Harlequin: If your book sucks, give us some money to publish it!

My fellow Drollerie Press author Angela Korrati has a great round-up on her blog about various reactions to Harlequin Horizons, the publisher’s new vanity-press subsidiary.

In brief: Harlequin Horizons will, for a fee, publish your book (they also keep 50 percent of any profits it generates), which they’re billing as a great chance for novice authors to get into print, sell books, have a published novel they can show to agents and possibly get Harlequin’s main line to take them on.

Of course, all of that will be a neat trick since Harlequin says they won’t have the usual company trademarks on the books, won’t sell them on the Harlequin Web site and won’t be putting them in stores.

It’s understandable why Harlequin’s trying this: Self-published and vanity-press books actually outnumber traditionally published offerings these days. It’s a cash cow and they’d like a piece of the pie. However, their plan has been deservedly savaged by multiple groups for multiple reasons:

•Because if Harlequin makes a go of it, other publishers will start following suit.

•The risk of making it look like their regular authors are also members of the pay-to-play contingent rather than the real thing (probably why the company is emphasizing Horizons will be completely separate from its regular books).

•Because it’s a rip-off. Harlequin’s promising authors the benefits of getting published by Harlequin, yet it’s assuring everyone the Horizons books will be completely separate from the Harlequin brand. Oh, and they’re going to start including a “try Horizons” suggestion in all their rejection letters.

As a result, the Mystery Writers, Science Fiction Writers and Romance Writers of America have all condemned the new program, and RWA has announced Harlequin will be treated like any other subsidy publisher at the RWA conventions (i.e., they’ll have to pay their way instead of getting in gratis).

It’s also led to a lot of Harlequin defenders (whether sincere or astro-turfing, I know not) arguing that the sheer volume of vanity publishing means it’s the wave of the future, people should get with it and Harlequin should be saluted for its visionary stance.

No, it shouldn’t.