Publishing Innovator of the Year: Harlequin
“It is really about having a dialogue with … our readers, and often we hear things … that they wish we would publish more of,” Vallik explains.
“We have over 5,000 people who have joined our community with a profile. We have expanded in the last couple of years to really use new media—wherever women are, we are,” she reiterates. “So we are on MySpace, … Facebook, … Twitter; we have blogs and podcasts. It is [about] always trying to make the connection with the reader—show her a little something behind the scenes, hear what she is interested in and really build a relationship. Our readers have always had a relationship with us. They feel very loyal to us, to the authors, to the characters, so digital tools are simply new tools to have better conversations or more frequent conversations.”