News Corp buys Harlequin

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by anonymoose

Yes, Carina is Harelquin's digital-only line.

As is Escape Publishing out of Australia and they've just started experimenting with digital first in some of their regular lines like HQN, Mira and Harlequin Teen.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by anonymoose

The more creative stories are being sold by indie ebook publishers where the writers get much better royalties.

One rationale I hear over and over from indie authors is freedom to tell *their* story *their* way. Harlequin reportedly has very strict and exacting guidelines for what they want in a story and how they want it told. To put it politely, they're not afraid of being labeled formulaic.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

To put it politely, they're not afraid of being labeled formulaic.

For their category lines (Presents, Intrigue, Desire, etc.) they want to be formulaic at least to an extent.

(Guidelines for Presents)

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

For their category lines (Presents, Intrigue, Desire, etc.) they want to be formulaic at least to an extent.

(Guidelines for Presents)

Yup.
And that is a problem for authors who prefer to let the story go where the characters take it or have a unique take on the standard formula. Plus, writing minimal variations of a theme over and over can get tiring after a while.

Every author is faced with a certain amount of tension between the creative side and the business side and at Harlequin that tension is a lot stronger because their desire to standardize the product. For many, Harlequin was an entry into writing and once they found their voice and felt comfortable with their skills (and amassed a resume) they moved on. Nowadays, many simply go straight to indie because there are less business-driven constraints on their creativity, especially when it comes to aligning the product with the brand's image.

There are a lot of "lesser" advantages to going indie besides the financial, especially to those with more modest expectations than becoming the next Roberts, King, or Rowling, and those advantages weigh heaviest against the midsize specialty tradpubs.

As the new publishing environment is shaping up, Harlequin is probably safer as a division on even a smaller BPH than as a fading standalone business trying to prop up another fading business.

[fjtorres]

This piece details Harlequin's biggest problem, reliance on paperbacks:
http://dearauthor.com/features/essay...and+Commentary)

Harlequin’s revenue started to decline in 2010. (There was a decline in 2008 but a booming year in 2009 corrected that.

2009: Revenue was $493.3 million. The annual report referred to Harlequin as “a real anchor” for Torstar.
2010: Total revenue of $468 million Collectively, Harlequin authors enjoyed a record
high 257 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller Lists, up 10% over
2009.
2011: Total revenue was $459 million, with revenue slightly down from 2010. Digital growth not offsetting declines in print revenue. Seven number 1 bestsellers. They digitized 5200 new and older titles.
2012: Total revenue $426 million. Excluding the impact of foreign exchange, revenue was down 6% from 2011 as growth in digital revenues was insufficient to offset declines in print revenue. 49 titles on the NYT bestseller list.
2013: Per the fourth quarter reports, book revenue was down $28.8 million in 2013 including a $4.1 million increase from the impact of foreign exchange.
Nearly every year, the decrease was attributable to decline in retail print and direct to consumer sales and while there was digital growth it did not offset print declines and soft sales in international segments. Europe was specifically identified.

Most of Harlequin’s print sales are in paperbacks–either trade or mass market. While trade has seen some declines, mass market print sales have plunged dramatically since 2006, the last year there was an increase in mm paperback sales. (I don’t have full numbers for each year since the AAP stopped making that information available publicly).

2007 – mass market sales are down 2.0% with total sales of $1.1 billion.
2008 – mass market sales are down 3.0% with total sales of $1.1 billion.
2009 - mass market sales are down 4.0% with total sales of $1.0 billion.
2010 – mass market sales are with total sales of $673.6 million.
2011 – mass market sales are down 40.9% with total sales of $545.1 million.
2012 – mass market sales are down 12%.
2013 – mass market sales are down 7.7%, to $373.1 million.

In summary, between 2007 and 2013, mass markets declined from $1.1 billion to $373.1 million. In contrast, ebook sales grew from nothing to be a quarter of trade publishing sales. This does not include the millions of self published copies sold in 2013.

Note the total collapse of MMPB sales in 2010-12, right when the shift to near-cost ereaders turned ebooks into a mainstream product and most avid readers went digital. Almost two-thirds of the revenues gone digital.

Also of note, in the shift to digital, Harlequin went from one of the cheaper print sources of romance to one of the more expensive sources in digital. Not as expensive as their other tradpub competitors but noticeably so when compared to their indie alternatives, many of which came from Harlequin refugees.

[BearMountainBooks]

Having requested Harlequin guidelines YEARS and YEARs ago, I can tell you they are quite exact. They pretty much expect a first kiss by page X (with some leeway). Both main characters must be introduced by page X and so on. There's nothing really wrong with that. We all like spaghetti as a comfort food and some of us might like it on a weekly basis. But I think it present problems with sales. When I worked in the library, the policy was not to buy certain imprints and Harlequin was one (many of the romance books were). No, this was not because of quality. It was because of donations. People bought them, read them and turned them over to our collection. We only bought a few of the best sellers (Nora Roberts for example) and whoever else made it to hardback print.

For the most part that is the only romance books the library spent money on. The rest of the genre was donated.

I agree that Carina books vary in quality and depth. I like Julie Moffett and Maureen Miller has some interesting stuff too. I wish Moffett would possibly choose a guy character to be the main, but I suspect that it will continue to be a toss-up (not a love triangle at all because the book is mystery more than romance, and part of the main gal's charm is her inability to deal with guys/relationships/hints/dates). I have read some that were good reads, but nothing I felt I had to stay with as far as the series.

[Atunah]

I don't read a large percentage of harlequin in my romance reading, when I do its usually the historical line, which has some amazing gems in it. I know people harp on the so called rules that harlequin puts out, yet I read a recent harlequin historical where the hero was married all the way through to the end to someone else.
I have actually found often more unique story lines in harlequin historicals than other publishers for some reason.

