#Black harlequin romance novels movie#
When Allen describes the line, she draws from movie examples like Soul Food, Waiting to Exhale, Brown Sugar, Deliver Us From Eva and the TV sitcom Girlfriends. Kimani Press will not publish historical, romantic suspense or paranormal fiction. These stories will be fast-paced, hip and hot." She said stories would "feature appealing characters who have 'made it' and romances that embody the traditional ideals of courtship. "We are looking for rich, realistic and intensely emotional love stories with a mainstream tone, innovative plots and satisfying endings." Kimani Press romances "will be shorter in length, and the focus will be squarely on romance!" Allen adds. "The sensuality of each novel will be dictated by the nature of the characters and the project."
Harlequins single-title fiction offerings "will feature novels written by and about real African American women dealing with relationships and careers, while facing life's everyday challenges," says Senior Editor Mavis Allen, who will head the line. Harlequin hopes to penetrate what Saunders calls "a currently underserved and significant audience of African American readers." In addition, Target Market News data, which tracks African American buying power, says black women spend more than $300 million each year on books in all genres. There are more than 51 million romance readers in North America and RWA estimates the genre's African American readership at 11 percent of that. In 2003, the most recent year for which the group has data, that translated into $1.41 billion in publishing revenue.Īfrican American romance readers have steadily become one of the genre's fastest-growing segments since the July 1994 start of the Arabesque line by Walter Zacharias and Monica Harris of Kensington Publishing with the increase of stories for black women about women who looked like them. According to statistics compiled by Romance Writers of America (RWA), a trade organization of more than 9,500 published and aspiring authors, the genre accounts for a third of all paperback, trade and hardcover fiction sales.
Nearly half of all paperback books sold in the United States are romance novels. "An anthology that brings together popular contemporary authors Connie Briscoe, Anita Richmond Bunkley and Lolita Files will be available in February of 2007." Books will be available by subscription through Harlequins Direct-to-Consumer book club, via the company Web site and in retail outlets. Vance-told in their own words,' says Christine Saunders, Harlequin's public relations manager. "We will launch the single-title program with the real-life love story of award-winning actors Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Works by Gwyneth Bolton, Donna Hill and Marcia King-Gamble will also be released that month. Romance contest, will appear on Solid Soul's cover. The line will debut in July 2006 with Solid Soul, a lighthearted story about single parents and their matchmaking teens by award-winning author Brenda Jackson. Kimani Press takes its name from an African word meaning "sweet and beautiful." In addition to Harlequins bread-and-butter books-series romance-Kimani Press's bimonthly offerings will include women's fiction, single-title romances and nonfiction love stories. QUESTION: What's "sweet and beautiful" and read all over? Executives at Harlequin Enterprises, the company name synonymous with romance for more than five decades, are hoping that black women will find the answer to this contemporary publishing riddle in the company's new specialty imprint Kimani Press.
#Black harlequin romance novels free#
MLA style: "The color of love: Harlequin courts African American women with its own new lines and elopes with BET/Arabesque imprint." The Free Library.
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