But will you love me next quarter?

Harlequin Romance fiction was a virtual money-tree for years, but has had some hard times lately, as we've reported here before. Today, Torstar Corporation, the Canadian owner of the Harlequin brand and publisher of the Toronto Star newspaper, announced a dip in sales for the romance line.

Explaining the "slight decline" in sales of the little paperback heartthrobbers so beloved of generations of women readers (sorry -- even the publisher calls it "women's fiction"), Torstar said it's a year-against-year dip, and that last year was an unexpectedly good year.

I take this to mean that it's not that people love love any less, it is just that they love love less than they did last year, in which they loved it better than the year before. (Hm. Could I sell this as a song lyric?)

However, the Torstar release was hopeful of new Harlequin revenue in the second quarter, especially in few of ithe "agreement signed in the first quarter with SoftBank Creative Corp. (one of the largest providers of cell phone services in Japan) to provide digital manga (comics) content."

Wow, romance right on your cell phone. No need even to wait for "him" to call.