A few readers had emailed me their frustrations with the Harlequin One Click Bundles. When you buy these items, you get one giant file containing all the books instead of individual files for each book. I asked Harlequin what the reasoning behind this is/was and they said it was an issue of technology. [...]
Dear Mrs. Lovelace,
When I’ve had a bunch of disappointing books in a row, I know I can turn to you to pull me out of my rut. Whether it’s a historical (which you don’t seem to write much anymore) or contemporary or romantic suspense, you generally hit the spot and give me [...]
Ann Bruce kindly sent me an article full of depressing news. Thanks, Ann. Harlequin’s profits are down 12% for the quarter. Harlequin is part of Torstar, an entertainment conglomerate headquartered in Canada. It usually is a “cash cow” but the forex effect (which needed to be explained to me because it sounded like something painful [...]
Harlequin is the leader, in my opinion, in major publisher e-initiatives. They are the first to put out their entire front list in digital format every month. They allow readers to buy series books one month in advance of the book’s in store release dates which means if you went to e-harlequin right [...]
Had it up to here with crap from Amazon? Have the Monday morning blues? Your co-workers pissing you off more than normal? Take refuge in the brilliant author interviews at authortalk.wordpress.com.
Or read the serial, The Unfeasibly Tall Greek Billionaires’ Blackmailed Martyr-Complex Secretary Mistress Bride.
Excerpt:
Nico laughed and the slurping started again. It was [...]
I saw a YA sale to MIRA the other day at Publisher’s Marketplace. I emailed Harlequin and was told that Harlequin appears to be entering the YA market and are “seeking YA submissions, notably in the areas of paranormal, fantasy/sci-fi, relationship/romance and social issues.” Currently, the YA program is only taking agented submissions.
By now, you must have read how Japanese consumers are reading more and more on their cellphones. Harlequin is the grey old lady of romance no more. Harlequin is teaming up with Softbank Creative to sell and distribute its romance manga via cellphone in Japan.
Beginning in April 2008 SoftBank will distribute [...]
Dear Author is going with The Billionaire’s Secret Babes for our Harlequin reading challenge group name. Robin picked it so we are giving away two GCs to random commenters from the previous post. Ann Bruce and Whey are the winners of our Fictionwise GCs. Please send me an email with the [...]
Last week, Harlequin sent bloggers an email letting us know about the Harlequin reading challenge. If readers read and blog about 100,000 books in 2008, Harlequin will donate 100,000 books to the National Center for Family Literacy, a donation valued at approximately $700,000.00 US.
In the comments, many expressed a desire to participate. Here [...]
moar funny pictures
There’s a couple of things that I wanted to blog about this morning. First off is the irritating number of press articles about romance as we lead up to Valentine’s Day. This is frustrating for me because we don’t read romances for the “romance”, do we? We read it for [...]
Harlequin is issuing a challenge to readers. Read and blog, collectively, 100,000 books at the Harlequin community and Harlequin will donate 100,000 books to the National Center for Family Literacy. The estimated retail value of the donation is $700,000 U.S.
At least 50% of the books need to be Harlequin (any subgenre). The remaining [...]
Harlequin launches its Paranormal Romance blog. The blog has been lurking about but its official launch is Monday, January 27, 2008. The blog will feature posts from editors and authors with insights about the genre, favorite titles, series and personal experiences. So go on over and give your feedback about what you [...]
Dear Ms. Christopher:
Thank you for sending us this book for review. I have to admit that when I first read that the heroine was a spoiled rich girl, I groaned. Paris Hilton, unfortunately, is like the poster child for spoiled rich girls and I couldn’t imagine enjoying a romance showcasing someone like her. [...]
Dear Ms. Monroe:
Basically, every month I go over to the eHarlequin site and I randomly pick books based on title and cover. That’s it. I think of it kind of as a book Russian roulette or something like that. Yours was a November read that I picked because I had never [...]
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This morning I read a press release about former Silhouette Romance author, Leanna Wilson, who has switched publishers and genres to write inspirational fiction. Her current release, Elvis Takes a Back Seat, is not for Harlequin but for Christian publisher, B&H Publishing Group, and is about a road trip with three women who experience “discoveries [...]
