Harlequin and Ballentine are separately planning to give away or sell digital novellas or short stories as promotions for longer novels that they tie in with. For the ones that are not given away, price points mentioned are $1.99 to $2.99. In most cases, these stories come between two longer works and serve to bridge them together, such as Steve Berry’s “The Balkan Escape” that will come before his 9th novel, The Emperor’s Tomb. This serves a niche that it is not really possible to cover in print, given that books have a minimum necessary length. ...

Romance publisher Harlequin has hit the Nintendo DS in Japan, according to the press release. Thirty-three titles will be offered with five of them being new titles and three of them being titles that were formerly available only on line. The books have been enhanced by offering some interactive features - a "concierge" that allows you to navigate stories by mood or type of heroine, character correlation charts and lists that are updated along with plot developments, narrative annotations including maps for locations, digital bookmarks, story recaps that bring readers up to where they last left off, a choice...

“Harlequin Horizons,” the romance publisher’s new self=publishing arm, has stirred up a hornet’s nest. I put the name in quotes because Harlequin has announced that it changing the name of its new venture effective immediately. According to a press release, authors expressed concern that the original name would cause confusion between this venture and Harlequin's traditional publishing business. That's not all, though. Romance Writers of America has decided that Harlequin Enterprises is no longer eligible for RWA-provided conference resources because and informed its membership of this without even talking to...

Best of luck to the new Carina Press. But why does the home page show a typewriter-looking gizmo to direct people to the site’s information for writers? Of special interest: The well-regarded Angela James as exec editor. She earlier was with the Quartet Press startup. I’m curious if the Quartet shut down after learning of Harlequin’s plans. Slightly edited Carina news release follows.  According to the Carina FAQ, all books will be DRM free and authors will not be paid an advance, but the author will be compensated with a higher royalty – D.R. Harlequin Enterprises Limited, the...

Not everyone is a Guru, so Lexcycle has published a detailed set of instructions on how to acquire and download the 16 free Harlequin 60th Anniversy books with Stanza. Anyone new to the iPhone, or Stanza, should take a look, as they take you through it screen by screen....

At the press event announcing the new Sony Reader Sony made the point that they were going to be agressive about marketing. Well, it's nice to see that this is the case. To celebrate Valentine's Day Sony will be releasing a Limited Edition Harlequin 60th Anniversary Sony Digital Book Reader in Sangria Red. The limited edition package includes: A Sony Reader Digital Book (PRS-505) in Sangria Red with an embossed cover 16 Anniversary Harlequin eBook titles and a free copy of ...

60 years! I had no idea. To celebrate, Harlequin will be making 16 books available for download on January 29. If you want to sign up to be notified you can find the details here....

According theBookseller Mills and Boon, a British subsidiary of Harlequin, has just converted 200 titles to ebook form and intends to continue with the conversion of 70 titles a month. Looking through the Mills and Boon site, I notice that the books will be in EPUB format and will require Adobe Digital Editions. Their ebook FAQ is available here....