The Submission

By D.F. Krieger

The editor is always right... Katia Lane, a down on her luck writer, finds this out the hard way. When she submits an erotic tale to Daring Desires Publishing, one head strong woman meets another as an author/editor war ensues. There's no room for a diva in the publishing industry...and Sylvia L. Avers means to demonstrate this to the fledging writer. When you submit a manuscript to Daring Desires, you submit more than a book...you submit yourself.

As a BDSM conference nears, both women prepare to face off. Which one is going to be on top?

Be Warned: f/f sex, sex toys, BDSM, public exhibition

• Language: English
• Publisher: Evernight Publishing
• Release date: Jun 13, 2012
• ISBN: 9781771300391

Book preview

Published by Evernight Publishing at Smashwords

www.evernightpublishing.com

Copyright© 2012 D.F. Krieger and Sonia Hightower

ISBN: 978-1-77130-039-1

Cover Artist: Sour Cherry Designs

Editor: Marie Medina

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

DEDICATION

For Kelly's Author Friends

THE SUBMISSION

D.F. Krieger and Sonia Hightower

Copyright © 2012

Chapter One

Katia slammed the cordless phone down on her desk so hard, her coffee mug fell over. Well, thank fucking goodness it didn’t have any coffee in it. One tiny thing to rejoice about, though losing my computer and the crap on it wouldn’t really make a difference. This is bullshit! My agent doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing or talking about. She blinked back tears of frustration as she stared at the half-full white page open on her computer screen. The blinking black cursor mocked her where it sat waiting mid-word. What was the point in typing anymore? As her agent had said, it was drivel, nobody was interested. A Pirate’s Pleasure had bombed in sales. A Pirate’s Passion was half complete, over fifty thousand words already typed, months of work, and her agent had just uttered the most dreaded and feared words.

They reverberated back and forth in her brain like a tennis ball, from the left to the right and back again. Sorry, but Halifax House looked over the synopsis you provided, and they aren’t interested. The numbers came back showing that A Pirate’s Pleasure has not met the required or expected sales. Looks like you are going to owe them back your advance. They aren’t taking a risk on the sequel.

Though her agent hadn’t exactly called it drivel by name, Katia knew that the other lady didn’t care for the three chapters of A Pirate’s Passion that Katia had sent to her, because the agent was refusing to represent the piece rather than try to find a home for it outside of Halifax House. By contract, Katia had to send the sequel or any work containing characters from A Pirate’s Pleasure to the leading publisher that had contracted the original piece, but she was permitted to take it elsewhere should they decline it. The fact that her agent wasn’t willing to try spoke volumes.

The loss of Halifax House meant financial and professional ruin.

And after I bragged to all the fellow waitresses that I had a fifteen thousand dollar advance, a major book deal, and would be leaving them all behind in no time…Oh, thank God I didn’t give notice. To think I was on the verge of doing just that…

Katia closed her eyes and laid her head back against her leather office chair, trying to regain control of her tumultuous emotions. All her hopes and dreams were going down the drain right in front of her. She would be a waitress for the rest of her life. Instead of asking people, Who would you like me to inscribe the book to? she would be asking, Would you like fries with that?

No! No. After three years of writing, she couldn’t give up now. Katia opened her eyes, straightened her spine, wiped the tears from her cheeks, and glared at the blinking cursor with determination.

Okay, so people don’t want pirates. People are tired of pirates. They don’t want to spend money on pirates. Let’s find out what people want. She placed her hand on her mouse and clicked the red X in the upper right corner. The little white box popped up.

Do you want to save changes you made to A Pirate’s Passion_Katia Lane?

Katia snorted. No, I’m afraid not. Nobody is interested. I’m moving on to other things. She couldn’t help but wince, however, as she clicked on Don’t Save. All that work… No, she wouldn’t think of that.

After refilling her coffee mug and staring at the Amazon bestseller lists until her vision grew blurry and she could swear she officially had carpal tunnel from moving her mouse so much over various chat topics in writer’s forums, she came to a few conclusions.

Katia took a generous gulp of coffee and grabbed a nearby notebook, speaking aloud as she jotted notes. "Too many pirate tales. Overdone. We know that now. Goodreads reviews for A Pirate’s Pleasure were fairly good, but apparently I need to work on my sex scenes. They weren’t erotic enough, though it might help if I got laid occasionally. So… she trailed off and bit the tip of her pen, frowning at her words. More sex. No pirates. Let’s find something not done to death."

Another thought popped into her mind. And no more agents. Screw agents. She