UPDATE on Kensington - from RWA National 2007

*** From Cindi Myers’ eNewsletter ***

The summary of the Spotlight on Kensington Books from RWA’s National Convention in Dallas.

The Spotlight on Kensington was presented by Editor in Chief John Scognamiglio, Editorial Director Kate Duffy, and Editorial Director Audrey LaFehr. Kensington is one of the last of the independent publishing houses. It was founded in the mid-1970s. They started as a mass market publisher and now publish all types of books including hardcover and trade. A good portion of their list is women’s fiction. They publish all kinds of romance, including historical and contemporary, paranormal, romantic suspense and erotic romance. They also publish erotica in their Aphrodisia line and thrillers under their Pinnacle imprint.

Kate Duffy is primarily responsible for Brava, Kensington’s erotic romance line. The three romance imprints of Kensington are Zebra, Brava and Dafina, which publishes African-American romances. She described Kensington as “opportunistic” as in always looking for areas in publishing that other people aren’t doing that Kensington believes they can do well. She cited Arabesque, the first line of African-American romances, as an example. The editors are willing to look at “anything we feel will be commercial.” Because Kensington is a small company, editors acquire independently of large acquisition committees. Each editor is free to acquire his or her own list.

Audrey LeFehr spoke next. She acquires romance for Zebra, erotica for Aphrodisia and thrillers for Pinnacle. She says she’s always looking and is open to a broad range of ideas. Zebra is open to western historicals, and really pretty much any historical time period for historical romance.

Kate said that in 2008 she is particularly looking for more varied books for Brava. The line will be doing fewer anthologies. They will continue to release three Brava titles a month. Most Brava titles are released in trade paperback. They have started releasing one mass market title each month.

John spoke about Kensington’s Debut Program. Every month they publish a new author with a book priced at $3.99. They have focused on historical romance, since these seem most successful for them. They have cut back on contemporary romance overall, though they continue to enjoy success with romantic suspense and paranormal. They have also successfully published women’s fiction in trade paperback. John personally likes books that are different and ‘outside the box.’ He’s very interested in urban fantasy. But Kensington does not publish science fiction or fantasy.

Audrey is very interested in historical fiction ‘ala Phillipa Gregory’ and ‘international’ fiction. She’s recently bought books set in China and India by authors who were born in those countries. She’s also actively looking for erotica for Aphrodisia, which publishes four titles a month. Audrey is also the editor who handles most of the women’s fiction for Kensington.

Kensington is open to non-agented and agented submissions. The word count for most of their imprints is approximately 90,000 - 100,000 words. The word count for Aphrodisia is 75,000 words. Query by mail or send the synopsis and sample chapters, or the complete manuscript.

*** This information is from Cindi Myers’s eNewsletter. Subscribe by sending a blank email to cynthiasterling-subscribe@yahoogroups.com ***

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