True to its promise, Harlequin has ditched the Harlequin Horizons name. It’s now DellArte Press.
Victoria Strauss, co-founder of Writer Beware®, is the author of nine novels for adults and young adults, including her Way of Arata epic fantasy duology (The Burning Land and The Awakened City), and a pair of historical novels for teens, Passion Blue and Color Song. She has written hundreds of book reviews for publications such as SF Site, and her articles on writing have appeared in Writer’s Digest and elsewhere. In 2006, she served as a judge for the World Fantasy Awards.
She received the 2009 SFWA® Service Award for her work with Writer Beware®, and in 2012 was honored with an Independent Book Blogger Award for the Writer Beware® blog. She’s webmistress of the Writer Beware® website, which she also created, and maintains the Writer Beware® database, blog, and Facebook page.
I usually ignore most of the e-mails that I get from ASI to begin with, and on the few times that I've had to talk to them, I have such a brain dead phone manner (really, I can make myself sound dumber than dirt when answering the phone) that they usually don't bother me with things that I really don't want or need.
I figure they simply got a job to do and it's my best interests to simply ignore whatever they're pitching in order to get what I actually want and need.
A child told me several years ago that the actual expression is "brain farct". I guess from brain infarction.
Adding clickability to the link above.
Many of the complaints I've gotten about Author Solutions brands over the years have involved high-pressure sales tactics. I'm sure that ASI associates have a script they use, and it wouldn't surprise me a bit if they said that, say, John Grisham had gotten his start in self-publishing, since that myth is all over the Internet. Rowling, though…I wonder if that salesperson didn't just have a brain fart.
Complaints received by Writer Beware about ASI brands also show an increase over the past year and a half.
I found this link interesting. This individual decided to contact Dellarte and recieved an automated response that included a piece of information that is no longer listed on the site (unless I missed it somewhere.)
http://colleenanderson.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/harlequin-begins-vanity-press/
It seems the carrot is still being dangled, but in a slightly different way.
Quoted from the computer generated response:
“Publishing with DellArte Press offers several advantages:
Discovery Opportunities – Titles published through DellArte Press will be monitored for possible pickup by DellArte’s traditional imprints”
And then there is this:
http://www.ripoffreport.com/miscellaneous-companies/dellarte-press/dellarte-press-harlequin-horiz-7469d.htm
I didn't try to track down whether the claim of the ASI salesperson was true or not true. Just thought it relevant in the fact this name morph has not changed the core of how ASI does business.
Also, a search on the BBB of ASI affiliates has shown a rather interesting trend (at least to me). It appears that as ASI has made the full-court-press to acquire competitors and open new brands, the number of complaints have increased. 74 reported in total for the last 1-12 months.
Judge for yourself though as you compare the 13-24 and 25-36 month complaint rates for some of those companies.
And changing the name of their vanity press changes its nature exactly how? And eliminates the conflict of interest problems exactly how?
I was amused by some of their FAQ's, especially this one: "Q: Can I publish my book with Dellarte Press and another publisher, too? A: Yes. We have non-exclusive agreements with our authors so the rights to your book remain yours. You are welcome to publish your book with another publisher, contact a film production company and sell your rights to them or explore other opportunities."
Except of course that your first print rights would be gone, so the only publisher you could use would probably be another vanity press. I guess that point was left out.
Like many others, I'm wondering what Dell/Delacorte with think of this.
It's as if Harlequin's going for the gold! "How MANY reputable publishing brands can we taint with our Ha Ho scam?"
It's good site for me ,thank you very much
If I might mangle the Bard just a little, a bad idea by any other name is still really bad.
"Yes, Anonymous, someone on Twitter suggested they should earn out the "advance" authors give them before they keep any of the royalties."
This is **brilliant.**
Yes, Anonymous, someone on Twitter suggested they should earn out the "advance" authors give them before they keep any of the royalties.
Sorry I forgot but DellArte is Italian for "Of The Arts". In Italian they use compound prepositions- so: of =Del, lo= the, compounded should be DELLO but since "Arte" begins with a vocal, they leave off the last vocal on the compound preposition and put an apostrophe in it's place. Hence in correct Italian grammar it should be Dell'Arte. But Harlequin thinking this might drive English speaking people up the wall chose to simplify it by calling it DellArte. So please now, be nice, don't get back at me with "Bloody Foreigners!
Pointless Move. While it might put existing Harlequin authors at ease about their effort being watered down, I still see no evidence they cut mention of it from their rejection letters and they're still working with AuthorHouse "Solutions".
Those are the things that really need solving for this to go away.
Won't that get confused with Dell Books? 😉