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Mills & Boon's Black Star Crime imprint has been dropped after the publisher said it couldn't undertake the investment needed.
M&B launched the new imprint in August 2008 with plans to publish five crime and thriller titles every two months. According to Nielsen BookScan it has sold 12,028 copies to date, before being dropped earlier this year.
Clare Somerville, retail sales & marketing director, said: "We did a test and just decided that . . . it was really the amount of investment that was needed, we didn't feel we were able to undertake it. And while we had great support from the retailers, it wasn't delivering the volume that romance was."
But Working Partners, which created four series for Black Star Crime through the adult division it launched in 2005, saids M&B didn't give the series the time it needed for "booksellers to buy in, for consumers to understand the proposition".
Chris Snowdon, m.d. of WP, said: "The trouble is if you're going to try and launch something of that ilk and make it stick, you have to stay with it. It will take three years to establish it. You can't make a decision based on the first six months."