Carina Press is changing HQ for sure!

xccorpio · Jun 3, 2010

Checking new posts at the eharlequin website it was a nice surprise to find Carina Press authors' promotion among the new threads.

It pleases me to see HQ is spreading out its mind-set.

Those of you who followed this publisher for years can understand why it surprises me. Specially with all the talk that was done months ago about HQ distancing from its newest venture.

Here are the links I found:

Jungle Heat

Her Heart's Divide

More interesting links:

Carina M/M Writers

Carina Press M/M Writers and Readers

Ambri · Jun 3, 2010

Is Carina Press the new name for their self publishing venture?

veinglory · Jun 3, 2010

No, it is their epublishing imprint.

jennontheisland · Jun 3, 2010

Ambri said:
Is Carina Press the new name for their self publishing venture?

That one is DellArte.
http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=162391&highlight=dellarte

Ambri · Jun 3, 2010

Oh. Well . . . good. I guess I really need to subscribe to Publishers Lunch or one of those similar market trends pubs.

jennontheisland · Jun 3, 2010

Not really. Regular visits to the Background Checks forum are worth the trip.

Shamrockgreen · Jun 3, 2010

HQ's Carina will be a big boon for the authors, back issues can finally be had, downloaded, no printing to do and royalties for all. I think it is a good move.

jennontheisland · Jun 3, 2010

Carina is offering back issues?

Shamrockgreen · Jun 3, 2010

I don't know that they do...however eventually it would seem logical you would be able to obtain them.

brainstorm77 · Jun 3, 2010

How will Carina offer back issues (backlist books) when they have yet to publish anything? If you mean Harlequin, they already have a seperate ebook site that offers their backlist of books.

ShannonStacey · Jun 4, 2010

Carina Press accepts books previously published in print as long as the author has the digital rights back. For example, Carina will be reissuing two of Hope Tarr's early Jove titles.

Cathy C · Jun 4, 2010

I heard a worrying report from someone on another site who submitted to them, that Carina's contract is for ALL RIGHTS, not just electronic. But they've made no bones about the fact that they have no present intention to put books into print. That's a big burden on a writer who might never have the opportunity to see a print version.

Has anyone seen a contract to know if this is true?

ShannonStacey · Jun 4, 2010

As far as I know, there are no current plans to make the books available in print, but I have seen them correct, when referred to as a digital-only imprint, to digital-first. To me that implies a "maybe someday?" situation.

My thought on the rights in general was that if any company was going to be able to exercise those rights for the most gain, it's this one. I also personally believe if a writer's priority is to have her book in print, digital publishing might not be her most attractive option anyway.

They also announced on Wednesday that five of the launch titles will be available in July as audiobooks from Audible.com (mine being one of them). That, for me, is an exciting new opportunity made available because the Carina team had the ability to exploit those rights.

Cathy C · Jun 4, 2010

Oh, no question that Harlequin is aggressive in selling subsidiary rights! They have a reputation for that. But with ebooks, I'm a little afraid of having ALL print rights included with a (still experimental) concept. Even EC only takes trade print rights, leaving mass and hardback to the author. I just find it a little concerning, from the standpoint of an author wanting to have the best market exposure. :Shrug:

ShannonStacey · Jun 4, 2010

I understand what you're saying, but I think it comes down to what an author believes her publisher may possibly ever do with those rights versus what she can do with them herself.

Realistically, what am I going to do with mass market rights to a book that's been published in digital and trade formats? Even if you took trade off the table, in today's market, how many publishers are going to sign a book that doesn't come with digital rights?

I think even the publishers dragging their feet in the digital market are going to have to start paying attention. Reportedly, digital sales of Steig Larsson’s The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest made up 29% of the first week sales. I don't think many publishers are going to buy mass market rights to a book they can't make available for the Kindle, nook & iPad.

So I personally would choose to give those rights to a publisher on the very slim chance they'll exercise them because I know there's an extremely good chance I won't.

Soccer Mom · Jun 4, 2010

Honestly, if you've already sold a book's e-rights, the odds that another publisher wants print rights is pretty much nil. At least, that's how I look at it.

Stacia Kane · Jun 4, 2010

I have a friend who signed with Carina; I'll ask her.

Dee Carney · Jun 4, 2010

I just sold a book to Carina and part of my decision in accepting the offer was the presentation given by Angela James at RT this year. She *strongly* insinuated that although Carina is a digital first publisher, print might be a possibility. Also, did you catch the news that they will be selling some books through audible.com?

