Love as a Commodity: Brand-Name Romantic Fiction and its Readers. The Domain and Readership of Harlequin Enterprises, Both in Iceland and Abroad

• Main Author: Helena María Smáradóttir 1983-
• Other Authors: Háskóli Íslands
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Enska; Bókaútgáfa; Lesendur; Afþreyingarbókmenntir; Ástarsögur; Markaðssetning; Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1946/2789

In this thesis I explore the domain of Harlequin Enterprises, the publishing house of romantic fiction, and the company’s publication and its marketing strategies. I also look at the Icelandic market of romantic fiction and examine the readership of the Icelandic readers of brand-name romantic fiction. I seek to establish who the Icelandic readers are, explain the need that women fulfil by reading these books and why novels of romantic fiction are as popular as they are. In the first part, I introduce the genre of romantic fiction. Each novel of this genre allows the readers to experience the emotional turmoil found within the novel and the satisfaction that in the end the couple will share each other’s future. The novels of the genre are formulaic, meaning that the novels have to follow certain patterns. In this thesis, I will concentrate my efforts on brand-name romantic fiction, which are novels published to patterns preconceived by publishing houses. I also examine the tradition of romantic fiction in Iceland. In the second part, I first explore the production of brand-name romantic fiction. The relationship between the readers of romantic fiction is not only between the readers and the authors but also the publishers. The marketing strategies of Harlequin Enterprises turned the genre of romantic fiction into a commercial industry. These marketing methods were not new but had not been used to market books. The company placed emphasis on marketing brands rather than works of individual authors. The standardized looks, content and length were supposed to create brand-fidelity and consequently, the readers would be guaranteed similar novels within the same series of Harlequin Enterprises. Secondly, since the publishing house of Harlequin Enterprises is predominant in the market of romantic fiction. I wanted to examine various markets of the company: the North American, the British and the Icelandic. In the last part, I examine the readership of brand-name romantic fiction. First I examine how the cover, the ...