STATUS: With the mail, I’m reminded that it’s October royalty statement time.
What’s playing on the iPod right now? WHEN DOVES CRY by Prince
The rumor is now official. Harlequin is closing its NEXT and Everlasting lines. Not a huge surprise but now things need to be re-evaluated if an agent has an author writing for either one of those lines.
And I have to laugh. Publishers need to be able to move as fast as the word does and they rarely do. The poor editors. They all had to say they didn’t know anything about it until Harlequin made the official announcement (which happened today). Talk about being in an awkward position.
Once information hits the streets (and I do mean the virtual streets), word spreads rapidly.
Speaking of streets, virtual or otherwise, I had an interesting time getting to work this morning. Chutney and I were doing the usual walk down 17th street before taking a right on Wazee. Usually the streets in Lodo are a little quiet since most businesses are more uptown. Then I noticed there seemed to be an inordinate amount of attractive and well dressed people on the street and literally, standing in front of my office.
But hey, it’s a free country and fashion plates can stand where they like.
I walked into my lobby only to run into several of my fellow office building mates. They asked if I were “in it?”
Confused, I said, “in what?”
“The movie. They are shooting a movie.”
Ah. Well, that explains the people with the walkie talkies. I’m thinking not since nobody stopped me as I walked down the street. I probably ruined a scene and didn’t even know it.
Ends up they are filming an Eddie Murphy movie literally right outside my office door so when his next film comes out, look for the SH Supply Company brick building and you’ll know that is where the Nelson Literary Agency resides.
I have to say that car alarms were featured heavily in the scene they shot this morning because we would hear the command, the alarm would go off, and when “cut” was yelled, it stopped.
And no, I didn’t get a glimpse of Eddie.
Wow regarding the NEXT line closing. I was a reader and one who was lucky to win a pitch session online with the editor when it first started (a request for a full but alas no deal).
Too bad, it was nice having a choice of books geared towards us who are delicately over the chick-lit stage.
Love Eddie Murphey, have to watch for that buidling now!
I heard about the NEXT closing about an hour ago. A colleague had just been rejected.
My husband worked at the CBC building in Toronto and couldn’t catch his train because they were shooting a Robin Williams movie in the lobby.
At least they’re actually doing the shoot here — instead of one of those movies (like DOUBLE JEOPARDY) where they say they’re in Evergreen or something (they actually show a sign that says that), and yet it looks *nothing* like Evergreen — not even close!
Maybe they were just pleased to have an “extra” they didn’t have to pay. 🙂
Witness was partially filmed near me. At the time I was in school, and the bus took me past several places everyday that looked suspiciously familiar in the movie.
I’m curious to know what it takes to just kill a line? They’ve done this before, even with lines I thought were doing well (Love and Laughter comes to mind). But as was mentioned above, it was nice to have some books that didn’t feature a twenty-something heroine.
Are other hen-lit lines hurting too?! Say it ain’t so!
I’m sorry to hear about both those lines closing. It must be a difficult decision to make for a publishing house when they’ve invested so much time into developing the authors and the line. Awful for the authors involved if they’re not published across other lines as well. Was there a time frame for the closure? Are they going to publish all currently contracted material or revert rights?
Sad to hear about NEXT, and my heart goes out to those authors.
Yvonnelindsay, just a guess here (based on my own experience as a Bombshell author who found herself out on her butt a year ago) but they’ll most likely set a definite end date and revert rights back to any authors who’ve got pub dates set after that date. Some might find homes with other lines, but NEXT was unique enough that it’s not likely you could turn one into an Intrigue or a Blaze or a . . . well, you get the idea.
Kristin, I’m sure if you’ve got any NEXT authors in your stable, you’ll do a fantastic job making sure they land on their feet. Good luck to everyone!
Tawna
They probably weren’t shooting when you walked through, they spend more time not shooting than shooting. Big films will stop pedestrians and traffic from rolling until the cut.
Oops, not enough coffee yet this morning…
Do you know if they are still filming in the area?
I’ll be in one of the little burbs outside Denver all week and would be very interested in watching them shoot a scene.
Hey, your building and my building may be in the same movie. Eddie Murphy was shooting next to my building about three weeks ago (complete with the most amazing pink convertible), so that was probably the same project. Last week, we had Heroes shooting across the street.
Sorry to hear about NEXT. The first books in the line didn’t appeal to me that much, but I’ve enjoyed a number of their most recent releases. I’m a bit surprised about the short run Everlasting seemed to have. Have they even been publishing a year yet?
Here’s the full scoop straight from the horse’s mouth.
Everlasting isn’t being closed completely. It will be moved under the SuperRomance umbrella. Next is closing as a line unto itself, but they are looking at other options to keep the brand alive.
This illustrates why Harlequin should keep its eye on what it does well, and not branch out into these hinky subset “lines” that start with all the hoopla and then shut down. Maybe their marketing branch does a poor job of assessing what the readership would be for these new brands.
I just feel for the writers whose projects now have to start from scratch. It’s never about the writers, though.
Could this mean that romance has peaked? Or is it just oversaturated? It could just be, like they’ve done to music, that there are too many sub-categories.
I live near Parkwood and they’re always shooting something there, particularly in the summer, whether it be TV or movies. There’s a first-season episode of Monk which filmed on our street; they drove by a number of times but the only thing visible are blurry driveways.
Ah ha, I was right about the rumours.
I hate to hear that beacuse I read several of the NEXT books I really liked, and one of my good friends had three or four novels published in that line.
Oh, fun! (About the movie shoot, I mean.) National Lampoon once shot some scenes for a Jon Bon Jovi movie just around the corner from where I live. (Which isn’t in LA, I can tell you that.) I did get to see Mr. Bon Jovi. [g]
Don’t worry–if they’d been shooting an actual scene, they never would’ve let you walk through.