How Come The Kimani Books Aren’t Included?
Friday, December 28, 2007Posted in: Disconnect in romance, Harlequin Leaves Kimani Out Of The Party, Is It Because I Is Black?
Blackromancereader brings up a good point: how come Harlequin aren’t offering any freebie Kimani Press books, along with The Billionaire Sheik’s Virgin’s Secret Baby?
Surely this would be the perfect way to promote AA penned romance to the traditional white romance reader?
Maybe nobody at Harlequin even gave it a thought. Now that wouldn’t surprise me in the least.
Mind you, you would have thought that some of the KP authors might have stood up and made the same point.
The more things change, the more they stay the same I guess.
Shiloh Walker
December 28
1:15 pm
Eh, it’s probably along the lines they didn’t think of it. That doesn’t change/excuse it, though.
I’d have to agree that giving away the Kimanis as free reads would be an excellent way to promote them. Or at least I would think so.
Hope you had a nice Christmas, Karen!
Sarah McCarty
December 28
1:39 pm
They’re not giving away Spice, HQN, super romance, Mira, Luna, Sil RS, NEXT, everlasting, or any of the Inspriational lines either as far as I can tell. Likely the lines chosen were chosen for a specific reason common to them.
Mrs Giggles
December 28
3:23 pm
Karen, I think it’s because Harlequin is giving away a book from each imprint/line of its category romance line. Technically, Kimani isn’t part of the category romance line. It’s more comparable to books in the HQN and MIRA imprint. If HQN has an AA category romance line, I’m sure they would include that in the freebie bonanza as well.
Anne
December 28
4:46 pm
Yeah, I don’t think Racism comes into play here. I think it’s because Kimani Press are considered single title in a way rather than category. And they sure as hell aren’t going to offer up a Brenda Jackson title for free when they can make tons of money making people pay for it. Love her!
Nonny
December 28
7:07 pm
Um. I really doubt it’s racism. They’re only giving away books from their category lines. Kimani is single title, as are Luna, Spice, HQN, Mira, and a few other lines.
I’d love to get a free Luna or Spice e-book. Le sigh.
Karen Scott
December 28
10:34 pm
I doubt it’s racism too, but wouldn’t it have been lovely for them to use this opportunity to promote a line that seems to get zero promo? A line that traditional white readers probably don’t look at?
Emily Veinglory
December 28
11:18 pm
It not being active sheeting-wearing racism isn’t the end of the issue. This or a similar giveaway scheme could begin to do something not only about mainstreaming ebooks, but also mainstreaming romance with black and other non-white primary characters–from any line (are any to be found outside of Kimani?).
Bored at work
December 28
11:40 pm
Why don’t you ask them why they haven’t included Kimani? Or this blackromance blog person? Why ask about it on blogs where nobody knows the answer, instead of going to the publishing house who do know the reason? Maybe Kimani doesn’t fit the criteria? Maybe they couldn’t find a Kimani author willing to give up royalties on one of their books? Maybe it didn’t occur to them? Maybe they are a bunch of card carrying kkk folk?
If certain quarters were more proactive perhaps you might a)know why kimani wasn’t included and b) have the line included next time they run something like this.
Isn’t kimani included in the free online reads?
Oh and yes I have read Presents books with non white heroines, heroes – the sheikh for instance? Harlequin can’t publish mainstream romances with non-white heroes or heroines if authors don’t write them.
Karen Scott
December 28
11:50 pm
Oh and yes I have read Presents books with non white heroines, heroes – the sheikh for instance?
The sheiks are very popular, but I think you’ll find that there aren’t many black heroes and heroines in any of the traditional Harlequin books.
Why ask about it on blogs where nobody knows the answer,
I’ve never asked a question on this blog that wasn’t eventually answered by my readers. You’d be surprised by how swiftly the word spreads in Romanceland, especially when people think I’m having a dig at them. *g*
Karen Scott
December 28
11:56 pm
This or a similar giveaway scheme could begin to do something not only about mainstreaming ebooks, but also mainstreaming romance with black and other non-white primary characters–from any line
I totally agree Emily.
Emily Veinglory
December 28
11:57 pm
Why not interview primary sources for every blog post? Because it’s a blog, it’s for specualtion, gossip, commentary and discussion–run by someone who no doubt has a day job. I mean, seriously. God forfend someone should have an opinion.
