October 7, 2010

To Our Authors,

In the rapidly changing world of media and entertainment, publishing, too, is experiencing exciting new changes. To position ourselves for opportunities and growth in the future, we want to expand and celebrate our strength and diversity as the leading publisher of entertainment for women.

Our current solid reputation in this arena and our strong identity continues to be the envy of many publishers. In the past 15 years, Harlequin has come to mean much more than series romance. We have expanded into mainstream fiction and romance, Christian fiction, African-American fiction, teen fiction and nonfiction. As we move toward the next 15 years, we hope that Harlequin will mean even more.
This summer, we worked with the world-renowned design and branding company

Pentagram, in New York, in order to re-envision both our branding strategy and our look. In 2011 you will notice a number of changes relating to the Harlequin brands. We have redesigned our Harlequin corporate logo, which you can see at the top of this letter: the four diamonds have been replaced with the letter H inside one larger diamond.

Because Harlequin is increasingly recognized as a publisher of a broad range of women’s reading, we will be placing the corporate logo on the back cover of all the books we publish. In the digital future, search and discovery will become even more important, and customers’ ability to find our authors and books will be enhanced by the use of the Harlequin brand.

We have also redesigned the Harlequin consumer logo associated with our series romance programs. For the consumer logo, we have replaced the harlequin figure inside the diamond with a stylized figure representing our reader, placing her first and foremost in our brand.

We will also be rebranding some of our series. In April 2011 our Silhouette series will become Harlequin series. As you know, Silhouette Nocturne became Harlequin Nocturne in June of this year. Special Edition, Romantic Suspense and Desire will appear with their new Harlequin brand in April. Rebranding the Silhouette series as Harlequin will ensure that these series benefit from the promotional resources dedicated to the Harlequin brand and will strengthen the Harlequin consumer brand as the market leader in romance fiction.

Also in April 2011, Love Inspired will replace Steeple Hill as the primary brand for our inspirational fiction publishing program. The Steeple Hill logo will no longer appear on the books.

While we are broadening what our corporate brand represents, we will continue to support and strengthen the many individual imprints that fall beneath the Harlequin umbrella, and that includes growing you, the authors, into strong brands of your own.

As a valued Harlequin author, you should feel free to contact your editor with any questions or concerns that you may have. We look forward to hearing from you.

With our very best wishes,

Donna Hayes
Loriana Sacilotto
Publisher and Chief Executive Officer
EVP, Global Editorial

For an in-depth analysis of Harlequin’s phasing out of the Silhouette line, click here.