Wild Blue Wonder Press will be hosting and publishing a multi-author Regency-era romance series. The books will be slotted for 2025-2026 publication. We currently have enough authors for our project, but please contact Wild Blue Wonder Press privately if you would like to be considered if more spots open.
Our Regency-era romance “MAP” (multi-author project) is a somewhat tongue-in-cheek series of standalone novellas and short novels written with the goal of bringing reality and Christianity to romance tropes that have a known tendency to stray away from common sense and morality.
Our goal is to provide good, God-honoring stories that are entertaining to read and don’t cause readers to scratch their heads in confusion. However, we are not here to bully or poke fun at other authors or books, nor do we claim that there aren’t books that do these tropes well. That would be a blatant falsehood.
If anything, we want to celebrate those kinds of great, well-written stories. Further, we do not seek to discourage readers from reading or writers from writing whatever they want to read or write. There is an audience for every book containing every trope.
What Kinds of Novellas Are We Looking For?
The novellas will technically fall into the Regency-era romance subgenre but may include stories set in different countries (e.g. America rather than England) or fall slightly outside of the 1811-1820 range (1800-1825). The books may also be marketed as Georgian-Era Romance or Historical Romance for this reason.
The novellas can be comedic or serious and can contain elements of different genres as long as they are non-magical and are as historically accurate as possible. Subgenres such as mystery or adventure are welcome. However, the primary plot should center around the romance.
Authors should include Christian themes, come from a Christian worldview, and not go against the Wild Blue Wonder Press “Statement of Faith” and “Content Guidelines” (read here).
As for word count, we’re asking for 20,000-45,000 words with some flexibility on either side.
Our primary goal is to write these romances in a realistic, God-honoring way. A lot of our authors will be taking a trope that they’ve seen done badly before and doing it well or twisting it in some manner, but that is not a hard and fast rule.
Every book in the series will be titled “Lady of [insert noun or adjective]” (such as Lady of Sorrows, Lady of Convenience, Lady of Honor). Our tentative series title is “Ladies of Quality.”
What Will the Arrangement Look Like?
Authors in this multi-author series will write their projects with the support of other authors in the group and have them ready for printing in cooperation with Wild Blue Wonder Press and the other authors in this series.
Authors will retain a large amount of creative control; however, as Wild Blue Wonder Press will be operating as the publisher of the series, final decisions will be discussed between the author and publisher. In the event that no compromise is arrived at, the author may be released from all obligation. For this reason, the author must write a draft of the novel and allow Wild Blue Wonder Press to review the work before being provided with a contract.
As the official publisher of the series, Wild Blue Wonder Press will provide cover design and interior formatting. Wild Blue Wonder Press will also handle publication details and organize a street team for the book launches.
Individual authors are obligated to take care of their own editing—it is up to the individual whether that involves beta-readers and critique swaps or if they work with a professional editor. However, Wild Blue Wonder Press will do two internal passes—one with beta-readers and one proofreading pass after interior formatting.