At this point, I have no problems with sending them a story and seeing what they do with it. It doesn't mean I have to sell them another one... Hopefully the case will be that I'll want to continue subbing.

jennontheisland · Jun 4, 2010

Dee Carney said:
She *strongly* insinuated that although Carina is a digital first publisher, print might be a possibility.

insinuated
might
possibility

not very strong words

Stlight · Jun 4, 2010

Discussion of Carnina rights requests in contract start with post #103
http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=161570&page=5

From B&BC

Dee Carney · Jun 4, 2010

jennontheisland said:
insinuated
might
possibility

not very strong words

Yep. And they're all mine.

para · Jun 6, 2010

xccorpio said:
Those of you who followed this publisher for years can understand why it surprises me. Specially with all the talk that was done months ago about HQ distancing from its newest venture.

Got to be honest I'm not sure why exactly you are so surprised. The only distancing I saw was that they didn't call it Harlequin Carina. All the press releases made it clear that Carina was linked with Harlequin. There are other Harlequin Imprints/Lines that don't carry the Harlequin in front. I don't honestly see any changes from what they normally do and I've been watching them for years. HQ cares about the bottom line and that's it. If Carina makes them enough money then great, if not it will be dropped.

I think the reason some folks might be more accepting of the rights grab contract is that Harlequin has the ability to exploit it, unlike other companies. Also it's a foot in the door at the largest romance publisher in the world.

xccorpio · Jun 6, 2010

para said:
Got to be honest I'm not sure why exactly you are so surprised. The only distancing I saw was that they didn't call it Harlequin Carina. All the press releases made it clear that Carina was linked with Harlequin. There are other Harlequin Imprints/Lines that don't carry the Harlequin in front. I don't honestly see any changes from what they normally do and I've been watching them for years. HQ cares about the bottom line and that's it. If Carina makes them enough money then great, if not it will be dropped.

I think the reason some folks might be more accepting of the rights grab contract is that Harlequin has the ability to exploit it, unlike other companies. Also it's a foot in the door at the largest romance publisher in the world.

Did you click on the links I posted?
I admit that it could be a matter of perception.
Where did I see change?
For example, Bonnie Dee's writing usually includes explicit sex scenes between two men, she does it brilliantly. Jungle Heat will contain some of that for sure. The excerpt promises it, unless she went m/m sweet romance this time around. I bought the books she coauthored with Summer Devon, published by Loose Id. Plus others she wrote alone published by Samhain. Erotic m/m romance hardly gets more graphic.

If that is still in your opinion part of the usual HQ’s content, we can agree that I'd missed something while reading HQ books all these years.

jennontheisland · Jun 6, 2010

Carina does seem intent on taking advantage of the popularity of m/m in ebooks. That is not groundbreaking; as Para mentioned Harlequin is about the bottom line. Other people are making money, so they're going to make a run at it too.

They've admitted that the current webpage does target writers. I guess when they launch the reader-directed site we'll see if Harlequin is willing to stamp gay erotica with their H.

If you follow veinglory's sales stat's on her EREC site, you'll have noticed that for the last couple years the erotic romance ebook market has been quite stable in terms of market share. Other than their non-romance lines (something other publishers have tried and dropped), I don't see Carina doing anything different than any other epublisher (slightly different for Harlequin in content and format, yes, but whether or not they acknowledge that is yet to be seen), and with that lack of distinction, it's going to be work for them to take a large enough share of the existing market (because they don't seem to be creating a niche) to convince the bigwigs in Toronto to keep this venture alive.

para said:
HQ cares about the bottom line and that's it. If Carina makes them enough money then great, if not it will be dropped.

Rights grab aside, it's a new epublisher offering little more than any existing epublisher. It has a big name behind it, and financing that is likely secure, but those things are overhead and expensive. I see no reason to treat them like anything other than yet another erotic romance epublisher.

xccorpio · Jun 6, 2010

@jennontheisland, I'm talking about change compare to HQ's traditional lines path, I'm not comparing it to the established e-publishers, or implying a ground-breaking within the industry.

We agree about the rights issue, using those print rights will be a marketing decision like always. They might never do print editions, but if HQ chooses to do so, it already has in place the infrastructure and the distributions channels.

Any author who thinks his/her book could be published by a traditional publisher with advance paid and all, would know better than to submit it to a digital only press.

A prolific author could do both, the traditional and the digital only, creating different stories for each publisher. There are stories that are better suited for digital publishing.

It’s a personal business decision, nobody is forced to submit to them, even after getting the call, one can have a change of mind.

The whole purpose of this thread was to show that they aren’t hiding Carina Press as a lovechild. The audible deal is another nice surprise.

I read somewhere that the new website is already designed, only about a week to go before we can see it.

I forgot to say, Shannon and Dee, congrats on your sales. :Hug2:

Carina Press is changing HQ for sure!

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