I received a sad bit of news this week. Due to financial pressures, Barbour has made the difficult decision to cancel its cozy mystery line. What does this mean for cozy mystery readers? Check out the following article posted by Rebecca Germany, Senior Editor at Barbour Publishing:
2008 was the season for the cozy mystery romance at Barbour. We spent 2 years planning for our new book club. We built a strong team of managing editor and authors who worked hard on both content and marketing of the books. Then we launched the club early 2008 based on strong initial membership drives.
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All was going well until our early fall membership drive (traditionally a strong time for adding new members) hit at the same time as the news from Wall Street about the financial crisis. The membership drive had the worst response that we have ever experienced or even heard of in the industry. At that point, to save the club would have required major investment dollars. By the end of 2008, we knew that the national financial climate would not allow for a marketing gamble on something that was still new and unproven.
2008 was a pretty good year overall for Barbour, but with 2009 looking to be a hard one for retailers, we know we have to tighten our belt and keep our money where we are confident it can give us the most return. So, for that reason, we will be closing the Heartsong Presents Mystery Romance Club. We have a couple more shipments that will go out, then books we have contracted will be used in other ways. Most likely they will go into 3-in-1 collections like Cozy in Kansas and Alibis in Arkansas. These 2 books released in late fall 2008 and had very good sales showings over Christmas. We hope you cozy mystery lovers out there will look for these books and support your author friends by buying them.
To read the complete article, check out The Edit Cafe.
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We here at Spyglass Lane have enjoyed introducing you to these fun-filled mysteries, and we look forward to many successful ventures at Barbour Publishing. As the weeks roll on, you will continue to see fun games and puzzles posted. When the job queue expires, we'll bid you farewell. Until then, continue to enjoy all the Heartsong Presents Mysteries books have to offer!
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7 comments:
How sad :(, but very understandable during these economic times.
I have enjoyed and appreciated the cozy mysteries. Looking forward to the remaining ones and the alternative way of publishing them.
Oh, yes. I'm very encouraged to know that Barbour intends to put out a few last cycles of mysteries. And, as always, I look forward to all of the quality fiction works that Barbour produces.
Oh this is so sad I enjoy receiving my books.
I hope when the climate picks up so will this line.
I am so sorry to hear this. At least there will be a few more and I hope they will be able to find different homes for other that might have been in the pipeline.
How awful. I will really miss the books.
This is truly sad. I hope when the economy is strong again, the cozy mysteries will be back. Best of luck to all you gifted authors! God bless!
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