Hopeless Romantics

Like taking candy from a baby is what it must feel like to publish companies producing romance novels in this day in age. The amount of money generated from romance novels is ridiculous, and even more, the amount of money women spend versus men. As of 2022, romance novels generated “over $1.44 billion” making the “highest-earning genre” (Curcic, 2022). This is a drastic increase in sales compared to that of 2018. We see an increase in sales starting from 2020 when we go from 17 million copies of romance novels being sold in the U.S. in a year to 26 million copies (Curcic, 2022). What could be making the market increase so much?

Romance novels hold a bad reputation for being “trashy” and victimizing women, however, despite this, it is a “billion-dollar industry” (Cameron, 2020). Because romance novels often follow societal stereotypes of women and men stance in relationships, we can see where some might take romance novels to popularize “polic[ing] women’s bodies” (Cameron, 2020). This has caused a great problem within both the U.S. and UK as we try to push feminism and equal rights for men and women. It is said that romance novel fans tend to defend the genre and its bad reputation, hence why it is hard to recognize romance novels as true fiction (Cameron, 2020). So what catches women’s attention to these books if they hold such negative connotations to them?

A romance novel must consist of the following two details: “a central love story and an emotionally satisfying ending” (Cameron, 2020). A central love story could be like the one I have read in The Fault in Our Stars where we see young teen love blossom despite the circumstances they face. Stereotypically, we see once again the male protagonist, Augustus Waters, chase after the female lead, Hazel Grace, despite her attempts to shake him off. He stays persistent and not only ends up befriending her, but ultimately winning her love. As for the emotionally satisfying end, in this particular story, we see the triumph of love win over despite the unfortune ending of Augustus’s life (spoiler alert). Hazel Grace is left with the experience of love that she never thought she would be able to experience due to her illness, and Augustus no longer fear the inevitable as he has seen the light of life itself thanks to his relationship with Hazel Grace.

Romance novels also have to follow the marketing style in order to stay relevant. Paper copy of books might not be the way to go as of now, so switching over to “35% audio books” and “64% eBooks” has helped them to keep easily assessable to female readers (Cameron, 2020). With just these subtle changes to their marketing style, romance publishers are able to “maintain 23% of the U.S.A. book market” (Cameron 2020). Along with this marketing style, we see more elicit scene being included in modern romance novels, however, this cane prove to be a huge risk as we cross the line of glamorizing abuse or rape in some instances (Cameron, 2020). A good example of this is Fifty Shades of Grey where we have the male lead, Christian Grey, leading some scenes where the female lead, Anastasia Steele, might have felt uncomfortable, however in which the novel is written, some might take it as welcoming the pain for pleasure.

At the end of the day, romance novels still lead in sales, and they can only go up from here. With the introduction of romance novels being turned into movies, we branch into a new market of viewers who find themselves curious as to whether the book is just as good as the movies and vice vera. As well as BookTok that introduces romance novels to social media crazed teens who rely on their socials to share new trends. New marketing skills develop on a daily in order to increase sales of romance novels, and it will only climb up form here.

Please reference the articles below to read up and comment your takes on them!

The Romance Publishing Industry and Its Reputation