Harlequin--the publisher whose Red Dress Ink imprint pioneered chick lit in the U.S.--is developing a new line of books that translate the Bridget Jones sensibility for readers who prefer church pews to bar stools.
The new line will be published by Harlequin's Christian Steeple Hill imprint. But in developing the line, Steeple Hill is borrowing from Harlequin's Red Dress Ink imprint's expertise in the chick lit market. Steeple Hill senior editor Joan Marlow Golan helped establish Red Dress, and Red Dress associate editor Farrin Jacobs is part of the five-person team launching the new line.
"I bring the background of having worked at RDI for almost two years, seeing the changes it's gone through and paying attention to the chick lit market--what people are reading, what publishers are buying, what's getting a positive response, what's been done a million times," says Jacobs, who coined a tagline for the inspirational program: "Life, Faith and Getting It Right."
While certain chick lit mainstays--premarital sex, four-letter words--will be off limits in the Christian line, the underlying sensibility of the genre will cross over well, says Golan. "When you try to define what chick lit is, it's really a voice," she says. "They use wit and irony. They have a certain edge and they deal with reality."
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