What exactly are they doing up there?
September 29, 2007
I followed a link from the Smart Bitches to this website Harlequin set up where people could confess their “naughty” forays into the seven deadly sins. Most of the confessions are bland and boring–the type of stuff you see on soap operas both daytime and primetime–but included on the website is a romance survey and a romance report. I took the survey for the hell of it and then clicked on the link for the romance report for 2006.
As I flipped through the (pdf) pages I was really like “WTF?” Is Harlequin running some sort of therapy/dating magazine? The report really read like a bad issue of Cosmo with features on favorite celebrities, how to spark a romantic relationship, how to act on a first date, etc. Here I am assuming that a romance report was a report on what readers desired to read, what the market was like, and so on, and all I see are copies of the sort of articles you see in any womens magazine each month?
Geez louise! Do any publishing houses really care about what readers want? Or least listen to some feedback!
Entry Filed under: Harlequin, Romance Industry. .
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1.
Laura Vivanco | September 29, 2007 at 3:44 am
Here I am assuming that a romance report was a report on what readers desired to read, what the market was like, and so on, and all I see are copies of the sort of articles you see in any womens magazine each month?
I suspect that the report isn’t really aimed at existing Harlequin readers. I get the impression that it’s designed to be sent out to the media, so that they’ll pick up on some of the stories (after all, they’re pre-written and on faintly titillating topics) and then if the media use some of the report they’ll mention Harlequin’s brand-name and get it associated in listeners’/viewers’ minds with sexiness and a modern approach to romance/romantic relationships. So I think it’s really about Harlequin’s marketing and trying to reach out to a new audience who might associate the brand with something read by older people.
2.
blackromancereader | September 29, 2007 at 3:49 pm
So I think it’s really about Harlequin’s marketing and trying to reach out to a new audience who might associate the brand with something read by older people.
BUT, not only do outsiders think romance novels are for older people, but they think the books are all about sex and are smutty, and for uneducated women. Chick-lit fit the Cosmo crowd, but romance novels with their torso and clinch covers are “OMG!” embarrassing. *shrug*