Harlequin Romance

aka HarlequinEnterprises. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlequin_Enterprises

Romance Book Publisher.

Harlequin was owned by the Torstar Corporation, the largest newspaper publisher in Canada, from 1981 until purchased in 2014 by NewsCorp. (to become part of HarperCollins)

Revenue dropped $100M (20%) from 2009-2013.

Many authors who write romance books veer toward Self Publishing because of the popularity of the genre digitally (EBook) (not having a publisher with print distribution hurts less), the amount of creative control they get, and the royalty, which is typically around 70% for a self-published title, versus anywhere between 15% and 25% for traditionally published ebooks.

In 2012, Harlequin was hurt by blockbuster sales of the "50 Shades of Grey" series, which was published by a division of competitor Random House. At the time, Donna Hayes, publisher and CEO of Harlequin, said despite the boost for the genre, sales of the 50 Shades books totalled more than the company's entire retail division in North America.