Let’s be somewhat rude and talk about people who aren’t here, by which I mean, people who aren’t on the internet.
I know, can you imagine? There are people who aren’t online. I can’t fathom not having the internet. I find it peculiar and disorienting when I am not connected to faraway friends and people who like to talk about romances and cooking with white beans and removing whatever bug is eating my peppers and whatever immediate concerns I’m harboring.
But there are people who are not on the internet, romance readers, specifically. Romance, if you recall from the oft-quoted statistic, is a $1.6b annual industry in the US. And we on the internet who are so vocal and loud and gregarious and passionate about Passion’s Raven Flame, we do not amount to $1.6b of sales.
I asked a former bookseller about these offline romance readers. Who are they? Do they subscribe to Romantic Times or another magazine? Where do they get their reviews or find books to read in the genre? Are they in bookstores, asking the bookstore employees (they’re not asking any of the bookstore folks I know, as they don’t know much about romance at all)? Are they in libraries, asking savvy librarians?
Her response, in part:
…a surprising number of romance readers really aren’t connected to the internet, romance magazines, etc. I think some of them do rely on libraries or booksellers, but really—and this is hard to believe for those of us keyed into the romance community who read magazines, participate on romance boards, or interact with fans online—a lot of these readers are grabbing a few books off the shelves at the grocery store, Target, Walmart, Costco, Sam’s Club, etc. They often buy them without knowing much about the book or author, and are judging based on cover art and cover copy.
Seriously, this is the unsung majority of romance readers. There may be a handful of authors they buy based on name, but for the most part, they are buying what they can buy, when they can buy it. As for what percentage of romance readers this encompasses? I think it is well over 50%—somewhere in the neighborhood of 55 to 75%.
It is so easy to forget this group when you think about romance readers, but the reason we forget about them is that they AREN’T online or attending conferences, etc. They are simply buying and reading the books.
Well, thank you for that, oh, people who aren’t online reading this! Thank you for buying books so that more romance is published.
But I remain so curious as to where these people are finding books, and how, and where. I know many people don’t shop the way I do, or have as intelligent or savvy a network of fellow romance readers—or have people at all to talk to about romance novels. Yet such a large romance readership flies under the radar, so to speak, and buys so freaking much.
So who are these people who are not on the internet who buy romance? Do you know a reader like this? How does she shop? Where do they buy and what do they look for? Cover art? Author name? Is she older or younger than you?
Where does she go, and to whom is she listening for romance reading suggestions?
I’m online often, and actually work in software, but even though I now use the internet for some recommendations, I still pick up random novels to read based on cover art and blurb. This is also probably because as the daughter of a librarian I rarely actually purchase any books – I use the library or, if pressed, will purchase books at rummage/yard sales (I love a good 25 cent sale), goodwill, etc. But I do this for all books, not just romance novels.
Judging from the practically brand new (read only once) condiction that the romance donations we get 99% of the time – and always from the same women over and over again – at the library, I think a lot of them are on those mailing lists where you get four romance novels a month for a certain amount of money. This seems especially true of women whom are elderly and homebound as they usually send in friends or family members to drop off huge sacks full of books. Mostly Harlequin.
Actually, my introduction into reading romance novels was going to yard sales as a kid and buying cardboard boxes full of paperbacks for five or ten dollars a box. It was basically the luck of the draw but I was able to find some of the more common romance novel writers out there and start to build a preference so that when I went into a grocery store I might consider picking up one of their newer books. But mostly, due to cost, I still troll yard sales for romance novels or the dollar sections of used bookstores. And so, although I know it is terrible, I find it quite hard to pay shelf price for a book.
I love being able to find romance books on the internett! Living in Sweden, the only romance I could get hold of before amazon started shipping here was Harlequinn and the limited selection they sold in Swedens only Sci Fi bookstore (needless to say I hadn’t seen a great variety).
Personally I read romancebloggs mostly to get recomendations for new authors – and have over teh years built up a pretty large stable of regular authours I buy asap.
