Harlequin’s Romance Includes You Mentorship is back! Again in 2024, we are calling for story submissions from debut romance writers in underrepresented communities for a chance to start your romance writing career and have your debut novel published. We will accept submissions starting May 1, 2024.
The Romance Includes You Mentorship is all about finding new voices in romantic fiction that bring more diversity and representation to the genre. We’re looking to offer one writer a publishing contract with an advance for their debut novel, a one-year mentorship with a Harlequin editor to complete their story for publication, and a writing grant to support their early writing career. The mentorship has a total value of $5,000 US.
We are interested in submissions by authors in underrepresented communities, including, but not limited to, people who identify as Black, Indigenous, People of Color, biracial and multiracial, members of 2SLGBTQ+ communities, marginalized ethnic and religious cultures, and people living with disabilities and neurodiversity.
Submissions will be accepted from May 1 to May 31, 2024, at 11:59 pm EST through Harlequin.Submittable.com. We’re announcing the call for submissions early to allow plenty of time for you to learn about what Harlequin publishes and to prepare your submission.
Since it began in 2020, Harlequin’s Romance Includes You Mentorship has been successful in starting romance writing careers. Previous winners are Sera Taíno, author of three published Special Edition titles with more to come; Faye Acheampong, author of The Christmas That Changed Everything, published by Harlequin Romance and a forthcoming novel; and Emma-Claire Sunday, whose Harlequin Historical Romance debut will be published in 2024.
If you dream of becoming a published romance novelist, this could be your chance. We’d love to read your happily ever after story.
Who Should Apply
We welcome submissions from unpublished and self-published writers who are not represented by a literary agent. For this mentorship, we’re interested in submissions from writers in underrepresented communities, as described above. Submissions in English are accepted from residents of Canada (excluding Quebec), the United States and its territories. We cannot accept submissions from elsewhere due to privacy compliance requirements.
The submission must be your own original content and you must own its publishing rights to be eligible for the mentorship.
What We’re Looking For
We are looking for unpublished romance stories by debut authors that would be suitable for publication in one of Harlequin’s series romance lines, including Afterglow Books. We publish a wide variety of romance stories from passionate to sweet, contemporary to historical, romantic suspense, inspirational romance and more. Inclusive romance stories with all gender and identity pairings are accepted. To learn more about Harlequin’s romance lines, read the writing guidelines.
This mentorship opportunity does not include Harlequin’s trade publishing or Carina Press imprints. Submissions of young adult (YA) romance, general fiction genres and nonfiction are not eligible.
How to Submit
- Your submission should include a full story synopsis (please include the ending) and the first 5,000 words of your romance story in a Word document. It’s not necessary to have the full story written when you apply but we would like to understand the entire plot.
- Prepare a cover letter—sometimes called a query letter—with a one-paragraph story pitch or teaser. Include your brief bio, any previous writing credits, and a personal statement explaining why you applied for this mentorship, what you hope to get out of it if selected, and what greater diversity and representation in the romance genre means to you personally.
- Upload your submission documents to the “Romance Includes You Mentorship” inbox on Harlequin.Submittable.com between May 1 and May 31, 2024 before 11:59 pm EST.
- We will accept only one submission by each eligible applicant, and your first submission only if you submit more than one.
Submission Reviews
- All eligible entries will be reviewed by a committee that includes Harlequin editors and representatives with broad experience editing, publishing and marketing multicultural, interracial and LGBTQ+ romance fiction. Top submissions will be shortlisted and evaluated by a judging panel to select a winner.
- We will assess submissions based on the writing quality of your story sample and synopsis; the creativity of your story, characters and ideas and the strength of the romantic element; its suitability to be published in Harlequin’s romance publishing program; and an assessment of your interest and commitment to publishing a romance novel as demonstrated in your personal statement (cover letter).
Winner Announcement
- Shortlisted candidates will be announced on July 24, 2024.
- The mentorship winner will be announced on September 30, 2024.
Have questions?
- Read the Frequently Asked Questions
- Check the Contest Rules
Get to Know Harlequin
On March 7th, we hosted a “Get to Know Harlequin” webinar where answered your questions about Harlequin and how to submit to the mentorship opportunity. Watch the recording below!
