Sudbury Star reporter Angela Scappatura wrote a marvelous article about the advantages of reading romance in the face of criticism and derision, even from her own editor. I’m so flattered to have been interviewed, but more than that, I’m proud to be a part of romance-positive coverage in the media.
Yay romance, and yay Angela! Nice job!
My favorite part, and I’m egotistical enough to say so:
Romance novels are certainly not considered “stylish” but masses of women are still tearing them off of book shelves like the latest Manolo Blahnik.
“You can sneer all you want, but it’s a billion-dollar industry. Not that many items of creativity made by and for women achieve billion- dollar status,” said Wendell.
Ha! Sneer all you want! That means there’s more for me to read.
Damn straight, bitches!
I don’t keep it a secret that I read romance. Everyone can just kiss it 🙂
Coodos to Miss Angela for writing such a great article. I’ve worked a used book store here in Sudbury for almost 12 yrs now and it still amazes me how snarky people are when it comes to romance. We actually had to fight to get a paranormal section here at the store and for the longest time it has pushed to the back room, even thought for us its one of the more popular sections.( mind you the fight was with another co-worker)
You’d think with authors like Ms. Roberts making it to the N.Y. bestsellers list time and again that things would have changed just a bit.
I laugh now when people come in and the first thing they see is Paranormal romance. That section is now front and center as soon as you walk in. People come in and they do that little lip curl and I just loose it. (the boss said i had to stop hitting them).
When 60 to 80% of your daily sales are made up of mixed Romance, it tells you that romance is alive and well and kicking up a storm. So yay for ROMANCE and long may it live.
Damn straight & great article.
It’s also past time for bookselers to start actually looking at the bestseller lists. The NY times has 12 (or) 14 of the top 20 mass market paperbacks by—- ta-dum—- romance authors! (I’m not sure if Danielle Steel is considered a romance author and ditto Janet Evanovich).
1 FIRESIDE, by Susan Wiggs
2 MONTANA CREEDS: Logan, by Linda Lael Miller
4 MY MAN, MICHAEL, by Lori Foster
6 CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC, by Sophie Kinsella.
7 HONOR THYSELF, by Danielle Steel
10 PLUM LUCKY, by Janet Evanovich
12 KISS OF A DEMON KING, by Kresley Cole
13 KITTY AND THE DEAD MAN’S HAND, by Carrie Vaughn
14 DEVIL OF THE HIGHLANDS, by Lynsay Sands
15 SIZZLE AND BURN, by Jayne Ann Krentz
17 CHARMED AND ENCHANTED, by Nora Roberts
18* WHERE THE HEART LEADS, by Stephanie Laurens
19 SECOND CHANCE PASS, by Robyn Carr
20 THE COURTSHIP DANCE
34 GLITTER BABY, by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
35 THE PAGAN STONE, by Nora Roberts
Yay Sudbury! Home of the largest nickel on earth (commisioned by the people who run the mining companies that benefit from the largest nickel deposits on earth), a great university (with its own private lake and sand beach), and formerly so affected by the fumes belching out of the superstack (a byproduct of said mining) that the astronauts practiced walking on the landscape. Thankfully the groovy scientists have gotten the hang of reversing that.
This is the second time I’ve commented so does that mean I’m no longer a lurker? 🙂
Ditto what Julie said.
I work with Julie (I’m not the co-worker mentioned) at a used bookstore in the wonderful city of Sudbury, Ontario (Yeah Angela!) and we do sell a ton of romance in all it’s many forms. When we wanted to bring in new romance books (99% of our stock is used) the boss trusted our judgement and on a trial basis we brought in Romantica and Paranormal romance.
Guess what happened? Drumroll…… We’re still bringing in new romance two and a half years later. Were we shocked? Of course not. We knew it would sell and it does like hotcakes along with our used romance books.
When anyone makes a snarky comment about romance I’m quick to point out that the publishing world is kept alive by the romance book industry. I leave the butt kicking to Julie 😉
Great article. And as my father says about romance (which he reads), the world needs happy endings.
Awesome article, and good PR for the site and the book. It’s nice to see romance getting some love!
I must be very lucky, because I’ve never met anyone who dislikes or sneers at romance novels. But why aren’t more people dissing cookbooks? They are pure evil.
I had a guy sitting next to me in the airport last month who got a bit snarky about the romance I was reading (Andrea Pickens’s The Spy Wore Silk. He made a few snide remarks and then asked what I did for a living. “I write romance novels,” I told him without batting an eye. The woman on the other side of me splorted Diet Coke out her nose.
Later on the plane, I was sitting in one of the wing seats and he was a row ahead of me. The flight attendant went through her safety spiel and asked those of in the wing seats if we were willing to open the doors and throw people out in an emergency. I nodded and informed her I was a retired ARFF chief (Airport Rescue Firefighter). This time the guy splorted his drink.
Damn right I read (and write) romance! Cheers to all of us Smart Bitches! And kudos to Angela and SB Sarah!
Great Article! Very well said Ms. Wendell.
Very nice quote!! Love it!
“Love-Lit”—Now, that’s a new term. Remaking the image by changing the label?
Silver, I’d have paid cash money to be a fly on the wall for that conversation/flight. Hopefully in the future he’ll think twice before judging people based on what they’re reading. (Not likely, but we can hope.)
To add to the list of why people should read romances, here’s a little anecdote:
I was preparing for my GRE’s at the same time as several male and female friends. When comparing our English scores, I was consistently scoring much higher. When we would go through study guide vocabulary lists, I would usually know most of the words already, whereas most of my friends would maybe know half. When asked where I’d developed this extensive and arcane vocabulary, it dawned on me: romance novels—historicals, and especially regencies. The prose in regencies tends towards purple, but they’re quick reads, and they’re easy ways to pick up a lot of unusual vocabulary, usually with excellent context clues. Two female friends and one male friend took this to heart, and they included a stack of regency romance novels as part of their studying. They noticed a dramatic improvement in their vocab scores, and all of us scored better on the English portion of the test than our non-romance-reading friends.
Score one for the smartbitches!