I Buy New... Do You?

With the demise of the Harlequin Bombshell line, many authors are suggesting that readers start buying new, rather than used, to stop other lines from being discontinued.

Personally, it’s been well over a year since I bought a book that wasn’t new. I’ve calculated that I buy an average of seven books a week, at an average price of £6.99 ($12.60) per book. Now work this out over a full year, and that means that I’ve spent over £2,544 ($4,579) in the past year. But I have to say, I didn’t feel inclined to even look at Bombshell books, so my pennies certainly wouldn’t have helped save the line.

I think Bombshell’s demise had less to do with readers buying used books, and more to do with ineffective marketing, and a premise that didn’t appeal universally to romance readers, after all, why go to Harlequin to read a non-romance book, when there are far better choices out there? Incidentally, since Evelyn Vaughn’s A.K.A Goddess, I haven’t heard of anybody raving over any other Bombshell book.

Personally, I think that Harlequin’s attempt to garner a younger and hipper audience, was bound to be at the cost of die-hard older Harlequin fans.
I’ve been reading Harlequin since I was 14, and I know that I probably wouldn’t have picked up a Bombshell book based on the fact that it wasn’t a romance. I do read non-romance books, but just as I don’t go to my doctor for a tooth complaint, I don’t go to Harlequin for non-romance books.

So how many of you guys tried the line? In fact, how many of you still buy series romance books period?