WRITING & SUBMITTING VLOG! | Hallmark Open Submissions (Patreon)

Hellooooooo everyone! Wanted to share this vlog from March where I submitted to Hallmark Publishing! (AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH.)

For those who haven't heard me talk about the Hallmark Open Submissions (which they also announced they'll do another round in October of this year), let me break down what all they were asking for:

• Your first 3 chapters
• A 4-5 page synopsis of the entire story
• The query (with a logline/quick pitch at the start)

If you've watched any Hallmark movie, you basically get the vibe of what their Publishing branch was looking for. (Although they were focused on sweet romance and contemporary women's fiction, and not cozy mysteries this time.)

So I heard about the Open Submissions a few days before they opened, from March 1st - March 31st. After kicking around a couple ideas, I finally came up with The One (as you'll see in the video).

The other big part of this vlog was "convincing" (in quotes, since it only took sending over the link) my co-writer to submit our project that we've been working on for 5 years bahaha. We had to "Hallmarkify" it and tone down some cursing, but ultimately it was pretty close to the heart-warming story they were looking for (or so we hope!).

That's to say, not only did I come up with an idea, completely work through Romancing the Beats, write a synopsis and query, BUT ALSO did that with my co-writer bahaha.

I don't touch on this in the vlog (oops!) but it was both easier and tougher having a co-writer and trying to submit (as is true for all of co-writing). So although there are two writers, I'd say we both had to contribute 60 - 65% instead of an even 50%, if that makes sense. For example, she wrote the basic bullet points for the synopsis and I came back in and fleshed it out and weaved the emotional arcs of the characters throughout, but that means we both had to cover the whole story from scratch to pull those elements. (Does that make sense?)

Anyways! All that's to say, she's very excited to move on to a new idea and co-write a new story for the Open Submissions in October! (As am I!)

As you'll see at the end of the vlog, I'm curious to know about your experience querying, submitting to competitions or magazines, or anything in that vein! And please do also let me know about the emotional rollercoaster you experienced with that. I'm finding submitting super addicting and can't wait to do it more, but also have to recognize and better understand the anxiety that follows. So would LOVE to hear y'alls perspective and experience on this too. :)

(Also! I'm keeping this as a patreon-exclusive video, at least until I hear back about the submission! I'll be sure to keep y'all updated either way, eeeeee!)