Harlequin Buys BET; Kensington, Urban in New Deals

-- Publishers Weekly, 10/7/2005

A lot has been happening in the world of African-American publishing this week. Yesterday, Harlequin announced that it was purchasing BET Books from Black Entertainment Network, a subsidiary of Viacom. The sale, which will be finalized in December, will give Harlequin three major African-American imprints: Arabesque (which was founded by Kensington Books in 1994 and sold to BET in 2000), Sepia and New Spirit. As part of the deal, Harlequin will take over distribution of the imprints from Kensington.

Christine Saunders, Harlequin's public relations manager, says the purchase is "very much in keeping with the theme" of what the house is already publishing. The purchase will give Harlequin some 400 new titles, and bring BET's editorial staff into the fold. BET Books' publisher, Linda Gill, will move into Harlequin's New York office along with "two or three other editors," Saunders says.

What is not clear, says Saunders, is exactly how the imprints will be handled at Harlequin. Whether the three BET brands will becomes part of Harlequin's planned African-American imprint—the publisher will be launching Kimani Press in July 2006—remains to be seen. Saunders did say that, with Kimani, Harlequin plans on releasing both mass market romance titles (on a bi-monthly schedule) along with trade books that "won't necessarily be women's fiction."

With the loss of the BET distribution line, Kensington moved quickly to maintain a healthy presence in the African-American market. The publisher has struck a deal with Genesis Press to distribute the house's new mass market program. The new titles, which will be reprints of Genesis' paperback fiction program, will include works by authors like Donna Hill, Gwynne Foster and Rochelle Ayers.

Kensington has also established a new business with Urban Books, best known for its "street lit" fiction. In a joint venture, with Kensington handling distribution, the two companies have set up Urban Soul. The new imprint will expand Urban Books' offerings into women's fiction.

For its part, Urban Books, owned by Carl Weber, has just acquired a small independent house called United Brothers Books. With the purchase, Urban Books will establish another new imprint Urban Mass, which will launch in March 2006 with the release of LaTanya Williams' Mixed Messages and Roy Gle's Is It a Crime. Urban Mass will focus on offering one new title and one mass market reprint (from Urban Books' backlist) each month.