Harlequin Horizons becomes DellArte Press: Self-publishing dream confronts reality

Today's top news story from the embattled Harlequin Horizons front is that the new self-publishing division of Harlequin Enterprises has, as promised by Harlequin CEO Donna Hayes, changed its name to DellArte Press. Lynn Andriani revealed this development in a November 25, 2009 update to the Publishers Weekly website.

 Screenshot of the newly named DellArte Press website taken
 11-25-2009 by Carol Thomas

Harlequin's newly named DellArte Press results from the continuing criticism of Harlequin Enterprises by three professional writers associations. The Romance Writers of America (RWA), the Mystery Writers of America (MWA) and the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) all have voiced objections to Harlequin's decision to join the ranks what they considered to be vanity presses.

Nora Roberts, who is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the July 28 - 31, 2010 Romance Writers of America Conference, stated her view of Harlequin's venture in a post on the Smart Bitches Trashy books website on November 19, 2009. While Roberts did not deny the validity of self-publishing as a choice for writers, she nevertheless claimed, "But it’s a different matter when a big brand publisher uses its name and its resources to sell this as dream fulfillment, advertises it as such while trying to claim it’s not really their brand being used to make money on mss they’ve rejected as not worthy of that brand in the first place."

The Romance Writers of America, the professional organization in which Roberts has long been an active member, had earlier alerted its members that Harlequin Enterprises' then-named Horizon division, as "a vanity/subsidy press," was ineligible for RWA-provided conference resources. That announcement effectively removed all Harlequin authors from contention for the association's highly valued RITA® awards. But it was the Mystery Writers of America and the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America who zeroed in on the substance of Roberts' critique – the misleading advertising methods Harlequin Enterprises seemed to be using to market their new division.

The new DellArte Press website does appear to have deleted much of the somewhat florid language with which it promoted "the dream" of becoming a published author to those using its services. Even more significantly, the site contains no reference to the connection between DellArte Press and its parent organization, Harlequin Enterprises. One trace of the former "Horizons" label does remain, though. "Horizons" is retained as the name given to one of the five publishing packages DellArte Press offers.

In a post today to the publishing industry's GalleyCat website, Ron Hogan says that by clearly disassociating itself from Harlequin Enterprises, DellArte Press has lost "one of the key advantages that the venture had in its efforts to convince aspiring romance writers to subsidize their own publication." Will DellArte's efforts be enough, though, to satisfy the growing numbers of Harlequin's critics? Will Harlequin regain its status with the RWA, MWA, and SFWA? The only certainty is that the drama will continue.