This summer Mills & Boon/Harlequin published my 40th book. No wonder I am celebrating!
It seems no time at all since I started began writing for Mills & Boon, but that wasn’t the start. Oh no.
I have always been a scribbler…
…and yes, looking at the picture on the left, it does feel that long ago!
There’s the short story I wrote in my teens and sent off to a teenage magazine. It received a polite rejection letter. No thoughts of Mills & Boon at that stage!
I continued to write stories into my late teens and early twenties, until I actually finished a book-length story. A Regency Romance.
Blame it on Georgette Heyer. I had read them all by then and I had The Bug for the Regency.
Armed with nothing but a copy of Teach Yourself to Write, I completed the novel and, thanks to a copy of The Writer’s and Artist’s Yearbook in the local library, found a publisher producing “similar” stories and sent off my manuscript.
Remember those days?
A heavy A4 manuscript, a covering letter and a reply-paid envelope, all parcelled up and sent off with a heart full of hope…
Oh dear, what an innocent supplicant I was. However…
…the publisher actually replied!
It was a kind letter. They explained that they already had a Regency author called Caroline Courtenay so they couldn’t take another. I didn’t know it then, but Caroline Courtenay was the pen name for the late, great Penny Jordan, who went on to become such a successful Mills & Boon author.
Much later we met and became friends. She was such a kind person and always willing to help other writers. I still miss her.
But that wasn’t all the publisher said!
Their final paragraph suggested I should send the book to Robert Hale Ltd. So I did. And they accepted it!
My very first book, with my own title of Fortune’s Lady, was published in 1982. I don’t think anyone forgets the sheer joy of their first published book.
My childhood dream achieved. Sigh!
I wrote over a dozen books for Robert Hale, but I had other commitments too. I was married with a young family, and there was a lot of “LIFE” to juggle at that time…
Moving on to 2008 and the road to my 40th…
A friend introduced me to a Mills & Boon editor, who asked me to write something for them. That turned out to be More than a Governess, published in the UK as a special Mother’s Day edition, a 2-in-1 with American author Kathryn Albright.
I remember being so excited on publication day and even more so on a trip to London with my family, when I saw More than a Governess on sale in a large bookstore.
What a moment! I couldn’t resist taking a picture…and being escorted out of the store because they didn’t want anyone photographing their shelves… which is why the photo on the right was me holding my very own author copy.
That was the days before “shelfies”. How times have changed.
To be completely honest with you, although the UK version of the book is very special, I do love the cover of the North American version, which was a single title. What do you think?
“But Mills & Boon write to a formula, don’t they?”
Aspiring writers have asked me this so many times over the years. Surely M&B set the rules? Well yes, all publishers have rules of some sort.
For Mills & Boon, it is imperative that the book have a happy ending for the two main characters. However, apart from that, I have always written the stories I wanted to write and they have published them. Up to and including the 40th. There will be minor tweaks, of course, but so far, no major edits that I didn’t think improved on the original.
So, what have I deduced down the years as the formula for a good book? I am going to share it with you: in fact, whether it’s for Mills & Boon or any other publisher, this is all that is required.
Fanfare of trumpets, please…
HappyEnding+GreatStory+EngagingCharacters+PageTurningQuality=success.
You see, simple really.
No, it ain’t that simple
As anyone who has tried to write a novel will tell you, it takes hard work. A lot of it.
There’s the plotting, the research, and the timeline – making sure your characters don’t ride or drive from Lands End to John O’Groats in a few hours. Or taking care that a lady isn’t pregnant for much more than nine months. (Yes, I have read such things!)
Then there is the little matter of turning your ideas into a readable story, which can take blood, sweat and tears. Not to mention finding a publisher in today’s overcrowded market.
All this requires not so much a formula as a sprinkle of magic dust. One can never be sure if that will happen, but when it does…
The past is another country
Writing historicals, I like to get the history right. It provides the background onto which I embroider my story.
For most women during the 18th and 19th centuries, marriage was the only option, their work opportunities were limited and the law definitely favoured the men.
That doesn’t mean my heroines are all shy, timid creatures, far from it.
“…let her be an active, useful sort of person…”
Yep, Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s advice to Mr Collins wasn’t all bad.
I think most of my heroines are active. They certainly have more energy than me these days. They are resourceful, strong, sometimes wilful and headstrong, but always honest and true.
By the end of the book my main characters are a team, each bringing something to the partnership, which gives the reader high hopes for their future happiness.
In The Wicked Baron, Carlotta is the daughter of an Italian painter and a talented artist in her own right. When her father is injured she takes on the job of finishing the ceiling fresco at the country house of the absent Lord Darvell. He, of course, turns up and finds her there….
Then there is Molly, the heroine of The Ton’s Most Notorious Rake. She sets up a refuge for young women with no means of supporting themselves. Her experience of rakes is that they are to be avoided at all costs.
Some of Molly’s refugees are of humble birth, others are young ladies of good family, thrown out onto the streets. One of them, Nancy, turns out to be one of those strong characters who informs the author from the start they are going to have their own book. That turned out to be a rip-roaring adventure called The Highborn Housekeeper.
The list goes on…
Most recently there is Rosina, who left the schoolroom and took over the running of her father’s estate, keeping the accounts, managing contracts, looking after the tenants and overseeing the home farm. Then, when she is in dire straits, she finds herself working as a land agent for the gorgeous Conham, Lord Dallamire, in The Earl’s Marriage Dilemma.
By the way, this book also introduced Matt Talacre, another of those characters who walked onto stage fully formed and told me that he wouldn’t rest until he, too, had a book of his own. So he met his match in what turned out to be my 40th book!
I confess I had not been keeping a close count of the books, so it was a surprise when I discovered that A Kiss to Stop a Wedding was my 40th for Mills & Boon/Harlequin. The heroine, Flora, is destined to become a viscountess, but in choosing Matt, owner of the Bellemonte Pleasure Gardens, I am sure she will find plenty to occupy her, once they have overcome all the obstacles the pesky author has put in their way. Mwahahaha!
And more to celebrate
There have been major successes along the way: three of my books have won the Romantic Novelists’ Association awards: The RoNa Rose for The Dangerous Lord Darrington in 2012 and again in 2013 for Beneath the Major’s Scars. Most recently, in 2024 I won the Romantic Historical Novel Award for The Night She Met the Duke.
And the future?
I have just sent in what I hope will be book no 41 and I am already writing the next, with another couple setting out on their journey to a happy ending. Who knows, I might make it to 50 books with Mills & Boon yet!
To finish, a big thank you
To all those readers who have bought my books, or borrowed them from the libraries, and who make it possible for me to continue doing what I love most, which is writing my stories. Lovely as it is to write the books and to be published, it is such a wonderful feeling to know that someone, somewhere, is enjoying them too. Long may it continue.
Happy reading!
Sarah
What a great blog, Sarah. I loved reading about your writing journey. I so remember those heavy packages sent off to publishers with desperate hope and return postage included! Many congratulations on your fortieth book. I can’t wait to read it.
I so love your useful, active heroines, Sarah. Looking forward to many more.
Congratulations!
Congratulations, Sarah! A wonderful career, and your books are a delight! So pleased you’ve reached that milestone.
Thanks Liz, it’s been quite a journey! But I still have a few stories left to write!
Sophie, thank you! I love useful heroines too, so much more interesting!
Thank you Liz B. I should like to get to 50, actually….
Thank you Louise!
Congratulations, and thanks for sharing “the formula.”