Focus on My Weekly Pocket Novels

POCKET ROCKETS

Focus on My Weekly Pocket Novels

I'd never heard of pocket novels before the fabulous Sally Quilford began to mention them on her blog. I'll be honest and say that I was attracted by the name – so cute! – and I wanted to know more about them.

Pocket Novels, for those of you who don't know, is the name of a series of magazine-style novellas published by My Weeky and Peoples Friend. They publish at least one a fortnight and can be bought at major supermarket chains and larger newsagents. They are roughly A5 in size and have paper covers. They cost around £1.55 each, and average 30,000 words in length (50,000 for Peoples Friend). Payment is (at the time of writing) £200 for First Cheap Paper Rights so no, it isn't the most lucrative line of work out there, but still a great opportunity that I don't think should be dismissed out of hand.

Sally has very kindly done a series of posts about her (very successful!) experiences writing pocket novels for My Weekly and allowed me to collate the best of her advice here for you.

Sally's Top Tips for writing a successful My Weekly Pocket Novel

• It's not at all easy to either make a love story stretch to 30k words, or condense it to 30k words.
  


• Always keep your story simple. You do only have 30k words in which to tell it, so avoid complicated plotlines that might take 80,000 words (or write that novel instead).
  


• The novels are generally made up of short chapters, certainly no more than 3000 words for each chapter.
  


• My Weekly prefers to have 10-12 chapters per pocket novel.
  


• Have no more than two problems that your hero and heroine need to solve. The first problem is obviously the romance itself. The second problem should have some influence on the relationship.
  


• The hardest thing about writing a romance is avoiding predictability. It's pretty clear to anyone who's familiar with the genre that your hero and heroine are going to get together in the end. So your story probably needs something else, some sub-plot to keep the readers' interest.
  


• The important thing is that the sub-plot never gets in the way of the romance, and is in fact, a way of throwing your lovers together, so that as well as solving the mystery, they're also learning about each other. That goes for any sub-plot you choose. The story must always come back to the romance between your lovers, and not get bogged down in the problems of others.
  


• Your lovers must be morally sound. You and I may not think that a woman who'd had several lovers before meeting the man of her dreams is immoral in this day and age, but the readers of the Pocket Novels might. You might also think that the odd swear word is a normal part of life. It is in the real world, but not in Pocket Novel world.

• Put in plenty of kissing. Explicit sex is out.

• Avoid authorial intrusion; instead use dialogue to shed light on characters, Dialogue makes a story flow, whereas too much narrative slows it down.

• Watch the old movies of the forties and fifties. Not only the films were black and white but the morals were too. You'll also see how much they got away with inferring, with everything from unmarried mothers and illicit sex to criminal activity in very subtle ways.

• It should go without saying that the hero and heroine should be 'nice' people. Not necessarily sickly sweet, but honest, loyal and kind to others. When dealing with historical romances it is doubly important to adhere to the morals of the time.

• If you are scoffing at all this, then I'd suggest writing for My Weekly Pocket Novels is not for you. Even if you disagree with the moral outlook of the readership, you need at least to have a healthy respect for their values.
  

Many thanks to Sally for sharing this information. I found it of great help when writing my own first attempt at a Pocket Novel and, regardless of whether or not it ends up rejected, I found the whole process very enjoyable and a great learning experience. Sally noted on her blog that it can take her around 2 weeks per pocket novel. If you include writing a synopsis and a detailed edit, then my first attempt at a pocket novel took just under 3 weeks to complete.

So, if you fancy giving Pocket Novels a go – and let's face it, who doesn't want to be able to call themselves a Pocket Novelist? - then their current guidelines are below, courtesy of the wonderful Womag Writer. (incidentally, if you follow The Literary Project because you are an aspiring writer, then I seriously recommend that you follow both Sally and Womag as well; both are fantastic sources of information and very lovely people to boot!)

MY WEEKLY POCKET NOVELS GUIDELINES

Please address: For the Attention of Maggie Seed
Email: mseed@dcthomson.co.uk


Love! Romance! Passion! Adventure!
Avid fans of romantic novels can get their fix from My Weekly Pocket Novels!
Two published every fortnight.

We look for stories with a strong, developing romance between two identifiable characters. Within the time it takes to read one of the novels, we would like the reader to share and experience the breathless/breath-taking excitement of a growing relationship.

Do: Create characters our readers can identify with, rejoice with or grieve with. They can have flaws.
Do: Thrill and intrigue the reader. You have two hours (roughly) to take the reader through a gamut of emotions and resolve the dilemma, mystery, pitfalls and obstacles.
Do: Include a heart-stopping moment! Key moments to consider: She realises she likes him; she thinks he is lost to her forever; that second-chance moment when she realises happiness can be hers…THE KISS!
Some questions you might like to answer: How can she resist him? How did he misjudge her? What kind of a woman is she?
Do: Set our pulses racing (ooh la la!) BUT remember we want passion, not pornography!
Do: Use dialogue so the reader can participate in the story's development rather than being told in large chunks of straight narrative.

Plot: There can be a secondary plot to help develop the romance. For instance, there are often complications and misunderstandings between the hero and the heroine, or there is something vital at stake, such as a child, an inheritance, a relationship etc.
Crime and intrigue can feature, as long as they don't distract from the developing romance.

Who: Our heroines vary in age from their early twenties to middle-age and are compassionate and morally sound. They are more modern in their relationships, thoughts, feelings and experiences when the novel has a contemporary setting.

Where and When: Stories can be set anywhere in the world and can be contemporary or historical.

How: The story is usually told from the woman's point of view, although occasionally it is from the man's.


Presentation

Please send in a synopsis and the first three chapters in manuscript form or via email.
If we wish to proceed, we will ask you to send in the full novel electronically.
Word count: around 30,000 words, no more than 32,000.
Double spacing, double quotes, single space only between full stop and next sentence. No tabs or page breakers.
If accepted for publication the completed novel must be presented electronically in a format compatible with ours (i.e., Word or rich text format)


Please send to:
My Weekly Pocket Novels
D.C. Thomson & Co., Ltd.,
80 Kingsway East
Dundee DD4 8SL
Email: myweekly@dcthomson.co.uk