It’s stars and astronomy time!
Carina is a constellation in the Southern sky, and is Latin for “keel” – as in, the fins and structures operating below the surface of the water unseen yet keeping the ship balanced, and on its course. Here’s an interesting bit of physics I didn’t know: the keel’s job is to convert a sideways force to a forward force, sort of like trying to figure out how to convert a changing tide or market to keep your industry moving forward.
Nice name.
It’s even more awesome when applied to Harlequin, who launched Carina Press today, a digital-only publishing house. it is a division of Harlequin Enterprises LTD but because it is digital only, as in, not print, it operates separately.
Carina is embracing the digital publishing business model as well, offering no advances or DRM-
Wait, hold up, what now?! HOLY MERCIFUL HEAVENS, NO DRM? NOW I’m stunned. Until now I was nodding my head.
Carina will compensate authors at a higher royalty rate (no word yet on the percentage range) and the books will be sold direct to consumers through the Carina website, and through other vendors.
Angela James has been hired as the Executive Editor of Carina (Mazel tov, Angie!) and is joining Malle Vallik, Brent Lewis, Eleanor Elliott, and Aideen O’Leary-Chung as the team awesome behind Carina. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with them, but I’ve worked with them, particularly Aideen and Malle for awhile now, and if you’re looking for sharp behind-the-scenes organization and amazing forward-thinking ideas, go visit their cubicles.
I’m still reeling over the absence of DRM. Wow.
(Edited 912amEST) Carina’s use of the no-advance model calls into question whether Harlequin will remain on RWA’s list of Approved publishers, or whether it will be listed among the non-subsidy, non-vanity publishers.
Regardless, if a company with a reputation and profitable history as Harlequin who can and does evolve with the times embraces digital publishing both as a business enterprise and as a business model, maybe it’s time everyone who doubted it took another look at the possibilities. In other words, get on board – the ship is sailing.
Mazel tov, folks. I wish you warm winds and smooth sailing, and success on a very close horizon.
Oooh, that last bit has me curious to say the least. I definitely want to see what RWA leadership thinks about the no-advance part of this new venture from Harlequin.
Let the fun begin.
Carina’s use of the no-advance model calls into question whether Harlequin will remain on RWA’s list of non-subsidy, non-vanity publishers.
Actually, it calls into question whether Harlequin remains on the list of RWA Eligible publishers, or becomes merely a non-subsidy, non-vanity publisher. If it does not remain on the list of RWA Eligible publishers, all Harlequin authors will be ineligible to participate in the Literacy Signing; Harlequin editors will not be able to take pitches or present workshops at RWA Nationals; there will be no spotlight on Harlequin, either series or single-titles; and Harlequin authors will have to wait an additional month to submit their books (and RWA will have to question whether it can devote several categories of the RITAs to books that are almost exclusively composed of authors who do not write for an RWA Eligible publisher).
The sheer number of RWA PAN members who would be effected by this (and, I suspect, the dollar amount of Harlequin’s support for RWA National) suggests that the question is more basic. Is the separation of publishers into RWA Eligible and non-subsidy, non-vanity presses, with attendant consequences, viable?
I, for one, am very very curious about the answer to that question.
And also, I squeed on twitter—but congratulations to Angie James for such an immense (and well-deserved) opportunity, and to Harlequin, for having the smarts to snap her up when she was available. Squee!
Whoops – thanks Courtney. I was so blown away while trying to process all the pieces I left part of that sentence out—That’s what I meant. I’ll amend now.
Very exciting news! Angela, congratulations on your new position.
I’m going to be watching this with a great deal of interest. And I too am wondering how RWA will react.
Congratulations to Angela and the rest of the gang! I hope it’s smooth sailing ahead for all involved.
Thanks, Sarah, and thank you to the rest of you as well. I’m so excited we can finally share this news and tell people about Carina.
Thanks for the info, Sarah! This is fabulous news for our industry. Here’s to hoping that Carina Press does well.
As for how RWA will respond, my guess is this won’t affect H/S’s status. Carina Press will be considered a separate entity.
Faye
Oh wow, this is great news. And they’re taking SF/F, too? Okay, this just got quite relevant to my interests. 😉 (Why yes, I DO have appropriate material I could submit…)
Congrats, Angela James!
HOORAY for Harlequin! Boo-hiss to RWA if they boot Harlequin off the approved list for going digital.
And congrats, Angela James. What a fantastic place for a fresh start.
