While it may seem like people are staring at their smartphones all the time, it doesn’t mean they aren’t reading books. In fact, book sales are up, especially for one specific category: romance novels.
According to a Wednesday report in Publisher’s Weekly, bookstore sales were up by 6.2% last year compared to 2021 and up by 0.7% compared to 2019 – before the COVID-19 pandemic drastically impacted in-person retail shopping. Last summer, the outlet reported that romance genre sales were up 33% in the first half of last year.
That was the largest gain in any genre as adult fiction sales grew by 4.6%. Sales of graphic novels had increased 10.5% at that time, while sales of westerns had a 20% decline. Overall, Publisher’s Weekly reported total bookstore sales of $9 billion last year.
What is a romance novel?
“Romance fiction is smart, fresh and diverse,” according to the Romance Writers of America organization. It said that the genre is defined by two things, “a central love story and an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending.”
In those central love stories, the main plot follows two characters falling in love and facing challenges to make their partnership work.
“A writer can include as many subplots as they want as long as the love story is the main focus of the novel,” said the RWA. After overcoming their challenges, the characters “are rewarded with emotional justice and unconditional love,” the organization explained.
There are also various subgenres in the romance novel category. Some stories are erotic and others are not. Popular examples of romance novels include the “Outlander” series, the “Fifty Shades of Gray” series and the more recent book “The Love Hypothesis” by Ali Hazelwood.
According to the New York Times, last year was one of the best years ever for the genre.
Why are romance novels popular?
“I think this world does such a good job at telling us why we’re not good enough, and finding love tells you that – even if you’re a little bit broken – you are good enough, if not for somebody else then for yourself,” romance novel fan Antoinette Morales said in a recent interview with NPR.
In 2017, the RWA commissioned a study about romance novel readers. It found that 82% of readers are female, that the average age of the average age of readers is between 35 and 39 years old, that 86% of readers identify as heterosexual or straight (9% identify as bisexual+ and 2% identify as lesbian) and that 73% identify as white (12% identify as Black/African American, 7% Latino/Hispanic, and 4% Asian/Asian American).
Although most readers were in their late 30s, younger romance novel fans under age 34 were the most frequent readers. A vast majority of romance novel readers (92%) prefer print books.
Around half of romance novel readers enjoy romantic suspense, followed by erotic and historical as the most popular genres. Younger readers read more young adult, erotic, and paranormal romance than other readers.
Romance author Tessa Bailey said that she thinks the COVID-19 pandemic may have brought even more readers to the romance genre, according to a WGBH report this week.
“I think we were missing human interaction,” Bailey said. “We were missing those moments of angst and romance that we’re all supposed to experience at certain times in our life. I think this became a way of getting those feelings, experiences, experiencing those feelings when we couldn’t do it in real life.”
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