Guidelines

BLOG GUIDELINES

Until our posting calendar is full, Sweet Americana Sweethearts blog is seeking published authors of secular sweet/clean/proper novels or novellas generally set in North America between the 1820s through the 1920s. The reading audience is geared to adults, although  cross-over works that will also appeal to a new adult audience are acceptable. This blog is not intended for featuring books of poetry, cook books, personal family histories or non-fiction histories, although these elements may be included as part of your fictional work.

The purpose of the blog is to schedule authors to be responsible for a blog post one day per month.

• The post should not be strictly a promotion post with the book description, author bio, platform links and purchase links, although the author would want to include this information at the end of the blog post. 
• Please plan to write a short article with information that may be of interest to an audience who enjoy reading novels and novellas generally set in North America in the years between the 1820s and 1920s. 
• A nameplate that you can use as an identifier, with or without your image, is welcome. 
• Also, you will be asked to forward to me images of your author photo, sweet romance novel covers and the link to your Amazon Author Central page. 
• As long as the author fulfills their obligation to publish a meaningful blog post once per month, their author portrait and book covers will be featured on the blog sidebar.

For the time being, I have allowed some days for opportunities for authors to feature "tidbits" of their work or to include this blog on a blog tour. Also, some days are set aside for guest authors to share a post and feature one of their sweet historical romances. This may change if enough writers show an interest in having a monthly obligation that we need the days for their posts.

On the day the author's blog post becomes live, the author will be expected to feature and promote the post on their preferred media links such as personal newsletter, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Goodreads, etc. The more the blog posts are distributed, the greater potential for attracting readers to purchase the featured works. Also, the author should respond to any comments made on their post.

Before inquiring about a slot on our monthly posting schedule, please review the  following to make sure your writing falls within these guidelines. If the content of your books do not meet these criteria, this venue is not right for your work. (I’m just trying to cover all the “legal” stuff so there is no misunderstanding.)

1.   This blog is created for the purpose of featuring published authors of sweet romance novels and novellas only. Although this is not specifically designed for the Christian or inspirational fiction genres, it will welcome authors whose works fall within those genres as well as sweet romance designated as clean or proper. Please do not ask to feature books that do not fall within these categories or interests that are not related your published books or the history and conditions of the above-stated setting and time period.(No sunglasses or skin care products, etc. promotions)

2.      Overall, the book should be clean of offensive material, including profanity, vulgarity, excessive violence, or sexually explicit or suggestive scenes. 

a.      Although a “damn” or “hell” once or twice in a work—preferably as adjectives or a place name as opposed to expletives—may be acceptable, most sweet romance readers do not wish to read books full of swearing or any kind of vulgarity having to do with body functions or sexual connotations. If your book contains a generous dose of this language, this venue is not right for your work.

b.      Calling upon deity for assistance is acceptable; taking the name of God in vain or coupling the name of deity in any form in profane expressions is not.

c.       No positive portrayals of incest, adultery, fornication, necrophilia, rape, acts of domestic violence against any gender or age group, pedophilia, under age sex, or bestiality. Although some of these acts may be alluded to negatively as part of the conflict in your storyline, they should not be portrayed as desirable or acceptable, only as as obstacles the protagonists must overcome. This is not the right venue for authors who choose to describe acts of violent physical or sexual abuse, mayhem or death in graphic detail for the purpose to shock and titillate the reading audience.

d.      No portraying as acceptable any negative or hateful attitudes towards any race, nationality, religion or other minority group.

3.      Romance elements in your book:

a.      This blog is intended to feature writers of sweet secular romance, although we reach out to the clean, proper, inspirational and Christian audience, too. The focus is on romance, not on sex. All explicit sex scenes are kept “behind closed doors.” Beyond a passionate hug and kiss, your featured books should not include scenes that are sexually explicit or focus on being sexually provocative.  

b.   Although bad things happen in life and people make bad choices, and part of the storyline may reflect that, the overall plot should lead to a positive and uplifting outcome, also known as "happily ever after."

c.      Romance between a man and a woman only is acceptable. This venue is not appropriate for any romance between two men, two women or any other sexual preference.

d.       Absolutely no erotica or pornography.

• A note about the blog title: 

1.  Sweet covers writing described as sweet, detailed above.
2.  Americana is defined by dictionary.com as: "...books, papers, maps, etc., relating to America, especially to its history, culture, and geography."
   (origin 1835-45, Americanism)
3.  Sweethearts refers to the romance elements in the novels written by our featured writers.

If your writing falls within this criteria and you are interested in either writing a blog post once a month or being a guest author for Sweet Americana Sweethearts, please contact this blog's administrator, Robyn Echols (writing history as Zina Abbott), at robynechols AT gmail DOT com.

The portrait used on the blog banner was taken from an early family photo of George McKinley  and Laura Agnes Echols. These sweethearts were married when she was barely sixteen and he was still fifteen. They died within months of each other after fifty-seven years of marriage. The background image was taken in the Genoa, NV museum and the flowers are from my garden. RE

Updated July 12, 2015