The Harlequin Mess
The internet has been full of talk about Harlequin Enterprise’s decision to enter the self-publishing arena and the subsequent outcry from nearly all sides.  Essentially, a traditional publisher thought it would be a good idea to offer a self-publishing division branded with its own name.
Wrong. Wrong on so many levels.
Many people, myself sometimes included, speak of self-publishing when we really mean vanity publishing. This is vanity publishing, not true self-publishing. As a bookseller, I spent many years trying to educate aspiring authors about the pitfalls of the vanity type of self-publishing, and have even conducted workshops on the subject. There are a few pros but so many more cons, not least of which is distribution—if no bookseller will put it on the shelf, there are likely to be very few readers who will discover the author’s work. Make no mistake about it, there are self-publishing venues that are on the up-and-up and will help the author with promotion and distribution but this Harlequin venture is vanity publishing, meaning the author pays Harlequin all expenses—and they are very high—and a percentage of any profits, 50% in this case.
Leaving aside the obvious issue of crassly preying on the desire of a writer to be published without going through the usual agenting and editing process, the basic problems with Harlequin Horizons are that the name of the division dilutes the power of the Harlequin name in general and that Harlequin intends to refer their “rejects” to the vanity press, a major conflict of interest. It causes a potential loss of prestige for those authors who are published through the traditional side of the company and early reactions from industry groups such as Mystery Writers of America, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and Romance Writers of America, three groups that are hugely important to Harlequin and its authors, has been strongly in opposition.
Harlequin has now changed the name of the division and distanced itself from the venue but the damage has been done. RWA and SFWA have announced sanctions against Harlequin and MWA has notified Harlequin that it needs to take steps to avoid being removed from the MWA’s approved publishers list. We’ll have to wait to see what will happen next.
November 24, 2009
Posted in: Tales of a Bookseller
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One Response
This post certainly contains valuable insights. The issue about Harlequin has been very prominent on a lot of blogs since last week. You did a good job on discussing important issues and points. Thanks a lot for this post.
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