HARLEQUIN. The name that when people, not in the romance
writing business, or people not familiar with the romance writing business, or
people who could not care less about the romance writing business, hear makes
them stare blankly or go “Oh, please!” is set to close out five (5) of its series category lines. Fewer bosoms will quiver. Fewer shirtless chests will gleam.
Fewer swarthy, foreign billionaire/potentates will have the opportunity to toss
their domains at the feet of American nannies, secretaries, exchange students.
And zero black heroines and heroes written by black authors will be presented
in a line devoted to them. Scheduled for demolition are the category lines SuperRomance, Love Inspired Historical, Western, Nocturne, and Kimani.
Seems indie publishing is kicking the venerated, old girl’s
butt. They supposedly are not bringing in the money like they used to nor the
readers. Seems the old warhorse can’t figure out how to keep pace with what the
indies are creating. I see the problem as the indies are just that: creative. They
are telling stories which is what storytelling is about. Not how well one can
follow boring, limiting submission guidelines. And Harlequin has boring guidelines
for each of these lines like they do for all their lines. But have you ever
read them? Yikes. Behind-the-times is what comes to mind when one reads them.
Behind-the-times because abiding by those guidelines will have Harlequin
forever playing catch-up with the competition.
To progress, a business can’t keep churning out the same
type of books, grab the attention span of today’s reader and stay afloat. I
know the company made its bones on delivering on the fantasies of women,
married and unmarried some 50 years ago. That tried-and-true base grew to love
the formulaic, the routine the comfort and the stability in their lines. But
times have changed. Seems readers want it hot and hotter. They want it more
realistic and unpredictable. A company cannot keep churning out sheik romances,
Indian romances (American and East) and any European magnate or royalty
romances without adding some authenticity to them.
Just can’t do it.
Nope. Not if a company is looking to attract more readers. Readers
who are younger, more-worldly, are not all white, and mainly who are not game
for fakeness or stereotypes, no matter how unintended. Sorry. But books with made-up
countries run by foreign rulers who act like Westerners don’t cut it. Case in
point. I tried a book, ONE BOOK by a rather prolific, popular Harlequin author
from one of those lines. Her specialty seems to be contemporaries with Middle
Eastern characters who rule unreal lands and are smitten by the spunky
American. Oh man. I don’t know what reference materials, if any, the woman uses
to check for any shred of the world she thinks she’s opening to someone. Hell,
maybe that’s it. The someone she writes for doesn’t care. Just write gushy
feelings with uber-masculine men and
malleable females. Alright. Let me leave that right there. That summed up 4
lines.
Now, on to the KIMANI line. It was a line (don’t quote me on
this) that originally was ARABESQUE at another publisher but Harlequin bought
it. It featured BLACK people as main characters in books, and the books were
written by non-White authors. Why, you ask? In another post from ages ago, I
wrote that the romances business NEVER included non-White people as main
characters in romance books decades back. It was the reason for a line like
KIMAMI and others. At least it was place for those stories crying to be told. I’m
glad great authors got their chance to be heard. But upon closer analysis, it
is blatantly outdated. Segregation
really because a romance book is a romance book not a BLACK romance book.
Anyway, dynamite writers like Farrah Rochon and Kianna Alexander and Zuri Day headed that line.
The funny-ironic, not funny-ha-ha, thing about the
shuttering of these lines is, billionaire romances will continue to be written.
Sheik romances, or any romance that calls for a just-a-bit-exotic hero will
continue to be written. Western romances with “untamed” Native heroes will
continue to be written. Historicals with scant history will continue to be
written. Thing that go bump in the night will continue to be written. And Harlequin will find some way to remold the manuscripts of the
authors who write those themes for those 4 discontinued lines so that they
won’t have to leave the fold completely. And if they do have to leave, other
traditional publishers will at least look at their manuscripts.
Just watch.
I predict a whole, other scenario for the authors with the
KIMANI line. They have faithful readers who will buy and read anything they
write. BUT having been writers for a single line, backed by a big company, will
they keep that mainstream reader who tried them BECAUSE they were attached to a
big company like Harlequin? Let’s face it. Some mainstream readers won’t read a
non-White author unless a big name says that author is OK. The KIMANI writers
are excellent without Harlequin. I hope the “stamp of approval” that came with
being published by Harlequin stays with them as they are released into the
wild.
The KIMANI authors are talented pros. Do the rest of the Big
5 see that? And will any of the Big 5 pick them up as simply romance authors
and not BLACK authors who write BLACK romance? With the dissolution of KIMANI
will Harlequin now accept their manuscripts as plain romance and place them
where appropriate into the company’s other mainstream lines? Or will they be
rejected for being too ethnic? To remain on the radar will they resort to
writing non-Black main characters to get published? I’ve seen this happen. I’m
not saying these authors can’t succeed. What I’m saying is, their path to
future publication (if done through the traditional channels) will have
additional obstacles that the displaced authors of the other 4 lines won’t have.
Just
watch.
