Well, with the fifth book into the series, GE is now going to destroy what I thought of as pretty cool covers into something completely drab and unimaginative. Ugghh.

Yeah, I'm not overly fond of the new cover style either.  Still, the series has been pretty good so far.  Hopefully it will stick around for a while.

Agreed.

Room 59 has been cancelled as of book 6. A friend of mine works at eharlequin and heard it from one of the editors.

What a shame, I liked them.

Damn. That stinks. Just finished reading #3 the other day and liked it.  Only up-side to this is that it will save me a little money and shelfspace for all of the other GE books I collect......which is pretty much all of them!!  Oh, well...

Maybe if they had Mark Ellis working on it...

Just received this month's GE books; two Bolan's and DL.  In the back of each, where they do the promotions for upcoming books, there are two pages promoting the next Room 59 book.  One page is the usual synopsis, the other promoting the " brand new look".  If the series is being cancelled, is this a last ditch effort to try to drum up more sales?  Or is this just more poor marketing by GE?  I find this all very strange and am quite confused.

[QUOTE]kim d wrote
 

Room 59 has been cancelled as of book 6. A friend of mine works at eharlequin and heard it from one of the editors.

[/QUOTE]

Well what do you expect  from GE?

It was a Marketing decision, not a Gold Eagle decision.

[QUOTE]Wordsmith-reprise wrote
 

It was a Marketing decision, not a Gold Eagle decision.

[/QUOTE]

To me there is no difference.

There is a major difference. GE is a minor cog in the juggernaut wheel that is Harlequin Enterprises. Harelquin is a marketing-driven company. It has to be in order to sell the millions of books that it does. There is a major difference between a group of people who acquire and edit m****cripts and the group of people who decide if a series is profitable. They are completely different untis.

Thanks for clarifying that. I was confused by your initial post. Since I've been collecting and reading GE books for the past twenty years, I'm always inclined to think of them as their own entity.  Your explanation reminded me how the world really works, no matter what business or field.  I feel like a real naive dunce for not applying what I already know to this situation as well!

In your opinion, or factual knowledge, does the decision to change a series' cover art format rest with GE or Harlequin?

Sorry. I can't comment on that as I have no knowledge of that process at Harlequin.

Wordsmith,

You wouldn't happen to be one of the Room 59 authors by any chance?

No, she is an editor for GE.

[QUOTE]Wordsmith-reprise wrote
 

GE is a minor cog in the juggernaut wheel that is Harlequin Enterprises. Harelquin is a marketing-driven company. It has to be in order to sell the millions of books that it does. There is a major difference between a group of people who acquire and edit m****cripts and the group of people who decide if a series is profitable. They are completely different untis.

[/QUOTE]

So then why doesn't Harlequin sell GE or let it become independent to produce the kind of books the readers want ?

I think you are getting a bit of the Oz effect around GE.  Gold Eagle is, basically, a very small handful of people (mostly editors).  Like, perhaps a half dozen people.  GE does not have printing or distribution capacity without Harlequin.  All GE does is hire writers to fill the pages of books and artists to fill the covers of books, and hand over those pages and covers to Harlequin to meet the printing schedule.  Harlequin then physically manufactures, distributes, and markets those books.  Without Harlequin, there is no Gold Eagle, plain and simple.  If Harlequin isn't seeing a return on their investment, they will stop distributing a title, it's really that simple. I know that GE had high hopes for Room 59, but it appears they just didn't pan out.