Its Avon that seems to be a lot of sameness now.

But again, I don't read the contemporary category lines much at all. Mostly because I don't read a lot of contemporary romances. I have problems finding good ones there from anyone. They are either serials, yuck, or very short, or billionaire bdsm.

At least with the harlequin lines, readers know what they are getting and there are a lot of different "feelings" to choose from.

I recently got hooked on a amazing series by Carina, the Monster Haven series by R.L Naquin. I find it fresh, quirky and different. Price is right too.

Choices are good for readers and romance readers want those choices.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Atunah

I don't read a large percentage of harlequin in my romance reading, when I do its usually the historical line, which has some amazing gems in it. I know people harp on the so called rules that harlequin puts out, yet I read a recent harlequin historical where the hero was married all the way through to the end to someone else.
I have actually found often more unique story lines in harlequin historicals than other publishers for some reason.

Its Avon that seems to be a lot of sameness now.

But again, I don't read the contemporary category lines much at all. Mostly because I don't read a lot of contemporary romances. I have problems finding good ones there from anyone. They are either serials, yuck, or very short, or billionaire bdsm.

At least with the harlequin lines, readers know what they are getting and there are a lot of different "feelings" to choose from.

I recently got hooked on a amazing series by Carina, the Monster Haven series by R.L Naquin. I find it fresh, quirky and different. Price is right too.

Choices are good for readers and romance readers want those choices.

That monster haven one is on my wish list. Thanks for the rec.

[Atunah]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

That monster haven one is on my wish list. Thanks for the rec.

Its really good. One of my big issue with first person stories is that I have to like the character and Zoey is just so adorkable. . And a lovely cast to go along with it.

I do think Harlequin has been playing a bit with different things and themes in their lines. So good stuff is coming out. I do wish though the authors get paid more. But let me be perfectly honest, until I hung out on forums like here and kboards, I didn't really pay much attention to that side of books. I am just a reader. And most readers just grab the books of the shelf and read.

[Terisa de morgan]

I recommend RL Naquin too. It's one of the few series I read as the book is published (I've already read the last one).

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

I recommend RL Naquin too. It's one of the few series I read as the book is published (I've already read the last one).

Thanks! Maybe I'll just move it up a little higher in the list. Maybe I can pick up the first using the kobo coupons. I got a good one today for 65 percent off!

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Atunah

I do think Harlequin has been playing a bit with different things and themes in their lines. So good stuff is coming out. I do wish though the authors get paid more. But let me be perfectly honest, until I hung out on forums like here and kboards, I didn't really pay much attention to that side of books. I am just a reader. And most readers just grab the books of the shelf and read.

Publishing is a lot like making sausages... the end product is tasty but the process is ugly and the primary source is getting butchered.

Just as it is generally a good idea to know where our food comes from, it is a good idea to know what the processes that bring us our entertainment are like and to understand things like Hollywood accounting, crunch time at software developers, and self-dealing and routine collusion in publishing.

[Atunah]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Publishing is a lot like making sausages... the end product is tasty but the process is ugly and the primary source is getting butchered.

Just as it is generally a good idea to know where our food comes from, it is a good idea to know what the processes that bring us our entertainment are like and to understand things like Hollywood accounting, crunch time at software developers, and self-dealing and routine collusion in publishing.

Yeah, maybe. Food is different though. I don't compare books with that. Food can harm my health. Books are more like TV shows and movies and such. Entertainment. And again, perfectly honest, I don't really generally care too much about the how and all that. I just want to be entertained.
But because the wall has come down a bit, I do think about it a bit more. But when it really comes down to it, I just want to read good books. If they are published by Harlequin, Avon, Random House, Sourcebooks, or self published. I don't exclude based on how published. I am though admittingly more careful with self published than with a publisher. That just comes from my own personal experience.

But I do think in this generation, the walls are coming down more and the interaction of the producers of the entertainment and the consumers is more close that it has been in the past.

I do hope though that Harlequin can find its place in this new world and with this new owner. They have a place with readers. Like I said before, I grew up in Europe, in a very small village. I had access to Harlequin books at the little stores. Think of all the countries where print books are still the king. They can reach readers nobody else can, in their own language. I know that market is shrinking in North America, but there is still a lot of market reach left for now.

[Blossom]

I can't see this being good for Harlequin. I think some of their best stuff was in the 90s when authors were allowed more leeway. Silhouette Intimate Moments was probably their best imprint till it got moved to Romantic Suspense. Now it's endless series of from the same authors over and over which I think it one of the biggest downfalls of Harlequin books.

Some of my favorite books are Harlequins. Avon's books in the recent years have been meh for me. Most of their historical are so cookie cutter and modern mistoricals that it's nice that Harlequin still allows their historical line to be from medieval to westerns to time periods no one else will published. I don't find Harlequin books formulated and I own probably 3000 or more of them. They probably one of the only major publisher besides Zebra that still let's their authors write fresh stories.

Indie Romance has taking an severe detour into drama lama land. Unless you like extreme angst and unhealthy characters that should never be together it's hard to find a good romance among them. Harlequin has recently been re-releasing some of their books with more indie like titles and covers to attract new readers. I should have seen this as trouble signs. I wish Kensington had brought Harlequin I think they were a better fit.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Atunah

But I do think in this generation, the walls are coming down more and the interaction of the producers of the entertainment and the consumers is more close that it has been in the past.

Books aren't essential like food, no.
But a lot of people seem to care about the ethics and/or practices of their food sources.

And some make a big fuss over retailer employee practices without blinking an eye at the reprehensible or even illegal practices of manufactures and content producers. I prefer to be as informed as possible about all of them so I understand who I'm voting my wallet in favor of. Informed choice over "see no evil" willful ignorance.
Just me, mind you.