Saturday, July 18, 2009

Harlequin Eyes YA Market

With an eye on capturing some of the tremendous following behind the Harry Potter and Twilight series YA books, Harlequin Books announced recently a new imprint, launching this fall, that will target the lucrative Young Adult market. The new imprint by the Canada-based publisher will be called Harlequin Teen and include genres such as mystery and science fiction/fantasy. The news is sure to please YA authors everywhere, since it stands to increase the outlet for their works, if only slightly.

Although Harlequin–which is best known for its flagship Harlequin Romances–has been planning on the new imprint for several years, its approval wasn’t officially green shirted until 2008. Senior Editor Natashya Wilson will helm the new line.

“I’ve always been a YA reader,” said Wilson. “I never stopped reading it since I was young. I’m familiar with a lot of the authors […] and I’m also probably one of the three biggest Twilight fans in the whole company.”

Support for the new imprint will come from employees at both the publisher’s U.S. and Canadian offices. Additional editors may be brought in as sales figures are evaluated.

The new program will feature in its inauguration three urban fantasy novels–My Soul to Take (August 2009), Gena Showalter’s Intertwined (September 2009), and a reprint of a 2004 Harlequin Luna work, P.C. Cast’s novel entitled Elphame’s Choice (October 2009). Print runs have not yet been determined. In total, Wilson said she is planning on adding 17 books in 2010 and 18 – 20 books the following year.

In addition to marketing the new releases through teen-popular social Websites Facebook and MySpace, the company has created an online focus group of young adults who will be asked to vote on potential covers and story lines. A free e-book and audio book of the imprint’s first title, My Soul to Take, will be released in July.

YA writers interested in sharing their works with Harlequin might want to consider literary representation first, since agents have a much easier time accessing acquisitions editors than do writers. For more information on literary agents, check out AmSAW at the link below.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

great news. love love loved what they did with chick lit: fishbowl (a favorite) suddenly single, milkrun, carrie philby, fashionistas in the like, then i stopped reading for a while, but i think they do very well with these sorts of lines