New #Pit2Pub Publisher Spotlight: Torquere Press @torquere @annmnoser @DigiWriting

Torquere Press Inc. started as a labor of love for two romance writers and readers. In business since September of 2003, Torquere began as a general partnership, and has grown over the last decade into a much larger organization.
While many publishers out there in 2003 were putting out e-books, very few were publishing gay and lesbian romance. The mission of Torquere Press was, and is, to provide readers who love a good story with great books, and to promote gay and lesbian romance as a genre to be reckoned with.

Partners Kristi Boulware and Joanna Talbot would like to welcome all readers and authors to explore the Torquere Press website, and to contact us with any questions and comments you may have at torquere@torquerepress.com.

Kristi Boulware: Kristi is a Texas girl through and through. Sharing a home with her partner in life and business, Joanna Talbot, seven dogs and our children. Kristi works in her spare time with several animal rescues as animals are one of her passions in life. We have a life full of love, laughter and work. Kristi has spent the last several years working with Torquere Press to grow it into a successful publishing company of LGBT romance. In 2014 the decision was made for our previous co-owners to focus on their writing so the business became a partnership between Joanna and Kristi. Kristi has been managing business of all sorts for twenty years and plans to continue the growth of Torquere Press.

Joanna Talbot: Joanna grew up in a family that always had a retail business until mid 2014. Through her families businesses she learned about the ways of retail, advertising and marketing and the importance of good customer service. Joanna thrives on finding new and exciting ways to share the things she loves with anyone and everyone. She has her own business making all natural beauty products that she is very passionate about and focuses on in her spare time. Joanna is very excited to start this new chapter in her life with her new family, and her Torquere family and readers.

SUBMISSIONS:

A. Torquere Press, the first GLBT Romance epublisher, is open to GLBT romance submissions in all categories. Click here for current open anthology and special calls.
Torquere Press focuses on GLBT romance, exclusively. We publish all the sub-genres of romance -- paranormal, contemporary, western, suspense, etc.. We do require a happy ending, whether that ending is happily ever after or happy for now.
We publish lengths from 3000 words and up. Our pricing structure is based solely on word count.

All submissions to Torquere Press must adhere to the following guidelines or they will be discarded unread.

All submissions must contain gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered characters. While works do not need to be graphic, they must contain romance and focus on the interaction between characters. Acceptance preference will be given to stories with fully realized romances and a high level of sensuality.

All manuscripts must be submitted to submissions@torquerepress.com as an attachment in either .doc, .txt, or .rtf format.

Length standards:
Novel for paperback contract consideration 60,000 words to 100,000 (due to costs involved, manuscripts over 100,000 words will be considered on a case by case basis for print)

• Novel - 45,000 words and up
• Novella - 20-45,000 words
• Novelette - 10-20,000 words
• Short Stories - Under 10,000 words (minimum 3000 words). For open calls see ourSpecial Calls page.

All submissions must:

• be spell checked and edited for grammar.
• be single spaced with a space in between paragraphs. Indents at the beginning of paragraphs are not necessary. Any submissions with severe formatting problems (ie: blocks of text with no paragraph breaks, illegible fonts) will not be read.
• labeled in subject line of email as a submission, and include the anthology name if applicable
• include a word count and a brief synopsis of the work.
• all spelling should be in American English
• include a short bio of the author along with the author's full contact information. Authors may use a pseudonym for their work, but we will need full legal names and contact information for contracts.  Please make sure author byline is in the story file, as well. Example: Story, by Joe Smith.  All information will be kept in the strictest confidence.
• Include a marketing plan. Examples for marketing plans: explain your website/social media/advertising plan for the book.

We are primarily looking for homoerotic stories in all genres. We are not looking for sex without characterization. Plotty, sensual character-driven novels are our focus. We are currently actively seeking stories in the spectrum of GLBTQU. Characters that are non-binary are welcome as well.

We will not accept stories with pedophilia; incest or those containing rape for titillation or other gratuitous violence. We will not accept stories with bestiality (relationships with animals occurring in natural life not including shapeshifters). Forbidden Love Line has opportunties that may fall outside these guidelines.

We will also reject stories that are clearly a copyright infringement, including any that have been converted from fan fiction or that are based on TV shows, movies, or literary characters. We do accept simultaneous submissions, however we require you to update us if there is any interest in your submission from another publisher or if it is accepted elsewhere. We do accept multiple submissions.

​Unsolicited manuscripts are accepted at any time. Please remember, however, that current projects take precedence, and while we will acknowledge all submissions in a timely manner, it may take some time for one of our editors to review your work. Please allow 3-8 weeks for a response.. All accepted works will need to be provided to us as an electronic file, and please note we are now using electronic contracts.

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