“Romance Reading,” Celebrate Valentine’s Day with a special presentation about the Romance Publishing Industry.
Where: Canadian Embassy, 7-3-38 Akasaka, Minato-ku: http://www.canadanet.or.jp
When: Tuesday, Feb. 14, 7:00pm
Cost: Free admission
RSVP: RSVP by sending an e-mail to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Here’s Belinda Hobbs with some of her romances:

Belinda Hobbs is Managing Director of Harlequin KK. Harlequin is one of the most successful international publishers of romance and women’s fiction. The company has offices in sixteen countries, and distributes books in ninety-six countries in twenty-six languages.

The entertainment product Harlequin offers is “romance” in a very broad sense, and includes romantic suspense, historicals, inspirational, chick lit, thrillers, human drama, mainstream women’s fiction, and something called “commercial lit,” which is where a hard-to-categorize novel such as Lovely Bones fits. Within the historical novel category are many sub-genres such as Regency, Tudor, Medieval, etc.

Each year, approximately 1300 Harlequin titles are published in North America, half of which are later translated and published in Japan. In Japan, “The Harlequin Club,” consisting of 8,500 Japanese women who participate in market surveys and focus groups, and in exchange receive invitations to special events and chances in get exclusive books, etc.