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How did I miss this? As I was searching the Kindle Store yesterday for Regency romances, I discovered the listings were glutted with -- and I'm not exaggerating here --- hundreds of ebook reissues of Harlequin and Silhouette books from the 1990s which will be available as ebooks on July 15! I knew it was just a matter of time before this would happen, but I hadn't heard anything about it (and I thought I was pretty well informed about the industry). My 1998 Regency-set historical they published, A DUKE DECEIVED, has been out-of-print in this country since 1998. This book won lots of awards, and I won the title Notable New Author because of it, so I should be happy it will be available again. BUT, they got it for 6 percent royalties. Ouch! I couldn't get my rights back on it because it kept making foreign sales. Just this year it was republished in Japan, for the third time there, in mass market paperback. Each time it sells in a different foreign country, I get around $1500 advance. Not bad. But I'm certainly not getting rich. I do hope the ebooks will make more in the long run. They certainly have advantages over the print ones.
I do have a concern with the fact that Harlequin and Silhouette listed their contemporary romance reissues under historical and Regency. They did this with Intrigues, Intimate Moments, American, etc. Is this legal?
I do have a concern with the fact that Harlequin and Silhouette listed their contemporary romance reissues under historical and Regency. They did this with Intrigues, Intimate Moments, American, etc. Is this legal?