Passion. Lust. New (market) positions. Unsurprisingly, Harlequin continues to charge ahead in the eBook frontier. Their latest venture, Carina Press, is a digital book only imprint headed by online press veteran Angela James, most recently of Samhain Publishing.
Carina Press isn’t just for romance readers either. Submissions currently being accepted can come from anywhere in general fiction (although erotic romance and erotica—do I want to know the difference? Um, yes: ‘[erotica differs] from erotic romance in not promising a happily ever after within the story line’ are likely to be the bulk of offerings). The subject slant is a result not of Harlequin’s expertise but rather of the business model: Carina is positioned to deliver to the niches.
The digital only format allows Carina Press to deliver to all kinds of unique cravings without the burden of minimum print runs or distribution difficulties. Carina Press isn’t paying advances either so earning out isn’t as much of a challenge. This is a realm with plenty of room for experimentation—finding new niches could be as easy as putting a book out into the world and then gauging the response from the community. Heck, developing new niches might be that easy too: never knew you were into vampire erotic romance with rescue animals acting as the catalyst for matchmaking? Now you do. You’re welcome.
Author development, community expansion and potential cross-over acquisitions for print lines are also possible side-benefits of having a digital-only imprint like Carina Press.
As always, it’s great to see a Canadian publisher continuing to lead the way in the digital sphere….