Harlequin is giving away one free ebook per day until January 1, 2007. These are full length ebooks from the most popular lines such as Harlequin Presents and Harlequin Blaze. I will confess to having gorged on Harlequin Presents this holiday season. My two favorite HP authors are currently Sara Craven and [...]
GalleyCat wrote today that Daily Lit is partnering with Harlequin to deliver bit-sized chunks of books to your computer or mobile device. Daily Lit specializes in serializing the classics which might not seem a good fit on the surface, but romance readers are voracious readers and having a bit of Gift of the Magi [...]
Harlequin is having a 50% off all its ebooks December 5, 2007. Yes, all. We’ve recommended some of them in the past and those will be a whopping 50% off which means many of these books are going to be under $3.00.
Beyond Breathless by Kathleen O’Reilly
A Christmas Wedding Wager by Michelle Styles
The [...]
Dear Mrs. Kenner,
I was excited to see this novella offered for free at Fictionwise. I usually enjoy your books and was looking forward to a sexy start to the Christmas season. Well, after reading it, I was reminded of the saying ‘you get what you pay for.’
When I think of your latest series, I think [...]
Harlequin Presents is moving up its production schedule to 12 books a month. Mind boggling, no? In order to meet the apparently increased demand, HP is looking for new authors. Presents is inviting unpublished authors to submit a first chapter. The submissions must be made on-line from January 1st to February [...]
I was worried this morning that Kindle would be getting exclusive ebook rights from some publishers so I began emailing around. It didn’t make sense that publishers would refuse consumers the right to purchase a book. Harlequin emailed back right away to say that all frontlist and backlist ebooks would be available in [...]
The non fiction self help book by Joel Osteen, Become a Better You, helped to provide Simon & Schuster with good numbers in the fourth quarter. The Secret is still selling strong and it’s sequel, The Secret Gratitude Book, is set to be on shelves in December. Sales were up in all divisions [...]
Mills & Boon, the UK arm of Harlequin (or is it the other way around?) will be testing the paranormal market with the release of Raintree: Infernoby Linda Howard and its two sister books. According to Bookseller.com, Mills & Boon believes that the paranormal romance market is small but profitable. Keri Arthur [...]
Michelle Styles sent me an email to let us know that long time Harlequin author Anne Weale died suddenly late last month. Her first novel for Mills and Boon was published in 1955 (Winter is Past), and her last in 2002 (The Man from Madrid) with 87 others in between. She started her career [...]
I received a press release from Harlequin a couple of weeks ago about the online version of the Romance Report that I made fun of last year. The theme was confessions. This year, though, I figured it would be just too easy and I would just be repeating the myself. But my [...]
If there is one thing that Harlequin knows how to do, it is making your evening fun. During the National Convention, Harlequin throws a big party on Friday nights. It is considered the party of the convention and everyone shows up and I mean, everyone. The food tables were overflowing and [...]
I know that my blogging partner Jayne was a fan of the Harlequin Next line but according to the news from Romance Divas, the Harlequin Next line will be cancelled and Everlasting, a new endeavor whose focus I never quite understood, will be incorporated by Superromance.
Via Romance Divas.
I think that when you say the word “ebook” that the assumption is the major consumer is a male, probably one who is a tech aficionado. The reality, though, is that the most successful epublishing company is one that caters to women. The majority of bestselling ebooks are romances. And yesterday, Harlequin [...]
Sandals Resorts and Harlequin teamed up to run a cover model contest for real couples. The aspiring couple had to write a 50 word submission on why their love was everlasting. Patrick Combs and Deanna Latson, married 11 years, won the contest and “all-expenses paid trip to Sandals Grande Antigua Resort & Spa, [...]
Publisher’s Weekly reported that Harlequin saw a total revenue increase of 1.2% for the second quarter of 2007. Of interesting note, online retail sales have grown by double digits and ebook sales has also increased. Harlequin launched its Spice Briefs line which are Harlequin’s ebook publishing efforts. Spice Briefs will cost $2.99 [...]
