LOGLINE: She has a printing press, a reputation, and no intention of sharing either. He has better machinery and eighteen months with no way out.

GENRE & FORMAT: Historical Romance / Regency London · 3 Books · Long Novel Heat Level: 3/5 · Slow Burn · Working-Class Heroes · No Aristocratic Elevation

TROPES: Working-Class Hero / Competence Porn / Class Conflict / Enemies to Lovers / Forced Proximity (Contract) / Slow Burn / No Dukes

WHY THIS WORKS ON KU:

• The working-class hero gap is documented demand without supply. The Duke's Got Mail (2026) proved the appetite for working heroines and left the working hero gap entirely open. This concept fills both sides simultaneously: two competent working-class protagonists, HEA without class elevation, the romance engine built from professional equality rather than social hierarchy. The reader complaint — "if the hero is working class you can bet he'll be made a member of the aristocracy by the end" — is the positioning statement. This concept is the answer.
• Competence as romance engine creates natural, structurally enforced slow burn. The intimacy tracks the professional trust arc: every moment of professional recognition is doing romantic work. The argument about the ink formula in week three is the meet-cute. The compositing stick is the first kiss. The reader accumulates these moments the way they accumulate heat in standard romance — but here the currency is expertise and recognition rather than proximity and touch. This generates the specific yearning BookTok's 2026 cycle rewards, grounded in craft rather than social embarrassment.
• Three-book franchise covers adjacent Regency publishing niches — printing (Book 1) · radical pamphlet trade (Book 2) · bookselling and publishing (Book 3) — with shared world, recurring characters, and a series question (what is the difference between what you make and who you are) that closes only on the dedication page of Book 3. Each book has a self-contained HEA. Read-through is structural: Thomas appears in Book 1, Catherine is glimpsed, and the reader of all three understands the dedication page in a way that a reader of Book 3 alone cannot.

PRODUCTION PACKAGE OPTIONS:

STARTER ÜACK: Studio Long Format: from $5,290 Production Long Format: from $11,990

FULL FRANCHISE (3 Books): pricing on request. Exclusive acquisition. One buyer. Full IP transfer included. Concept permanently delisted upon delivery.

Inquire: [email protected] · Code: JULY

STATUS: Available for Exclusive Spec Buyout · Full IP Transfer

SeriesBrief_HistRomance_FleetStreetPress_v1.0.pdf