Dashverse, an AI company that specializes in shortform video, is partnering with Harlequin to produce animated microdramas inspired by their romance titles. Authors were not consulted and likely don’t have much say over the matter, but they will receive royalties from the videos. Otherwise, Harlequin did not offer much comment to Publishers Weekly about the arrangement.
It’s gone over about as well as you might expect in the author community, which means not well. I’m not surprised to see Harlequin doing this, since microdramas are trendy right now with young people. However, it doesn’t appear that Harlequin will be much or at all involved in producing or marketing these microdramas. The effort looks predominantly like a way for them to reach a new demographic and earn some money for existing IP.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