I’m currently trying to educate my friends in the greatness of romance – but I’m meeting stiff resistance mostly because of the appalingly small numbre of novels translated to Swedish and my friends dislike of hurdeling the “a novel in english” thing.
CaroleM raises a key point with…
Having worked in high tech for over two decades, I think in some ways I’m on the other end of the curve. Been there, done that, wore holes in the t-shirt, over it. I’m frankly exhausted. I spend too much time in front of a computer monitor sifting through too much data, most of which has a finite and short-term value if it has any value at all. In the meantime, my ass is spreading, my muscles are atrophying, and my eyes are always bleary.
I’m consciously looking for ways to spend less time online, and reconnect with the physical world.
Any number of bestselling authors I know have told me to do the bare minimum online (website) and not to bother with any advertising (RT, online, etc.). They say it’s all a time and $$$ suck, there’s no data to support that it works, and I’d be better off spending my time writing.
And I’m not sure they’re wrong . . .
When I was going through my major romance phase about seven years ago, I basically just went to my local bookstore and stood in the romance section for a few hours looking at covers and reading blurbs. I’d find a few I thought sounded good and buy them. I gained a few authors I kept coming back to, but mostly my reading relied on how I felt the day I was buying.
Kalen, I think a lot of the website/net presence stuff depends on lot on your (a) personal prefs and (b) genre.
Some of the net marketing is going to have a trickle-down effect—my sis is a librarian and a buyer for Borders, so I KNOW her net presence for sure gets word-of-mouth to customers and gets books on the shelf.
As far as genre…well, I think net presence is going to make far more sense for someone writing in a genre, like say YA or urban fantasy, as opposed to a Johanna Lindsey.
I think an author who genuinely likes tooling about on the net and keeping a blog/site updated is going to find it worthwhile on many levels, not necessarily just on a strictly “This will sell more books” level. An author who would rather not…well, make a basic site, keep it updated, and that’s fine, too. It all works.
Oh my God, Skye O’Malley was written by hand?! Bravo, Ms. Small. Sometimes reading the comments here is just as interesting as the posts.
Actually, having only recently found this site and a couple of others, I *am* still that reader. I started out reading romance picked up at the secondhand store in law school, and I still do pick up books from the bookstore, grocery store, and pharmacy, as well as ordering online or getting them from the library. Online ordering is now my preferred method, because I get to see all those reviews, and that may have been what motivated me to seek out online reviewers—eventually. 😉 I have now purchased a total of two (I know, shocking!) books I saw recommended on this blog.
I’ve used the internet for a lot of my other interests (art, gardening, social), but somehow the romance reading wasn’t part of that scene until very recently. I’ve been learning a lot from checking in on your blog here, and I appreciate what you do. 🙂
I actually know a number of people like this… they aren’t into the internet the way we are-some of them will do the ‘hit and miss’ grab the bookseller described.
I know some who have ‘their’ bookstore where they will go and ‘camp out’ so to speak, once or twice and month and go thru the books and make their selections-sometimes getting advice from the bookseller or other readers-this is actually a HUGE way a number of them buy.
From everything I’ve seen at signings, the internet is actually a very, very small piece of the romance reading population-a very small piece.
On a tangent, I regret to inform you that many librarians select romance without valuable internet input.
They use Library Journal, Publisher’s Weekly, and, if they’re aware of it RT.
The horror, the horror…
My aunt, who introduced me to Romance, is one of those readers. She favors historicals and she picks by the cover art. She likes covers in shades of red, featuring awesome man titty and women in voluminous garments that are being lifted by a breeze that does not appear to be affecting the hero at all. You know, the kind of covers that usually appear in the Caption This Cover segment. I get why she likes the historicals. Besides them generally being excellent, they are far from her rural life without reminding her of anything that she might be missing out on. I’m still not really clear on what she likes about those covers, though. She just says she likes them. And winks.
method89: perhaps there is a method to her madness
Surely there’s an app for that!
