Harlequin Enterprises Ltd. has purchased the assets of BET Books, the publishing arm of the U.S.-based Black Entertainment Television, the company announced Thursday.
The new ownership deal is expected to close Nov. 30. Financial details were not released. The addition of BET Books, a leading publisher of African American women’s fiction and the imprints Arabesque, Sepia and New Spirit to the Harlequin portfolio will enhance the position of Harlequin within a strong growth segment in the American book market.
“This acquisition supports a key strategic initiative for Harlequin of offering greater breadth in publishing niches that can create future growth for the overall Harlequin franchise,” said Donna Hayes, publisher and CEO.
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Harlequin Enterprises Limited, the world's leading publisher of series romance and women's fiction, announced today an agreement with OverDrive, Inc., the national provider of download Audiobooks and eBooks to libraries, that will make many of Harlequin's famous collection of novels available as downloadable eBooks through library websites. From the comfort of home, avid readers will be able to checkout, download, and read best-selling romance on their PCs, Macs, PDAs and Smartphones.
The agreement between the two companies makes dozens of Harlequin's most popular and captivating titles available to millions of library patrons at home, the office, or on-the-go. Harlequin
Actresses over 40 may find it hard to get work in Hollywood, but U.K. and U.S. romance book publishers are featuring middle-aged heroines.
Mills & Boon, the world's largest publisher of romantic fiction, and Britain's Transita are among the publishers offering books for readers no longer interested in tales of young love, reported the Sunday Telegraph.
Transita has produced 14 books in six months for older women readers.
Women in their mid-40s and early 50s have now become the target audience, said Jenny Haddon, the president of the Romantic Novelists' Association. Not only do they have the time to read books they also
Although it cops a bit of flack in literary circles, romance writing is still number one when it comes to sales.
In the United States, romance books account for nearly 50% of all paperback sales, and some of that is flowing back to New Zealand, where romance writing and reading is flourishing.
New Zealand romance author Susan Napier makes a living out of romance - she has had more than 30 books published and translated into 20 languages.
"Mills and Boon always warns beginner writers not to give up their day jobs, and then they warn writers after a few years not to
The Books by the River Series: Where Florida Literature Meets Florida History continues with Davie writer Cynthia Thomason discussing her showboat mystery series at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the New River Inn, Old Fort Lauderdale Village and Museum, 231 SW Second Ave., Fort Lauderdale. Thomason has published nine historical and contemporary romances and also is the author of a historical mystery series that takes place on the Mississippi River. She has received the National Readers' Choice Award, nominations for a Romantic Times' Choice Award and the Golden Quill. Her Web site is www.cynthiathomason.com.
The Florida Center for the Book concludes
By discovering such important truths, Diana Gabaldon and Susan Elizabeth Phillips have taken romance novels to the heights of the hardcover best-seller lists, though their styles are very different.
Gabaldon is the J.K. Rowling of romance publishing. Her latest novel, "A Breath of Snow and Ashes," was burning up the presale charts before its late September release. There were spoilers on Web sites. There were dress-up release parties, as fans celebrated the next 1,000 pages in the saga of Claire Beauchamp, a World War II nurse who gets unstuck in the 18th Century.
This is the sixth book and the Outlander series