Harlequin Books

Introductory Information

Harlequin is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers that is renowned for its many romance publications.

Mission

Harlequin strives to publish a variety of interesting and diverse romance novels that both represent many different identities, and are enjoyable to all sorts of romance readers.

History

The Beginning

Richard H.G. Bonnycastle founded Harlequin Books in Winnipeg, Canada in 1948. In this first stage, the company only focused on producing reprints of other, cheaper books. It was only when Mary Bonnycastle, the wife of the founder, took on editorial duties a few years later, that the company began to shift toward the romantic side of books. She realized many women fancied the romantic works of the British company Mills & Boon, and she sought paperback rights so Harlequin could reprint some of their works.

Mills & Boon

These reprints proved to be very successful for Harlequin. They tweaked the books and created a very specific romantic formula that included a happy ending. Explicit content was removed. In the 1970s under president Lawrence Heisey's guidance, books were distributed for free in grocery stores with the purchase of some cleaners and other household items, attempting to expose their target audience, housewives, to their books. In 1971, Harlequin purchased Mills & Boon, taking over the company that had helped them find their footing in the publishing industry.

Torstar Purchase

Harlequin continued to have great success, which attracted the company Torstar. Starting in 1975, Torstar began to collect shares in the company until it completely owned Harlequin in 1981. Despite this new ownership, Harlequin continued to gain great success from its book giveaways. When the Berlin Wall fell in Germany, Harlequin gave away over 720,000 books, greatly boosting sales international sales.

The Romance Wars

In the late 1970s, Harlequin began to have two major problems. The first was that their formula was beginning to fail them as readers wanted different things and leaned towards less conservative views on sex in media. The second was Harlequin overestimating itself. It cut ties with Simon & Schuster, believing they could do everything themselves, and they refused to meet the desire for more America-centric stories. This led to their business in the United States being threatened by Simon & Schuster's Silhouette and other publishers in the states. Silhouette profited off of Harlequin's refusal to publish more U.S. authors, and this was bad for business. To resolve this, in 1984, Harlequin purchased Silhouette, allowing Harlequin to have an important place in U.S. publishing once more.

News Corp Purchase

In 2014, New Corp, which is the company that owns HarperCollins, purchased Harlequin from Torstar for over 400,000,000. This was a smart move for Harlequin, as it was struggling to transition to digital books as fast as their readers demanded, leading to a decline in revenue. This deal also greatly benefitted HarperCollins, because it allowed the company to get even bigger, to expand international business, and to have more niche genres. Harlequin is still owned by News Corp to this day.

Present Day

For 75 years, Harlequin has managed to remain a big name in the romance industry. While Harlequin novels still have a formula and a happy ending, there are many different imprints that feature more explicit content. Harlequin also promotes romances between all types of people, including LGBTQ+ works.

Structure

The current CEO of Harlequin is Craig Sinwood. Owned by News Corp, it is a private company. There are around 732 employees. The main leadership of the company includes the CEO Craig Sinwood, the Vice President of Sales and Marketing of HarperCollins Canada Corey Beatty, the Vice President and General Counsel & Secretary Alia Hussey, Executive Vice-President and Publisher of Harlequin Brand Group Brent Lewis, Executive Vice-President and Publisher of Harlequin Trade Publishing Lorianna Sacilotto, and Senior Vice-President/ Executive Publisher of Harper Collins Canada Iris Tupholme. In addition to them, there are many different editors across the different imprints. There are different executive editors, senior editors, editors, assistant editors, and editorial assistants, each working with authors to get their books published.

Finances

As an imprint of HarperCollins, it is very difficult to find accurate financial information on Harlequin, but HarperCollins has been doing very well for itself in the last few years. Since 2023, profits have been mainly up for HarperCollins, with a rise in sales of digital media and international growth. Brian Murray, the CEO of HarperCollins, specifically says Harlequin will adapt well to declining mass market paperback sales.

News

In 2024, Harlequin rebranded themselves to suit their predominantly Gen Z audience. They simplified their logo, and now opt for less branding on the books, as current readers dislike the obvious branding. They are also opting for different covers, veering toward stylistic drawings rather than realistic photos.

By the end of 2025, Harlequin plans to consolidate its imprints. Hanover Square Press, MIRA Books, and Park Row books will remain, while Canary Street Press and Graydon House will be absorbed into the other three. The remaining imprints will expand some of their genres to cover the now missing categories.

Catalog

Harlequin is known for its romance publications. It publishes physical books along with ebooks and audiobooks. Harlequin publishes many different sub-genres of romance, including historical romance, medical romance, contemporary romance, inspirational romance, romantic suspense, erotica, paranormal romance, and fantasy romance.

Notable Titles and Authors

While Harlequin has published many titles (currently over 100 every month), there don't seem to be any Harry Potters in its list of publications. Regardless, there are many different authors that have gained their reputation in the romance genre through Harlequin. A few such authors are Heather Graham, Brenda Jackson, Susan Mallery, Diana Palmer, and Sherryl Woods, who have all published at least 100 novels with the company. A few of 2024's bestselling titles for Harlequin include Taming a Heartbreaker by Brenda Jackson, Body Check by Elle Kennedy, Swap and Smell the Roses by Karen Booth, and many more.

Formats

Harlequin publishes regular print books as well as ebooks and audiobooks. Cover design is a joint effort between authors and designers, as the first step in the cover process is the authors filling out an art fact sheet. They provide information on character descriptions and important scenes from the book. They can even pitch cover ideas. From there, the designers theme the cover to match with their brand and make sure it goes nicely with the rest of the month's publications. They also sometimes hold photoshoots for the covers, if they don't already have the required pictures.

As for how books are printed, it is very streamlined. The words are printed on giant rolls of paper, then cut and folded to form the pages of a book. Covers are printed separately, and finally bound together, forming the book that will go on the shelves.

Brand Identity

The cover is one of the most important aspects of Harlequin's brand, but that is slowly changing with the audience. Harlequin's covers have primarily been photos for a long time, and it has been a staple. But partly influenced by BookTok and Gen-Z, they are now producing books with illustrated covers.

More staples of Harlequin's brand identity the diamond shape and the colors red and white. These elements are contained in the company's logo and all across Harlequin's many websites, making them recognizably Harlequin.

Story-wise, an important part of the Harlequin brand is the ending of their stories. All stories they publish feature happy endings. That is the promise they make to readers.