I am an offline shopper. I’ve only recently discovered this site -after I saw the book in Borders, and joined Goodreads because the only access I have is at work while I’m on break. It’s TRUE, there is no computer in my home. I’ve taken a few recommendations off the two sites now, but for the most part, I still need to have the book in hand to read the synopsis, scan a few pages, fondle the cover… wait, forget that last part. I’m just more likely to buy if I have it in hand, and at the library where it’s free for all, it’s a free for all.
Also, I can’t tell you how many new authors I find by picking up anthologies that have pieces by authors I already like.
I was that reader until 2 or 3 years ago, despite being a computer person. I bought my first computer in ’86 (?) and got online in ’91 but there is just so much to do online, it never even occurred to me to go looking for other readers to discuss books with until fairly recently. I just bought whatever was available at the grocery store and when I found authors I liked, I made special trips to the bookstore to make sure I was finding all their works.
I have to admit, since I’ve started reading online reviews and adding all the recommendations I’m finding online to the few I can get from family and friends, I’m reading a lot less (ahem) crap. A lot fewer DNFs and books hitting the wall.
@ Beatrice Small – How I miss Laurie McBain books!! I read all of the ‘Avon Ladies’
@ Kalen – I have bought books from online reviews, but never from online campaigns, never viewed a trailer, but I have bought after reading an interesting author blog.
@ everyone else – I would say the majority of romance readers I know fit this category and I don’t think it’s unusual. Most of the sci fi fans I know don’t read sci fi mags or go to cons, most of the soap fans I know don’t read SOD or attend soap events.
As to choosing their books – they do it the same way I did it pre-internet. Subscribe to some lines, either actually or practically, get given books by friends, seek out more by same author, randomly grab book.
In a lot of ways, I still am that reader. I read a lot – 8-10 books a week (no cable) – but my budget can’t afford 10-15 brand-spanking-new books, so I’m getting maybe 2-3 new books a week and the rest I’m buying at yard sales, swap meets, and used book stores.
I do get a lot of recommendations from romance-reading friends and read online reviews, but what it comes down to in the end is and me standing with a book—new or used—and reading the back cover blurb. If that gets my interest, then I read first few pages to see if I like the author’s voice. If it hasn’t quite hooked me or I can’t tell what the time period is, I might skim through the middle of the book.
I would say that 75% of the time, I’m buying books without knowing what anyone thinks of them, because the book is too old for me to go searching online archives. And, oftentimes, if I am buying a new book reviewed here or elsewhere, I’ll still buy if it’s an author I know or a particular romance genre I enjoy. There are certain genres of romance (westerns, categories) and certain authors that I never buy, no matter how glowingly reviewed.
For the most part, I tend to ignore covers. Yes, a really great one will catch my attention and make me pick up the book, but a really awful (or just not-horrendous) one just makes me turn it over to find out what the story is, what time period, etc.
Ha, I do actually (know someone that is) , but haven’t really thought about it before. My Gran buys by cover art and blurb at WalMart.
She likes western historical romances but will settle for contemporary cowboys (usually categories) if that’s all she can find. She looks for a western style cover, reads the back blurb, and buys or not. Then she trades them in at the UBS for older books of the same type.
Our tastes are very different, aside from my ambivalence towards westerns and contemporaries. She frequently recommends to me authors I’ve already decided don’t work for me. She’s content with a good story while I want a good story told in a writing style I can admire.
This is the easiest question ever asked! Romance readers who are not online go to bookstores and libraries, look at covers and read the blurb. Then they make their selection…or they pick up romances at used book stores and garage sales because you really can’t go wrong and chances are the book will cost you less than a quarter!
Honestly, even with the internet, until a while ago I was one of those people. I’d pick up romance novels at the grocery store, Target, or used bookstore, primarily based on the title, genre, and summary on the back of the book. It was always a matter of shooting in the dark, really. But because it was just a few bucks for a paperback here or there, and I was generally forgiving and optimistic about a lot of stories, that seemed okay at the time.
