Here’s a conversation with Madeline Iva and Liz Everly about how Lady Smut.com went from being a hot U.S. romance brand to publishing an anthology with us!
MADELINE IVA: Here’s how it all went down. I hadn’t published yet, and really really wanted to join a group blog. But it had to be the right kind of blog. I didn’t want to join anything skeezy, and I didn’t want to join your average romance blog that looked down on erotic romance. Two words came to mind: Lady Smut. I talk with Liz Every almost every day and I kept talking to her about this name, trying to convince her to start the blog with me. We began looking for a third person to join us in starting a blog. Elizabeth Shore was the first person I’d met at my very first romance conference in New Jersey. She loved the idea, had a great blog voice, and her enthusiasm propelled us forward. In September of 2012 we took off, launching the blog, each of us writing two blog posts a week.
LIZ EVERLY: Lady Smut is unique among blogs. I can say that here, can’t I? We are not a review blog, though we offer them from time to time. Mostly we delve into our obsessions with romance and what’s sexy. We talk about pop culture as much as what’s going on in the world of romance books.
MADELINE IVA: We found another kindred spirit in C. Margery Kempe and soon enough we were headed towards spring, closing in on our first year and that magic number: 10,000 followers.
LIZ EVERLY: So, one day, Madeline and I were talking about stories we wanted to write. I had this idea for a vampire story that kept gnawing at me.
MADELINE IVA: It was about a vampire that came through your computer. This scary image that was powerful and simple. I loved the idea, and strived to come up with my own one word pitch. I finally did: sexsomnia.
LIZ EVERLY: She had an idea for a sexsomniac story, so I said to Madeline, “We should do an anthology” and she said “Great idea. How do we do that?”
MADELINE IVA: I thought that the anthology could be our way of celebrating our one year anniversary.
LIZ EVERLY: We put it to the other bloggers. Since I have tons of experience putting together book proposals, I was elected to pull it together; Madeline helped. And I was pleased that my agent, Sharon Bowers, decided to represent us.
MADELINE IVA: I was sort of shocked that our ideas fit so well together. We instantly had this theme of paranormal steamy sexy stories with a hint of spooky. Edging towards horror, but without the blood splatter on the wall.
By then it’s late May, and Liz is emailing us all saying, “Okay, I finished my story, Margery has finished hers –so where are yours?” Elizabeth and I both went ‘doh’ and scrambled to catch up. [Just you so you know, folks, Liz Everly is a very prolific writer.] Liz put together the proposal thinking it would sell quickly. Boy was she right.
LIZ EVERLY: Within a few months, several publishers expressed interest and two offers were made.
MADELINE IVA: We had just gotten two new bloggers to join us (Alexa Day and Kiersten Hallie Krum) and topped that magic 10,000 number, when we got the news— In fact, it was *exactly* when we were celebrating our one year anniversary. Our first anniversary at LadySmut.com, and also my first romance publication—but we couldn’t tell anyone because it wasn’t official yet! It almost killed me.
LIZ EVERLY: We decided on Harper Impulse because we love your covers, your website, your vibe—and we love being part of HarperCollins.
MADELINE IVA: Liz Everly’s agent Sharon Bowers has been a doll. We also like working with Charlotte Ledger, our editor at Harper Impulse. She got us a great romance cover. Overall it’s been a great fit because we embrace how everything is changing with books and readers and so does Harper Collins.
THE LADY SMUT BOOK OF DARK DESIRES is available for pre-order HERE. The anthology will be released by HarperImpulse on November 6th.