True Romance Author Submission Form

Secondly, authors get author copies, and in some cases get to be featured next to some really great names in the industry. As these are organized by myself (Troy Lambert) and Vincent Zandri, our focus is on the kind of fiction we create - neo-noir and new pulp in the dark mystery, thriller, suspense genres. There is even some horror involved and some paranormal elements from time to time.

What is True Romance Then?

So that's what we're looking for here. Romance, but with dark, noir or pulp elements. There are some rules though, simply because of the name of the anthology, and the genre we are featuring. Because as many of you know, romance is one of the only genres with really strict rules and voracious readers who like to enforce them. We can bend those a bit here, but only a little. So what do stories need?

• Stories must include romance or romantic elements.
• The story must have a happy for now or happily ever after ending (if the couple dies at then end, but they are together, we'll accept that thanks to Nicolas Sparks and the happy death ending).
• The story itself can be as dark as you wish - it only has to end well for the couple, not overall. (See happy death ending above).
• These stories can be reprints as long as you have the rights to them. or you can create origninal stories. They can be related to your other series, spinoffs, or even a part of them. (This gives you potential for some readers to "cross over" to your other writing).
• We are looking for a story length of around 5k words. More or less may be acceptable on a case by case basis, so email Vince or I if you have questions.

Those are really the only requirements. We do have some requests, though.

• Please plan to promote the Kickstarter to your fans. The more we make overall, the more each author gets paid, and the greater exposure your work gets to even more fans.
• Please fill out the form below, even if you have already sent your story via email to one of us. We need things like this for legal and tax reasons, to send you author copies (and potential special editions to sign) and to include your headshot and bio on our website and marketing materials.
• Please respond to author communications. They will come from troy@troylambertstories.com or from vincentzandri@gmail.com. Most of you also have at least one of our phone numbers, but we are happy to provide you with those as well. It is vitally important at various stages of the Kickstarter for us to be able to get in touch with you.

A few more things you should know:

• We're accepting stories from this point until November 1st. If for some reason you cannot get your story to us by that time, please contact us and let us know. We can make exceptions if needed, but prefer not to.
• The Kickstarter will start February 1st and run for 14 days. We'll have some ambitious stretch goals, and may ask you to offer extra ebooks or other prizes as a part of those goals.
• These things work better if everyone works together and is a part of conversations, promotions, rewards, and more.
• We'll be revealing covers, landing pages, and putting up the Kickstarter for people to show interest starting early in January. Please be prepared to be a part of those things.
• Vincent usually interviews all of the authors on his "Writer's Life" podcast, and we may have other podcast opportunities as well, even for larger groups of authors. We'd love for you to take advantage of that not only for this Kickstarter, but for your own promotions as well.

We really look forward to reading your story, and working with you. Please let us know if you have any questions.