This paper explores the impact of the British publishing firm Mills & Boon’s (M&B) ‘colonial library’ in India as well as its negotiation of new markets in what business historian Geoffrey Jones describes as first and second global economies. Founded in 1908, M&B distributed popular romance novels to colonial territories and established a strong brand identity, that continues today, among English-language readers. Once M&B was acquired by Harlequin in 1972, Harlequin Mills & Boon (HMB) built upon the strength of the M&B brand in the English- reading Indian market. By 2008, HMB established a local branch office in Mumbai and offered popular romance novels written by Indian authors for an Indian readership. HMB’s negotiation of this international market offers insight into the demands of a new generation of readers in India and provides a case for exploring the characteristics of a first and second global economy.
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The colonial library was not a physical space but rather a list of books the publisher sold to British colonial markets; this was a common practice among British publishers in the early twentieth century. Macmillan Publishers established the first colonial library list in 1889. By 1913, publishers were calling the list the ‘empire library’, and by 1937 it was generally referred to as the ‘overseas library’. The production, distribution, and promotional strategies created by Harlequin and Mills & Boon provide insight into how the companies negotiated international markets, including when and why they adapted their approach to new markets over time. (8)
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This article [...] concludes with an intersectional analysis of the role that gender, class status, race, sexuality, and national identity played in the marketing of romance novels written by women for female readers. (9)
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No one has written about M&B’s colonial library and its contribution to the company’s success, yet M&B – especially after it was acquired by Harlequin – became recognized and valued for its international network of female readers and writers. HMB’s strong international presence ultimately attracted the attention of News Corp/HarperCollins, which acquired HMB in 2014 for close to a quarter of a billion dollars. At the time of the sale ninety-nine percent of HarperCollins’ revenue came from English-language markets. By contrast, forty percent of HMB’s revenue came from books published in languages other than English. (12)
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By 2008, HMB had established a local branch office in Mumbai and in 2010 it had started to offer popular romance novels written by Indian authors for an Indian readership. The former head of HMB in India, Manish Singh, describes these new readers as ‘… a forward-looking generation’. Building on the popularity of their English language romance novels, the company soon started translating and publishing its romance novels in the Hindi, Malayalam, Marathi, and Tamil languages to reach an even wider market of Indian readers. (15)
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Recruitment began with a writing competition in 2009 to find new talents. In 2010 HMB published its first romance book by an Indian author, Milan Vohra, titled Love Asana. At the time, Vohra was an advertising executive. Other Indian HMB authors include bankers, dentists, public relations executives, and doctors, and the characters in the books reflect the female authors themselves. The settings are Indian, and there is much more of an Indian viewpoint, which results in local cultural details being reflected in the stories. (23)
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