{"id":21314,"date":"2022-12-06T13:45:46","date_gmt":"2022-12-06T13:45:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/06\/harlequin-to-adapt-52-audio-romance-titles-into-scripted-podcasts\/"},"modified":"2022-12-06T13:45:46","modified_gmt":"2022-12-06T13:45:46","slug":"harlequin-to-adapt-52-audio-romance-titles-into-scripted-podcasts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/06\/harlequin-to-adapt-52-audio-romance-titles-into-scripted-podcasts\/","title":{"rendered":"Harlequin to Adapt 52 Audio Romance Titles Into Scripted Podcasts"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Audio production company Audio Up Media and book publishing house Harlequin Enterprises<\/a> are teaming up to adapt 52 of the publisher\u2019s romance titles into scripted podcast series, with an eye to also turn these into\u2014more highly monetizable\u2014TV series.<\/p>\n

Audio Up, also home to mental health and wellness podcast Maejor Frequency<\/a>, has experience in turning series, like Harlequin\u2019s long-running Montana Mavericks, into narrated audio content. As well as releasing James Ellroy\u2019s political fiction novel American Tabloid next spring on Amazon Audible, the audio company has adapted content like Stephen King\u2019s Strawberry Spring, hiring actors like Euphoria<\/a> star Sydney Sweeney<\/a> and Troy actor Garrett Hedlund to voice the series. Strawberry Spring has had nearly 2 million downloads since its launch in September 2021, according to Audio Up.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome brands are so big they don\u2019t need to leave their own domains of how they make money because they\u2019re already doing well,\u201d Audio Up CEO Jared Gutstadt told Adweek, pointing to Harlequin\u2019s already large audience through successful book-selling. \u201cThis is a risky experiment by them, going beyond what they normally do,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Podcasts are seeing success in translating content from audio\u2014a lower-cost vehicle for creating a dedicated audience\u2014to the big screen. NBC\u2019s video streaming platform Peacock picked up Wondery\u2019s<\/a> True Crime podcast series Dr. Death, which renewed for a second season this year. Elsewhere, Hulu\u2019s limited series The Dropout based on a corporate true crime tale of Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes, played by Amanda Seyfried, stemmed from an ABC News podcast of the same title, according to TIME<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Harlequin has been working with TV production company Centinel Media for the past year to launch titles for TV adaptation and is planning to announce the content in the new year, according to Centinel CEO Craig Cegielski. <\/p>\n

\u201c[Harlequin is] so connected to their audience,\u201d Cegielski said. \u201cTransferring that from publishing to their mediums is exactly what we\u2019re doing today,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

Cegielski, who helped with the intellectual property deal, points to Harlequin having over 50 million global readers and selling two to four books per second. According to Harlequin, it\u2019s sold 6.8 billion copies to date, releasing nearly 100 new titles a month.<\/p>\n

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Gutsadt was drawn to Harlequin for its inclusivity within romance, like categorizing certain work as Black or LGBTQ+ Romance.<\/p>\n

Audio Up has had over 20 million downloads across its nearly 40 podcasts since its launch in January 2020. <\/p>\n

The audio company will begin production of the Harlequin titles in January 2023 and is hoping to have them officially released by the second quarter of 2023, according to Gutstadt.<\/p>\n

In terms of monetization, Audio Up is deciding on whether to put the titles behind a paywall, to generate ad revenue via partners such as SiriusXM or iHeart, or to opt for the audiobook model and charge per title, Gutsadt said. <\/p>\n

\u201cCreating it and figuring out what we have first before we define which door we take it down,\u201d is of priority to the company, said Gutsadt. \u201cIt\u2019s the slightest nuance between a book, an audiobook, a podcast and a bookcast. It\u2019s consistently a moving target.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n