150 Aspiring Authors Apply for Romance Includes You Mentorship

We’re excited to announce that we received 150 submissions for the mentorship opportunity by the May 31 deadline. High fives to all the applicants! Harlequin sends a huge thank you to everyone who shared their stories with us and jumped on this chance to become a published romance author.

“Harlequin’s team has been eagerly anticipating this year’s mentorship submissions and we’re thrilled with the fabulous response! It’s exciting to hear from a diverse community of authors with a passion for writing romance novels and we can’t wait to start reading them,” said Dianne Moggy, Harlequin’s VP Editorial.

Wasting no time, Harlequin’s team met the day after submissions closed to kick off submission reviews. We will review all eligible submissions and plan to announce a shortlist on July 24. Shortlisted submissions will proceed to final judging. Once the top submission is selected, Harlequin will offer a publishing contract to the top author. We hope to announce the winner by September 30.

In addition to naming a winner, editors will be watching for more promising voices with potential to write for Harlequin.

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Harlequin’s Romance Includes You Mentorship supports increased diversity in the romance genre by welcoming submissions by authors in underrepresented communities. For the writer of the top submission, Harlequin is offering a publishing contract for their debut novel and the opportunity to work with an editor to develop their story for publication during a one-year mentorship.

Stay tuned for updates.