Skip to main content

Harlequin Has Closed Author Solutions Front Company DellArte Press

Sometime in the past month Harlequin quietly shuttered its vanity press imprint Dellarte Press, replacing its website with a notice that the business is closing.

DellarteLogo[1]

Harlequin was the second major US publisher to partner with famed vanity press Author Solutions when Harlequin launched Harlequin Horizons in 2009 (it was later renamed to Dellarte Press). That vanity press service launched only weeks after Christian publisher Thomas Nelson (a HarperCollins sub) eschewed the Ten Commandments and launched WestBow Press. 

Operated by Author Solutions with Harlequin acting as a front, Dellarte Press operated on a simple business model: sell authors overpriced bundles of self-pub services while at the same trying to upsell them additional useless marketing services.

As you can tell from my word choice, I have a low opinion of these services; the professional author groups had similar low opinion in 2009, which leads me to Harlequin Horizons' colorful early history, and why it was renamed.

The launch of Harlequin Horizons was not well received. The Romance Writers of America and the SFWA both responded by blacklisting Harlequin. They announced that titles published by any of Harlequin’s imprints would no longer count towards an author’s membership in the organizations. The Mystery Writers of America made a similar threat (it’s not clear if they followed through). And finally,  Preditors & Editors changed its listing for Harlequin to that of Vanity Publisher.

As a result of the pressure, Harlequin subsequently renamed Harlequin Horizons to Dellarte Press while also removing much of the Harlequin branding from the website.

DellArte Press has gotten little press in the subsequent 5 years, before it was abruptly shuttered sometime in the past month. The closure was only noticed this past week by Victoria Strauss of Writer’s Beware and by Mick Rooney of The Independent Publishing Magazine. Details are still scarce at this time (I’m still waiting to hear back from Harlequin) so I can’t tell you why Dellarte was closed or what will happen to the existing contracts authors may have had with Dellarte.

Rooney reports that Dellarte closed because it was a bust; he reports that it only shipped 16 titles in 5 years (I found 17 titles listed on Amazon). I don’t see how that could be true, but at this time I don’t have any evidence to the contrary.

I would think that the books distributed by Dellarte are now being handled by one of Author Solution’s many tentacles divisions, and thus bear a new publishing imprint, but I haven’t been able to confirm that supposition.

In any case, Harlequin is the second publisher to cut ties with Author Solutions; F&W Media’s Writer’s Digest ended its relationship last June when it closed Abbott Press. A couple months later Writer’s Digest opened a new imprint, Blue Ash Publishing, in partnership with the much more palatable and ethical BookBaby.

Author Solutions' current partners include Lulu, Barnes & Noble, Simon & Schuster, and HarperCollins, as well as several different units of Author Solution’s parent company, Penguin Random House.

Similar Articles


Comments


Bridget McKenna February 13, 2015 um 3:50 pm

Don’t mince words, Nate. What do you really think of Author Solutions? 🙂
Thanks for this article. Good to see AS getting repeatedly socked in the eye. Couldn’t happen to a nicer company.


David Gaughran February 19, 2015 um 9:02 am

Was very skeptical about that claim of 16 titles, but did a little digging, and it seems accurate.

Bowker has a report here covering ISBN assignations from 2008-2013, and it appears that DellArte only registered 16 ISBNs in the US by end of 2013.

All the numbers for partner sites are surprisingly low. Makes a cynical mind wonder…

(PDF link)

Nate Hoffelder February 19, 2015 um 9:06 am

It makes you wonder why they kept it open, doesn’t it?


David Gaughran February 19, 2015 um 9:10 am

Either stupidity, incompetence, apathy, or they were tied down to a long-term contract and locked down with NDAs. Take your pick!


Brain inactive | February 24, 2015 um 7:45 pm

[…] Harlequin Has Closed Author Solutions Front Company DellArte Press although I did enjoy reading the third paragraph of this article. […]


Penguin Random House Sells Vanity Press Author Solutions | The Digital Reader January 5, 2016 um 2:06 pm

[…] not yet have data from 2015). ASI also lost deals with The Authors Guild and with Harlequin, which closed its ASI front company in early […]


Ellora's Cave Now Threatening RWA With Bogus Defamation Lawsuit(?) | The Digital Reader May 21, 2016 um 12:58 pm

[…] The RWA is the leading writers association for the romance genre. While it has no legal authority, it does have considerable industry clout. It can sanction publishers for violations of the RWA's Code of Ethics for Industry Professionals, and has done so in the past when publishers cheated  authors out of royalties or otherwise tried to exploit authors (Harlequin and DellArte Press, for example). […]


Ellora's Cave Now Threatening RWA With Bogus Defamation Lawsuit(?) | The Digital Reader May 21, 2016 um 12:58 pm

[…] The RWA is the leading writers association for the romance genre. While it has no legal authority, it does have considerable industry clout. It can sanction publishers for violations of the RWA's Code of Ethics for Industry Professionals, and has done so in the past when publishers cheated  authors out of royalties or otherwise tried to exploit authors (Harlequin and DellArte Press, for example). […]


Ellora’s Cave Now Threatening RWA With Bogus Defamation Lawsuit | Illuminite Caliginosus May 21, 2016 um 9:55 pm

[…] The RWA is the leading writers association for the romance genre. While it has no legal authority, it does have considerable industry clout. It can sanction publishers for violations of the RWA’s Code of Ethics for Industry Professionals, and has done so in the past when publishers cheated  authors out of royalties or otherwise tried to exploit authors (Harlequin and DellArte Press, for example). […]


Write a Comment