Michelle Styles Perks of Being a Mills and Boon Author 2019

Yesterday was the annual Association of Mills and Boon Author’s lunch and afterwards the Toast to the Authors on the 17^th floor of the News Building in London. It is one of those times that I always feel like – yes I am a published author and yes this is a glamorous occupation.

Michelle Styles and Kate Hardy

For those of you who don’t know—AMBA was founded back in the 1970’s (so before the RWA) by Charlotte Lamb, Anne Weale and Sara Craven to promote dialogue between the authors and the company.  It was a time when few agents were willing to take on M&B authors so these ladies felt a way was needed to raise concerns. Because of the sensitive nature of the topics, membership is limited to those authors who have a contract. Sadly as many of you know Sara Craven, the lasting founding member, passed last winter. A toast was raised in her honour. 

The True Love/Harlequin Romance authors who attended AMBA

I was struck earlier this year what a privilege it is to attend because it is a chance for authors to speak directly to the Powers That Be in the company. This year was no exception. The entire UK marketing team attended along with senior editors, the president, executive vice presidents etc. It was lovely to chat informally with these highly influential people in publishing.

There were several new authors. Ella Hayes who writes for True Love (Harlequin Romance) had recently signed her first contract and it was a real pleasure to welcome her. Authors came from all over the globe –Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Ireland and US to name the ones I can recall.

Lunch -- main

The lunch was delicious – I had goat’s cheese panna cotta with beetroot to start. Fillet of Hake for mains and a selection of cheese. There was coffee and chocolates for afterward.

Lunch starter

After a brief hiatus where people had coffee or in my case water, we trooped over to the News Building which is right next to the Shard. After proving our identities to security as the News Building houses The Times and The Sun newspapers along with Harper Collins, we went up to the 17^th floor. The elevators are computerised and you have to make sure you go to the right one.

Not only were the senior executives there but all of the editors so it was lovely to catch up with my editor and speak to various other editors. I learned that one editor had the pleasure of phoning a woman to purchase her first book for the Historical line that morning!

The Goodie bag

At the Toast to the Authors, the champagne flowed and the canapes were passed around. There were cornucopias of fish and chips, sliders, smoked salmon and a wide variety of desserts.  Various authors were feted including Annie Burrows for her 25^th Harlequin Historical. Several of the authors stayed late but I left early to catch a train back up to Northumberland. The Mills & Boon Marketing team had arranged goodie bags for each of the authors.

 

In other news:

I received my cover for Sent as the Viking’s Bride which will be out at the end of December. It has such a lovely feel to it.

Michelle Styles writes warm, witty and intimate historical romance for Harlequin Historical in a wide variety of time periods. Her next Viking set romance will be out at the end of December. To learn more about Michelle and her books, visit www.michellestyles.co.uk