Guest Post: Escape Publishing

Hi Everyone! Thanks for having me on Romance Book Junkies to talk about some new books for everyone's towering to-be-read pile. I thought you and your readers might be interested in what Escape Publishing is looking for from its authors, and a little bit about the authors and the titles we chose to launch with!

So business first, before pleasure:

Escape Publishing is Harlequin Australia's digital-first arm, with the goal of bringing Australian voices and stories to a global audience. While we are focusing on Australian voices, we are open to submissions from international authors as well.

We are perpetually open for submissions, and we're looking for everything – as long as it's romance. So that means a focus on a romantic relationship, and an emotionally uplifting ending. But that's as far as the restrictions go. One of the benefits to being digital-first is flexibility and freedom to take risks, fill a niche, or find truly fabulous romance titles. At the moment we're maintaining a two-week turnaround for first responses, and just over three months from acceptance to publication.

You can find most information that you need on our website, escapepublishing.com.au, including all of our contact details, so if you have any questions, you can ask them across a number of different platforms.

Enough business? Moving on to fun!

We launched on the 14th of November with five exciting titles from five exciting Australian authors. Would you like to meet them?

Ainslie Paton lives in Sydney and works in a corporate setting in marketing, public relations and advertising. If you're wondering if she knows the dance scene first hand, the answer is yes, though she only dances for herself now. Grease Monkey Jive is smart, it's meaty, it's big, it's Pimp My Ride meets Strictly Ballroom, and it's Ainslie's debut novel.

Keziah Hill used to work in the criminal justice system and moved to the Blue Mountains for a tree change. As well as steamy erotic romance, Keziah also writes romantic suspense.  Chains of Revenge is a very hot, addictive, lush erotic fantasy novella about a spoiled princess and the slave used to initiate her into the world of sex – and the slave who escapes his captor to return a powerful Warlord, determined to take his revenge in the most erotic way possible.

Lee Christine revealed to us during the launch celebrations that her first stories were actually songs – when she was a teenager, she dreamed of being a singer/songwriter. Lee lives in Newcastle and has worked in a number of settings including law and software training. In Safe Hands is her first novel. It's sophisticated, it's polished, it's suspenseful, it's about a powerful lawyer on a fast track with a youthful indiscretion that could derail everything – and the hot ex-SAS commander she asks to help.

Rebekah Turner works as a graphic designer and admits to an addiction to stationary. She lives in Brisbane with her husband, two kids, and a dog that you can see pictures of if you follow her on Twitter. Chaos Born is Rebekah's debut novel. The world-building is incredible, complex, deep, dark, sinister, yet familiar. Her heroine, Lora, limps in a total bad-ass way. And, while there's technically a love triangle, I'm currently recruiting everyone I know to Team Roman.

Rhian Cahill lives in Sydney with her husband and those of her four children who have decided not to leave home yet. When she approached me with her idea for a holiday-themed novella that would still carry her trademark heat level but move away from explicit erotic romance, I made her send it to me the next day. Christmas Wishes is still steamy, but it's incredibly sweet, with a light-hearted touch and a sigh-worthy ending. Best of all? It's a friends-to-lovers story with a holiday theme. 

Thanks so much for having me to visit. I hope to hear from all of you soon – either about the launch titles or your own titles!

Thanks

Kate