Harlequin Romance (M&B True Love) – 50,000 words

ALL ABOUT HARLEQUIN ROMANCE

Uplifting, glamorous international romantic escapes which let the reader experience the intensity, anticipation and rush of falling in love.

Key Elements
 

  • A Harlequin Romance novel takes the reader into a world of glamour and romance. These are trope-driven romantic escapes with a contemporary fairy tale feel.
  • The key to a Harlequin Romance heroine is that she's real and down to earth. She's one the reader can believe in, relate to and root for!
  • We need a hero who exudes extreme wealth and who we can immediately trust, who is worthy of the heroine. He should be strong, gorgeous, and alpha but still be an emotionally accessible man who our heroine would aspire to be with.  
  • Glamorous, international settings are central to our stories bringing the aspirational element to our romances.
  • High sensual tension, matched with high emotional connection. While these stories do not have gratuitous sexual detail, we welcome scenes that go beyond the bedroom door to explore the emotional fulfillment that comes with sexual intimacy.
  • Captivating internal emotional conflicts that will sustain the story over the course of 50,000 words. External plots shouldn’t drive the story forward.
  • Highly couple-focused with minimal secondary characters to generate emotional depth and intensity.
  • Delivers contemporary, fresh takes on popular romance themes and commercial tropes.
  • While these are emotional stories, they are also intense, and can be edge-of-the-seat exciting! Throw your reader straight into the story!
  • We are committed to publishing for our diverse global readership, and welcome underrepresented authors and characters from a diverse range of backgrounds, cultures and challenges and are happy to see LGBTQ+ romances.



Featured in Harlequin Romance

Some of our most popular storylines include: billionaires, modern-day Cinderellas, runaway brides, weddings, pregnancy/secret babies (as part of conflict only – babies/children not generally on the page), royalty, boss/office romance, second chance/reunion stories, enemies to lovers, seasonal (e.g. winter, fall, summer, including celebrations and holidays). Harlequin Romance does not feature small town and Western settings or cowboy and military protagonists.


What to Submit
 

  • Your first three chapters.
  • A 3-5 page synopsis describing your story, including plot outline, character development and conflict resolution/ending.

 
Harlequin Romance is…

Crazy Rich Asians for its alpha but emotionally accessible hero, Anyone But You and Ticket to Paradise for their destination wedding settings and second chance storylines, La Dolce Villa for its romantic escapism and Business Proposal for its trope-driven story set in a world of sumptuous glamour.


The Editorial Team

 Senior Editor: Sheila Hodgson

Editor: Hannah Rossiter

Assistant Editor: Rachael Nazarko

Editorial Assistant: Elena Lodge

Editorial Office: London, UK

N.B. Please note that as per current editorial policy we ask that you do not submit more than one manuscript at a time for our consideration. Please be patient and wait for feedback before submitting your next project.
As with all Harlequin series, we read all submissions and you do not need to have an agent to submit.

We use Submittable to accept and review our submissions.
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