How Hot Do We Want It?

At Intrigue Publishing we focus on specific genres of fiction. In our short business life we’ve published award-winning crime novels and young adult fiction, but our other two genres are moving more slowly. So right now our minds are on launching our sensual romance line. We are eager for submissions, but what we want to publish is very specific. Yes we want it to be steamy… but how hot is too hot?Sensual romance is not erotica. We’re looking for hot, not burning. If you read Kensington's Brava line you’re enjoying books that are a bit too explicit for our intended audience. But also, hot is not “warm.” In a sensual romance you can’t leave EVERYTHING to the reader's imagination. We love Nora Roberts and Rebecca York, but we want to publish stories that are a little more explicit.So how would we define sensuous romance? The novels we want may contain very explicit sensuality, and there is an expanded focus throughout the book on sexual feelings and desires. There will be at least two or three love scenes. The characters often think about their sexual feelings and desires, and making love is graphically depicted. HOWEVER, both the emotions of the hero and heroine and their physical feelings are important during love scenes.We want our line to compete with, and share readers with, the Harlequin Temptations and Blaze lines. If you want to see exactly the kind of novel we’re most interested in, sample the novels written by J.D. Robb, Leanne Banks, Stephanie Laurens, Gaelen Foley, Karen Marie Moning, Linda Howard, Lisa Kleypas, Susan Andersen and Sherrilyn Kenyon.   
Of course, in one way good sensual romance is like pornography – it’s hard to define but we know it when we see it. And we WANT to see it, so send us your novel submission soon. Of course, start by reading our submission guidelines at http://intriguepublishing.com/?page_id=121so you know it’s what we want in the form we want. Then send us something that will intrigue us and our readers.