I've got to say they haven't stood a chance in the clean market. Indies really have that market locked down tight. I had no idea how they were making money, especially with a huge drop in actual stores with covid closing them for a long while.
That said i hope Hallmark Channel starts producing movies from some of the popular indie authors. Though do they really need them as formulaic as their movies are? i mean it's a running joke on how they're created. That said people still looooooooooooooooooove them. So why fix something that isn't broken.
I agree and they'd put up roadblocks making it harder to submit. When they first started, you didn't have to have an agent. I believe they moved to you having to have an agent a few years ago so many authors didn't deal with it. They were the same way as other pubs, highlighting a few of their top people and no one else. I know several Hallmark authors whose books don't sell half as well as indies especially not at 5.99. Hallmark lured authors in by having them think their books would be movies. That was a very, very tiny percentage of authors, ones who were established and already big sellers. The average author (and especially not the newbies) didn't get movie deals. People don't realize that Hallmark does not have to rely on books for movie ideas. They have more than enough writers, producers, and filmmakers throwing scripts at them. But many authors got stars in their eyes and thought they could get a movie deal and it was rare.
Outside of trade, I hear nothing about their books and never even see them. Maybe they made waves in trade. I do know some readers who read them but I didn't see them making any more of a splash with readers than any other romance pub doing sweet romance. And the books were 5.99 each at least making it even harder to compete.
Indies rule sweet romance. We rule ALL romance and it's the pubs trying to play catch-up with us and when they can't, they close.
Also, sure is funny they close up when before they get ready to publish their first LGBTQ title. And that was a huge issue too. Hallmark is no friend of the LGBTQ crowd. They've been discriminating toward LGBTQ since they started their network channels. For some reason, they thought LGBTQ people couldn't be in G-rated films or movies. HM spent its first 10 years or more catering to the Christian Romance crowd then they started getting hell for its lack of diversity and ratings got low then they finally decided to diversify. It was the same with the publishing company. They hardly signed any POC or LGBTQ works then started to lately probably because the publishing arm was losing money and not retaining authors.
I doubt HM will be paying attention to indies and yes, the movies will always be formulaic. They got about 5 plots and that's it:
1. Big-time businesswoman inherits her dead uncle's old farm and has to move back to the town and she falls for the local handyman.
2. Single, workaholic dad left with the kids doesn't know how to raise the children and spends no time with them, then hires a housekeeper (who has no luck finding the right man) and they fall in love. She of course teaches him how to be a better father while he shows her she's worthy of true love.
3. Woman falls in love with a man who turns out to be a dead angel, a British prince (yeah, who happens to just be stranded in her small, no-nothing town) or if it's Christmas he'll be the real Santa Claus or a descendent of Santa.
4. Woman goes back to her hometown because she's failing in her career and love, and finds out the old lady who owns the cookie shop she loved as a kid, can't pay her bills so the bank is trying to take the cookie shop so the woman fights to help the old woman and it turns out her old boyfriend is the banker trying to steal the shop.
5. Businesswoman or female TV producer (who hates Christmas. Gotta hate Christmas!) is taking a trip during Christmastime and gets stranded in the snow. She has to stay at the Inn in this tiny little town and ends up becoming friends with the old couple who own the Inn who then try to matchmake the woman up with the single father carpenter who loves Christmas so much he shows the woman the true meaning. In the end, they go to the Christmas Tree Lighting, stare up at the tree, and kiss. Roll credits!
And the movies never take place in the big city. It's always some little tiny town or a ranch.
There you go. I just wrote HM's new lineup for the entire 2023 season.
I can't stand HM movies. The only thing I like is their mystery channel and I watch Murder She Wrote, Diagnosis Murder and some of the other crime shows they rerun. I can't take those sappy movies. And those Christmas movies...
LOL! But, they do have a dedicated audience. But, no I don't expect HM to change their structure and this is one thing authors didn't like about the publishing arm. They had to construct their books to a tight, rigid format. Just like the movies. No originality, etc.
