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Samhain PublishingToday, Chrissy Brashear, owner of Samhain made the announcement.

“By mutual agreement Kensington and Samhain have dissolved our co-venture agreement. Current circumstances being what they do not make it conducive for the launch of a new print program. Once things settle we can revisit the idea of working together.”

Personal statement – I write for Samhain.

I think this says more about Kensington than it does about Samhain. My Samhain sales are very nice, even though my books there are highly sensual rather than erotic, (my erotic romances are at Ellora’s Cave and Loose Id) and I’ve seen steady growth. Samhain authors are in general a very happy lot. But as last week’s Samhain top tens showed, the majority of the big sales are in erotic romance.

Last week, Kensington halved their Aphrodisia line and the editor of the line, the much respected Hilary Sares, left. I don’t know if I’m adding two and two and getting five here, but it looks like Kensington is cutting back on erotic romance. What they’ll replace it with remains to be seen.

I have to say that my erotic romances sell like the proverbial.ย  So is it that erotic romance sells better online? That readers don’t want to go into a bookstore and buy it? In this day and age? I doubt it. Other houses are doing very well with their erotic romances. Harlequin have souped up the Presents/Modern and Silhouette Desire lines, which often contain explicit scenes these days, and the Blaze line is going great guns.

Kensington At this stage I have more questions than answers, but the news is out there. I love Kensington as a house, and I think they produce quality books. Some of my favorite authors write for them. I was sad when Hilary left, but I have to say that although I have Aphrodisia books in my TBR, I haven’t read them yet. Maybe that’s it?