print publication rights revert to the author.  

To finalize our arrangements, a contract will be signed between ABCD Graphics and Design and the author. We will require positive identification from all authors   

Email submissions to: editorsubmit@onebox.com   

We will also accept submissions through regular mail; however, if we accept your work, we require the chapters to be sent to us either via E-mail or on disk. Snail mail submissions can be sent to:

ABCD Webmasters

PO Box 231

Charlottesville, VA 22902

Attention: Wicked Velvet Editor 

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Guidelines are subject to change.