There’s an interesting post and comments up by Rosario on Romancing the Blog that has me asking something that I’ve almost asked in response to posts from some other blogs recently. Really, it’s come up on so many lately that I thought I’d ask it here because it’s started to bother me. A lot. Where are all these millionaire stories being sold that show they’re what fly off the shelves because they’re what romance readers want to buy the most?
The reason I’m asking that in an almost whine is that I’m not even seeing them in the stores here. Okay, maybe I’m not looking for them. That could be it. However, I actually looked over the category/series shelves, er make that shelf, the last time I went to Kroger and nothing like that was even there. Or they were in disguise so I couldn’t recognize them. Which is mind-boggling. These are not the types of books that hide in plain sight, you know.
It’s been a while since I’ve been to Wal-Mart but I don’t remember seeing very many category/series books on their shelves the last time I was there. Mostly single titles. So the numbers sold can’t be that high, relatively speaking.
And every single bookstore around here either doesn’t stock category/series books or has extremely small selections of them relatively speaking, so where are they flying off the shelves so quickly?
That’s what I’d truly like to know.
First off, category romance sells much better in certain parts of the country than others — readers in the south and midwest, for instance, snatch them up much more than readers in more cosmopolitan areas. Very hard to find them in the NYC area, for instance.
And yes, the market IS very different for series romance than it is for single title. Why, I have no idea — but the reader who plops all eight Presents into her Wal-Mart basket every month may not even look at the single titles. Conversely, many single title readers wouldn’t even consider reading a category romance.
But regular category readers know what they’re getting when they pick one up (especially with the “hookiness” — if not hokeyiness — of the titles and covers). The books are short, cheaper than single titles, and guaranteed to deliver what those readers want.
I don’t know what Presents Mail Order figures are. I do, however, know that those of my books (Intimate Moments or, now, Special Edition) that make the Walden’s list at #9 or 10 sell about 35K copies AT RETAIL. That’s in stores, not including mail order. And I mean overall, not just in Walden’s. It therefore logically follows that the Presents authors above me are selling a lot more than that.
I can also tell you that most midlist single title authors would be thrilled to sell 35,000 copies of their books. Not the big names — Rachel Gibson or Julia Quinn and the like — but those whose names you know but aren’t in the bigtime. Many of them don’t even get PRINTRUNS in the mid-thirties, let alone sell that many books.
So the volume is definitely there. Again, Harlequin wouldn’t have added titles to the line, or revamped Desire, if the numbers weren’t there to justify it. It may seem weird to you, if you’re not seeing the evidence, but I’m not making it up. I promise. 😉
Bev, check out the new Harlequin Presents blog (www.iheartpresents.com), and you will be quickly assured that these stories are far from dead. The alpha male posts are particularly instructive, because a number of authors speak out, as well. If, that is, you can survive the sugar coma.
No, I don’t think it silly. At least I’ve wondered the same thing. 😉 I’ve also wondered how something can fly off the shelves when there doesn’t seem to be space for it . . . but that’s another question. Or is it?
Anyway, the mail order issue is a question, too. I did have a passing thought that maybe the massive sale were all there and not in the stores. The concept that it might be the stores where the most sales occur truly is mind boggling. I mean, one has to believe the figures and yet . . . one also has to question the volumn relative to the rest of romance.
It’s either a tad skewed or something else is odd. Which brings me back to who is really buying them? Why is the market for them so different even from the rest of romance?
Or does that question even make sense to anyone else?
Being a little silly here, but I wonder if they’re hard to find for you because they get snatched up immediately? [Pictures hoardes of women pacing the book aisle at WalMart on release day…] I don’t know how many would get shelved in various locations, but it’s possible it wouldn’t take many buyers to disappear them :). My M-I-L and G-M-I-L love the Presents line. One of these days I’m going to get them a subscription to the mail order service. Also, re: mail order, I wonder how the book sales figure in from that area?
Well, I don’t doubt you gals. It just that they’re so hard to find in the stores around here it’s hard to believe that many are really selling. And the thing is, they’ve always been somewhat hard to find. Which makes it all the more mind-boggling. Still makes me wonder where exactly they’re going. I mean who exactly is picking them up? Little invisible aliens?
And I’ll tell you something else. I’m not even sure I could find all that many of them in the UBS here. Weird.
Hi, Bev!
Since I was the one who made the millionaires-flying-off-the-shelves-comment, I thought I’d answer. 🙂
Harlequin Presents is, and has been for years, the top-selling Harlequin/Silhouette line. Every month, all eight titles take the top spots on the Walden’s series romance bestseller list. Every. Single. Month. In fact, not only did the line expand from 6 to 8 titles a year or so ago, but Desire has been revamped to be more like Presents in tone and packaging.
That says those stories sell very, very well.
You may not see series books where you are, but they’re still out there. And Walmart sells a huge number of them. (I cited the Walden’s list since, even though they don’t sell as many books as Walmart, the list is a very reliable indicator of how well a book’s doing — from personal experience, whenever I’ve made the list, my sales figures have been appreciably higher than when I don’t.)
In any case, I didn’t make the comment randomly, but from ten years of being on the “inside.” 🙂 If something doesn’t work, Har/Sil is pretty quick to axe or change it. If it is working, however, they won’t touch it. And Presents is definitely working, and extremely well.
Most of the Target stores in my area (Baltimore metro) carry at least a couple of the series lines, including Harlequin Presents, Kimani Romance, Silh. Desires, and Intimate Moments. They tend to go *very* fast; within a week of being shelved, they are pretty well picked over. Borders and B&N carry all of the Hqn series lines with a pretty good sell through rate, or so it looks to me.