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16 hours agoHeated Rivalry's success may reignite LGBTQ+ publishing
Heated Rivalry's success has boosted LGBTQ+ literature, particularly Rachel Reid's book, despite challenges in the publishing industry.
Sounding amused, publisher Pramod Kapoor recalls the reaction of the Indian cricketing legend Bishen Singh Bedi when he learned Kapoor was printing 3,000 copies of his autobiography. Only 3,000? he protested. I fill stadiums with 50-60,000 people coming to see me play and you think that's all my book is going to sell? Kapoor, the founder of Roli Books, explains that Bedi's legions of admirers were unlikely to translate into book buyers. That was in 2021.
You may know the story by now: Rachel Reid began posting what would become Heated Rivalryon the fan-fiction site Archive of Our Own, one chapter at a time. Eventually, the Halifax-based author reportedly removed the posts, reworked the book, submitted it to publishers, and sold it in 2019 to Carina Press, a digital-first imprint at Harlequin. While the first book in her "Game Changers" series found a solid fan base among romance readers, no one expected just how many more would join them.
When I came across the idea for this novel a few years ago, I knew it was bigger in scope than anything I'd done before and I accepted that the research alone would be more demanding than anything I'd tackled in the past. When I finally sat down to write Adam and Eve I also realised, by the end of the first draft, that this was going to be my final novel,
History suggests it will sell well. If you want to be taken seriously as a politician in France, it's not enough to have win an election and vote in parliament, make laws, and represent your constituents to the best of your ability. You also, it seems, have to write a book demonstrating the scale and breadth of your convictions, and laying out your inarguable views.
Raynor Winn and her husband, Moth Winn, lost their home after investing in a family friend's failed business, driving them to walk 630 miles along the coast.