NPR : Harlequin Books Seek a Younger Audience

Anonymous Patron writes “NPR : Harlequin Books Seek a Younger Audience; Harlequin Books, famous for its romance novels, is introducing new and more explicit lines. The books explore new, edgier subject matter in a bid to produce novels that will prove popular with the 21st-century reader.”

February 15, 2005 by rochelle Uncategorized 5

Anonymous Patron says:

February 15, 2005 at 3:00 am

edgier
“Edgier” that is all we need.

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Katie says:

February 15, 2005 at 3:47 am

Everything to every woman
That’s been Harlequin’s motto for at least the last three years. Probably the edgiest line that I continually hear rumors about has yet to emerge from the ether, and it has been discussed for at least two years. Harlequin has a much maligned reputation, but I find it kind of hard to discount a company that has been around for over 50 years and whose profits, despite the recent downturn, can be counted in the hundreds of millions, if not billions. Edgier doesn’t always have to mean sexier either. It can mean trying to serve a market that no other major publisher is actively courting, like the inspirational market. Steeple Hill, the inspirational line of Harlequin, launched in the late 90’s before inspirationals really became popular among the genre fiction publishers.

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slashgirl says:

February 15, 2005 at 7:21 am

Re:Everything to every woman
I used to read harlequin/harlequin type books–when I was a teenager. My sister still reads them constantly, along with historical romances–I’ve been known to pick one up and read it if I’m really, really desperate. I’m afraid for them to be anything to this woman they’d have to radically change their concept of romance. And since I honestly don’t see them starting a line of gay male romance books….

s/

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kylere says:

February 15, 2005 at 7:36 pm

LOL
Think about how easy this will be, they combine with a porn publisher, take poorly written porn, combine with poorly written romance and sell to the younger Oprah crowd.

I will not deny that it is better for people to read anything rather than read nothing but Harlequin really pushes that limit.

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JET says:

February 16, 2005 at 4:33 am

Harlequins
I read Harlequins and if they really are serious about getting hipper, they should stop focusing on whites only romances. There are many minorities in the US and Harlequin doesn’t serve them. There are lines for Black romances by other publishers but I have only read ONE Harlequin/Silhoutte type romance with both main leads being black. That book is considered a collector’s item so if you see it, grab it and sell it on ebay for big bucks. I know many of my friends have had cross cultural romances (Asian, Hispanic, Indian, etc.) and Harlequin ignores them.

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