Joanne Carr on the Mills & Boon Centenary
The Vagabonds are thrilled to welcome back Joanne Carr, who did some sensational guest blogs for us in May of last year, and who has been a huge help in putting this celebration together. Tomorrow is her official visit, but since she’s on UK time, we’re starting the party a bit early. More fantastic observations and advice from Joanne to follow…
Thank you so much for inviting me back! My name is Joanne Carr and I am an Editor on Harlequin Historical/Mills & Boon Historical Romance.
You have probably already read through the brief history of Mills & Boon and been wowed by some facts and figures, so I thought I’d share with you some of our centenary celebrations so far!
Our centenary launch party took place at the Wallace Collection in London in February and was a glamorous affair! Guests were treated to cocktails and canapés served by equally delicious waiters and during a romantic rendition of ‘When I Fall in Love’, each lady was presented with a long-stemmed red rose. It was a very enjoyable evening and not only was it an opportunity to celebrate such an achievement, but to also thank our wonderful authors and loyal readers, who are at the heart of Mills & Boon’s success!
We have many special editions of books being published in the UK throughout 2008 and one of these is an Edwardian historical by Nicola Cornick, set in 1908. It is called The Last Rake in London and will be available in June 08 in Harlequin Historical. Fans of Nicola Cornick will be thrilled to know that this book is linked to her popular Bluestocking Brides trilogy and the hero is a descendent of the Kestrel family. Coincidentally, the book opens at the Wallace Collection, where the hero and heroine first meet!
Joanne’s going to be blogging more on historical trends and some of the commonly asked questions about the submission process tomorrow. She’ll also be taking your questions. But since the end of the work day comes earlier on UK time, feel free to post questions for Joanne now so she’ll have something to start with!
Photos courtesy of Phillipa Gedge Photography
Hi, Joanne!
There was a lot of chatter yesterday about different time periods, so I’d like to ask what time periods you see gaining in popularity? (I wanted to give you at least one question to start on in the morning when you arrive!) So pleased to have you here. The gala sounds beautiful.
Best,
Blythe
What a wonderful celebration and to be serenaded by such gorgeous men – what more can one ask for!
Nicola Cornick’s book sounds marvelous! I can’t wait until it arrives in the States!
Wow! What an exciting milestone! Along the lines of Blythe’s question, are there places/countries that we might see more of in the future? How does that get determined? The Regency era is lovely, but there are plenty of other amazing settings! Will we see more of those?
Hi Joanne,
On average, how many submissions a month do you receive? Are there any genres or time periods that are not hot right now?
Morning!!
Wow – you are up and eager to ask questions, which is a good thing
I am fresh out of a meeting and ready to get going!
There are a couple of questions on period/trends here and there shoudl be a blog up that addresses this, but I will give you a few mroe specifics in a mo…
Jane, we geta round 100 submissions a month in Richmond – that includes all the series we acquire – not just for Historical!
Eek – sorry about the typos in the previous post – I was too eager to get going!
Blythe, as for periods that are gaining popularity, Regency is STILL gaining it seems, with no obvious other period showing major growth. However we do know our readers want variety and some overseas markets have a preference for Medievals so we will keep with the diverse periods.
Our publishing schedule is determined by past sales. We will always offer one non-Regency non-Western a month in both the UK and NA market to feed the appetite for these titles. However, we often hear from readers in discussions (such as this one) that more ‘other’ periods are wanted, that readers want more titles a month, but this isn’t reflected in sales. If things change, we will obviously adjust our publishing strategy to reflect the change in market.
We do have some exciting ‘other’ books coming out this year and I will back with some highlights in a separate post
Michelle Style lets loose a Viking on to the readers in May with Taken by the Viking
Blythe Gifford’s gorgeous Innocence Unveiled out June is set in the Low Countries, 1337, Ghent, Flanders.
We meet a noble templar knight in Lynna Banning’s September title Templar Knight, Forbidden Bride
Catherine March’s The King’s Champion out July is set at court of King Edward I with lots of jousting, medieval feasting and dancing
We have strong sexy warriors in Scottish and Irish Medievals from Terri Brisbin and Michelle Willingham and Wessex Weddings from Carol Townend
So hopefully you can see there is quite a range!