1. Congratulations, Angela!
2. To quote Laugh-In, Veddy interesting. Even if RWA does separate Carina from Harlequin, and then keeps Carina off the Eligible list, it will only highlight that it’s the format of payment and text-delivery that RWA cares about, not the legitimacy of the company behind that payment and text-delivery. Because if Harlequin, the (literal!) grande dame of romance publishing, isn’t legit, then who is?
Congrats to Angela and Harlequin both. It should be very interesting indeed.
Thanks all for congrats and a big WELCOME to Angela. We are so excited to have her on our team. And we are very much looking forward to seeing what is in our submissions inbox—including SF/F, dear Anna the Piper.
submisssions @ CarinaPress.com
Nine days ago, I was leading a workshop on ePublishing, and told the participants, “Everything I am talking about today could be completely changed by tomorrow.” Well, I guess it took 9 days. Congratulations to Harlequin, to the new team at Carina, and to all authors who boldly go where no author has gone… I can’t wait to see how this all plays out!
Congratulations to Angela! I’m glad things worked out.
What’s that saying? When a door closes you have to break a window? 🙂 (something like that…)
Congratulations to Angela and to Harlequin on their new venture. Publishing needs to find ways to adjust to the new technology, and it’s going to take some experimentation. It will be interesting to see how it all settles out.
I think this is VERY exciting news, and congrats to Angela James!
The way the announcement was worded—that Carina was a ‘publishing house’ owned by Harlequin Enterprises, made me think that it would be treated as a separate entity and therefore not impact Harlequin’s “status” within RWA.
But Chicklet is right—what does that say about the “division” if a company owned by Harlequin—a company with plenty of legitimacy—isn’t “recognized”?
RWA has shunned the epress model for years by changing prerequisites every time small presses came close. Some even “lost” their standing after they qualified because of this. One of those rules was no advances, no chance.
That said, being a branch of Harlequin means more to the buying public than RWA certification, so I doubt it’ll matter to them.
What am I missing?
The Harlequin/Silhouette/HQN/Mira imprints aren’t changing their business model and will still offer advances, right? So, if Carina Press is a separate venture from Harlequin (just owned by the same people) why should it’s non-advance model affect Harlequin authors in regards to their RWA eligibility?
Sounds exciting. I’m looking forward to what Carina come up with.
Congratulations Angela. Glad something wonderful has turned up for you.
I hope this gets the ball rolling on total ebook acceptance. The epublishing model is just as valid as the print model, IMHO, and times are changing. It’s time RWA recognizes this and changes its rules.
Carina Press isn’t doing anything forward thinking. Digital- only press has been around for years so they’re simply jumping on a money train twelve years later after smaller presses have done all the hard work and given them a proven model.
If Harlequin was so revolutionary or forward thinking, they would have touted this as another one of their lines alongside Mira or Superromance. Whether than opening up some “backstreet alley” press to sell titles that will feature hands off BUT profitable genres (i.e. m/m, m/f/m and interracial) they don’t have enough balls to offer on eHarlequin their mainstream site.
You can put a lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig….
I think its smart of Harlequin to be acquiring ‘previously published’ books so authors who have e-rights to their old, out of print books have a way to breathe new life into a backlist which, let’s face it, is probably never going to be reissued no matter how much we wish it would happen.
Do not for a moment think RWA won’t embrace this as an “approved” publisher, simply because it’s a branch of Harlequin. I foresee RWA scrambling to find a way to bring Carina into the “real books” lists without softening their stance on lesser digital houses.
I’d be happy to be proven wrong, though.
Congrats to Angela and the new team.
I’m thinking about a manuscript submission as we speak.
I just wanted to pop back in and say thanks again to the commenters.
Angela, glad to see you landed on your feet.
Will this affect H/S print authors? No, it won’t, not as far as RWA is concerned. But how they will treat Carina will be a different matter. All e-publishers will be watching this closely as RWA has refused to allow them the same privileges as print publishers.
DUDE.
All day I’ve been happy dancing in my head for Angie and for the new company (and the fact that I can’t wait to submit an ms to Angie is only part of the reason for my excitement) but….
I hadn’t even paused to think about the ramifications vis-a-vis RWA and their silly damn anti-epub bigotry. I hope this is freaking them out.
I don’t care if Carina is going to be a separate company. I don’t care if Harlequin is late to the party. Fact is, Harlequin launching an epress speaks volumes about the validity of the business model and the future of publishing. RWA reminds me of IBM before they finally figured out that the whole personal computer thing might be something they should get in on.