Anonymous
December 29
12:49 am
Kimani Romance is a category line. The other lines under Kimani Press, Sepia and Arabesque, are single title. So, technically they could have included Kimani Romance titles if they were only doing category lines…
Robin
December 29
2:42 am
On the eHarlequin site there is a link to the PR VP:
Public Relations/Corporate Information
Katherine Orr, Vice President, Public Relations
public_relations@harlequin.ca
I just wrote her a note asking why Kimani was not included in the giveaway and expressed my hope that Harlequin might throw its impressive influence behind finally integrating Romance. I’m interested to see if Ms. Orr will respond (I wrote a very polite note, lol).
In any case, if anyone else is curious about this, perhaps they might want to contact Harlequin directly, as someone suggested above.
Angela
December 29
3:36 am
Someone seems a bit testy.
I am that “blackromance blog person”. :eyeroll:
Perhaps instead of ranting anonymously about people, perhaps your five minutes used to type your little response could have been better spent on discovering the address of a PTB and asking the question you posed yourself.
Seems to me that some folks would rather use their time and resources to obscure situations with anger rather than take the steps that could be taken to address and possibly solve them.
Karen Scott
December 29
10:07 am
I just wrote her a note asking why Kimani was not included in the giveaway and expressed my hope that Harlequin might throw its impressive influence behind finally integrating Romance.
That’s very proactive of you Robin. I admit to hoping somebdoy else would do the job for me, so seeing as it’s nearly a new year, I’ve sent them a note too.
Robin
December 29
6:01 pm
Well, even though I’m not convinced that Romance segregation is racist in intent or nature, that doesn’t mean I’m happy with the segregation, think it’s good for the genre, or that I don’t think Romance is racially screwed up in a number of ways.
So the way I see it, if publishers think what they’re doing pleases readers, they’ll keep on doing it, because by far their favorite color is green. But if they start hearing from enough readers of all racial backgrounds that the status quo isn’t okay, then maybe it won’t seem so profitable to maintain the separation.
One of the interesting things to me is that Harlequin is a Canadian company, and I wonder if its corporate sensibilities are Canadian or American. Because while Canada definitely has its share of racial issues, their character is a bit different from those in the U.S. and I think that needs to be considered in comparing across publishers.
Anyway, I got an “out of office until Jan. 7th” message from someone named Maureen Stead, so I don’t know if the info on the website needs to be updated or if the PR email addy goes to someone else. But if anyone else sends a note, they might want to address it to Ms. Stead.
Emma Petersen
December 29
11:27 pm
Harlequin can’t publish mainstream romances with non-white heroes or heroines if authors don’t write them.
You don’t know for certain no one is writing them. None of us do. The only thing we do know is that they aren’t being published.
I don’t think it’s a matter of racism either. I think like everything else it comes down to money. All of the free books are under 5 dollars and almost all of the books from the lines that weren’t included were 5 dollars and over, except the Spice Briefs. Didn’t they already have a give away with that line? You’ll also notice there wasn’t a blitzkrieg of promo about the event. I think it was probably geared toward their consistent/semi consistent buyers.
Seressia
December 30
5:03 pm
Harlequin can’t publish mainstream romances with non-white heroes or heroines if authors don’t write them.
I’m not sure what “mainstream” is supposed to mean in this context. I can assure you, of the Kimani romances I’ve read, the stories can fit into any of Harlequin’s established lines, category or single title.
Brenda Jackson still writes Desires. I didn’t notice her changing her style when Harlequin came out with Kimani. BTW, Kimani has 4 releases a month, Arabesque 2, so the whole “not writing them” is a non-issue.
If you’re going to be dismissive about an issue, at least have facts to back it up.
Devon
December 30
11:15 pm
Interesting post. I’m going to copy Robin and write as well, just to see what happens.
Dee Tenorio
January 1
2:40 am
Well, since I work for the site, I can at least speak up for the book system:
Imprints: HQN, Harlequin, Silhouette, Steeple Hill, Special Releases, Kimani, Worldwide Mystery, LUNA (There’s a few others, like Gold Eagle, but then we get into world imprints and that just takes too damn long.)
Category: Anything that falls under each of those Imprints, so Kimani Press breaks into Kimani Romance, Kimani Sepia, Kimani Arabesque, Kimani TRU, Kimani New Spirit & Kimani Special Releases.
I believe the book a day giveaway was designed to center on certain categories, but it could be as simple as the bookstore had some excess overages and the folks were being generous. In which case, Kimani wasn’t included because they sold what they had. Not that I know for sure, of course, but it’s an option.
I can always ask, though. 🙂
Dee