A reader writes:
I have the rights to 25 romance books hubby and I wrote back in the early 1980’s. Those books sold over 2 million copies. I have been advised that a smart promoter could package them as Classic Best Selling Romances and maybe sell the whole lot to Hallmark or a corporation as a promotional freebie, etc. What advice can you give me, please?
I like the way you’re thinking. The question for me is what will provide the occasion to bring them back.
Do the stories or characters have some kind of 80s retro appeal? Or are they “classic” in some other way? Do all 25 books perform at the same level? Or at certain titles more likely candidates for making a comeback?
My advice to you is first to use your curatorial powers to put parameters and constraints to this idea.
It’s one thing to approach someone with a crate of books, dump them on their desk and say, “Here. Use these.”
It’s quite another to approach someone with nine books, have criteria for why they’re the best, and then provide a rationale for what makes these books relevant today.
Finally, for all you romance novel haters I’d like to leave you with this:
Embrace . . . the stormy castle!