Congratulations once again, Angie. It’s good to see quality being treasured. Lucky Harlequin for getting you.
@kinseyholley Loved the comparison of RWA with IBM. Right on the nose!
Wow! Hooray for Harlequin! I will be watching how things unfold in regard to RWA with great interest.
Congratulations to Angela James on her new position. I’ve never had the pleasure of working with her myself but I’ve heard fabulous things about her.
Hope everyone has a great evening,
Cher
~The Harlequin/Silhouette/HQN/Mira imprints aren’t changing their business model and will still offer advances, right? So, if Carina Press is a separate venture from Harlequin (just owned by the same people) why should it’s non-advance model affect Harlequin authors in regards to their RWA eligibility? ~
That’s how it strikes me, too.
And major congratulations to Angela!
Yes! Right idea at the right time! Thumbs up to the brains behind this concept who realize there are great ideas out there that don’t ‘fit within the usual boxes. And what better way of reaching new readers than via electronic means.
Malle and Angie, great marriage ladies.
Not necessarily. Unless they’ve changed rules since this year’s signing (always a possibility), a publisher doesn’t have to be Eligible, it just has to be on the Non Subsidy/Vanity list. Samhain isn’t on the Eligible Publishers list, but I signed a Samhain book in Washington (however, I wasn’t allowed to sign a book from a small press that hadn’t bothered to jump through the hoops to prove they weren’t a vanity press).
I’ll be interested to see how this pans out—especially the ‘all genres’ part. I see from their website they will have an ‘emphasis on romance’, which seems to be the direction a lot of e-pubs have gone in—including Samhain, who used to accept all genres but now only take romance, because the non-romance books just didn’t sell (I know. I wrote them).
That’s a smart move on their part!
Ooooo, this is going to be interesting to watch . . . as I remember it, RWA already lowered the original proposed minimum advance because the Spice Briefs authors wouldn’t have met it, and that would have put RWA and Harlequin in a bind.
Congratulations, Angela! Thrilled to see you on board with this project! I wish nothing but success to the new team.
I don’t see Carina Press’s standing on the Eligible publisher vs. non-subsidy affecting Harlequin traditional lines. They’ve been very clear to say that Carina is running independently of Harlequin, so I imagine that is where the line is drawn. However, because it is part of Harlequin Enterprises, it will be interesting to see where RWA places Carina Press on the eligibility scale.
The Harlequin/Silhouette/HQN/Mira imprints aren’t changing their business model and will still offer advances, right? So, if Carina Press is a separate venture from Harlequin (just owned by the same people) why should it’s non-advance model affect Harlequin authors in regards to their RWA eligibility?
It’s the ALL books gets advances that will be the sticking point for some people. RWA never specified every imprint or a company under a recognized publisher’s umbrella has to follow the same procedure or else the entire company will not be eligible. Well, as far as I know. (basing my theory on Pershing’s response at Espan RWA: ““Eligible Publisher” means a romance publisher that has verified to RWA in a form acceptable to RWA, that it: …..(3) provides advances of at least $1,000 for all books; and (4) pays all authors participating in an anthology an advance of at least $500)”
I would think it would just be Carina Press considered ineligible, but the thing is RWA didn’t specify. It didn’t have this example to differentiate or to make an example of “RWA doesn’t accept any no advance-higher royalty publisher no matter what”.
So this difference = interesting to see how it plays out.
Yeah! No DRM!
Fact is, Harlequin launching an epress speaks volumes about the validity of the business model and the future of publishing.
This is what I got out of it too. Interesting times ahead I think.
Carina can’t go wrong with Angela James at the helm.
I have no interest in downloading out-of-print romance novels from the past. I’m eager to see new content, historical eras that don’t traditionally sell well but are looking for a home. More gladiator books, yum. Off the wall romance.
Hey girls!
The no advance model is one that’s showing it’s face so much more, as publishers juggle and balance their enthusiasm for embracing digital platforms and distribution alongside the risk element of readers wanting to enjoy stories in new ways. And maybe it’s ‘fair’s fair’… we only have to earn back that advance anyway!
Of course, Harlequin were going to be one of the first to offer a new stream of choice and it’s a huge footprint carving that new path for books written by women, for women.
I did some research in 2007 about digital fiction and women and was disappointed at how many DIDN’T want to read in any other way than the printed page. So things are changing and it’s great. The launch of Carina really is blowing a fresh new breeze and it’s really exciting!!!
Can’t wait to see more..