No Holding Back was
being used to illustrate an article ‘revealing’ that apparently Harlequin Mills& Boon novels now have a ‘racy newlook’ and that this is apparently
influenced by the success of the erotic novels
50 Shades of Grey etc.
Errr . . .
The Sicilian’s Red-Hot Revenge for example, or Kept For Her Baby. Though the first of those is almost ten years old; the second only two years younger - published back in 2009.
The other ‘recent’
covers cited - on books by Sandra Marton
and Kelly Hunter are a good five years
old with Not For Sale and Flirting with Intent both dating from 2011. The only actual up to date cover – from this
month – is a Blaze title by Nancy
Warren -
in which – shock horror – the heroine‘s shirt has slipped to reveal her
modest white bra. So, according to the Daily Mail this is new
and raunchy and influenced by 50 Shades . . . Oh, for heaven’s sake
It doesn’t take two minutes’ research to turn up an
article that claims, in the same stunned
tones, that Mills and Boon have become ‘Millsand Boom Boom’! – This time, apparently ‘influenced’ by the popularity of Black
Lace erotic novels. The two articles could
quite easily be transposed – all that’s needed is that the names of the editors
quoted and the books that are ‘influencing’
the writers can be swapped about and
Shades of Grey becomes Black Lace -
and there you go!
Not a hope in hell of considering that Harlequin M&B authors have been influencing other
popular fiction authors as we hold on to a large amount of the novel selling market with books that have had a wide variety of
tones, voices, levels of sensuality and stories
- and continue to do so. In today’s
article, amongst the hugely dated covers
of books from the 30s, 40s, 50s (show me any novel with a cover that hasn‘t
dated when it’s over 50 years old!) there is the comment by Joanne Grant, Mills
& Boon executive editor:
Mills & Boon has adapted to reflect society and popular
culture. You can really chart the changes because we have a history lasting
over 100 years. In the past, the sex itself wasn't so obvious on the page. It
was implied, and there was lots of sensuality so you could imagine what had
happened behind closed doors, but it wasn't explored on the page. Now there are
no worries about that – we can be very open.
But as any reader of Mills & Boon knows this isn’t something
we’ve just discovered – or have been pushed into by the ‘influence’ of 50
Shades. It’s part of the natural growth
and changes in our books – and so many many others to reflect to society in
which we’re writing and in which our readers are reading.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to find that the ‘news’ about the
books we’re publishing might at least be contemporary and not a good five years
old or more. I’m not holding my breath.