Maybe part of the reason for the number of “uninformed” romance buyers is a) the sheer size of the genre itself, and b) that common “shame” about buying/reading romance. I know I would never have dreamt of asking anyone I didn’t know for romance recs, and I always avoided buying romance in the big bookstores out of embarassment. It’s totally ridiculous, I know, but I don’t think that kind of mentality is uncommon. Heck, look at the Felicia Day video an entry or two back. She basically says the same thing.
Even now with my e-reader, I’m still getting the hang of shopping for romance. Sites like SBTB are invaluable, because at least it points me in some kind of direction. Still, I go on e-book binges and inevitably wind up with some stinkers because I purchased based on the exerpt and summary, only to find the rest of the novel was lacking.
This seems to be an interesting divide among readers and writers. Friends and I have discussed it endlessly. I have friends who dismiss writers I love as “overly fussy”, while I have problems with ones they love because the writing just seems dead on the page.
I can’t even say it’s a taste issue, as that sort of implies a good/bad scenario. It’s just a matter of preference.
@Annie
Oh, yeah. I remember reading A Knight in Shining Armor and skipping the sex scenes. 🙂
Oh, me too! I still have my originals including the1975 “Devil’s Desire” with heroinne fleeing from same. Hmmm time to unearth that from under the bed and reread it….
@Kalen Hughes
I know! It’s weird isn’t it. How can they not see the deadness? 😀
My wildly speculative theory is that it’s something to do with how individual brains process language. For some people, words on a page are enough for a story; and for others, the words themselves make or break the story. [Either that or it’s some magical force flowing from the fingertips of the author. 😆 ]
There are some celebrated Romance authors I just don’t get. And there’s no other reason except that we’re not on the same wavelength.
I spent 5 years at a local Borders as their romance expert (oh, the jokes I got about that title..) and miss having access to ARCs, Publisher’s Weekly and Romantic Times. I would estimate that while maybe 40% of our romance customers would only read certain big-name authors, and were totally uninterested in finding a new author to enjoy, at least 50% just went by covers. Very few ever asked for help choosing books, and the ones that did were startled when I could help them. We stocked but rarely sold any copies of RT and only a handful of customers over the years referred to a author’s site. I never had someone say a friend suggested Book Whatever for them, though some said that they had seen an ad or mention of the book in a magazine.
@ MaryK:
This sounds about right to me. My friends who don’t like the lyrical stuff say all the fussy language interfered with their enjoyment of the story and makes them feel like the writer was just trying to show off her SAT vocabulary skills. The language actually gets between them and the story. For me, the language IS the story. It all flows together and sweeps me away. If it’s too dry, I find myself getting bored and skimming . . . and if there are “issues” (like strange omniscient/authorial intrusions or major POV problems) I just can’t keep reading.
I’m coming at this from another angle. Romance readers are loyal and dependable. Print the books, put them in the right stores, and the readers will come. They might not buy the second book of a crappy writer, but they will probably try the first one.
Internet expands the market to people like me. I never considered myself a romance reader. In the past year, I have read my first two straight up romance novels (as in no adventure, mystery, thriller or fantasy element) because of the internet and eBooks. I’ve bought books I would never have picked up in the bookstore because the covers looked cheesy to me. Without the internet I would never have heard of Nalini Singh, Ilona Andrews, or Patricia Briggs. Without Kindle I probably would never have bought them.
And Nora Roberts? Nope. Not a chance. Because she writes romance and I don’t read that. Well, I’m now on my seventh or eighth.
So I see the internet maybe not impacting the traditional romance market so much as reaching new readers.
I’ll admit that while I like to read the reviews on here, I seldom buy a book based on them. My romance purchases are based on the cover catching my eye and if the blurb keeps that interest, I buy it. Sometimes I Iove the book, sometimes it goes flying across the room and I scream about wasting hard earned money.I find in order to able to enjoy a good book, you sometimes have to read some awful ones. LOL
The first romance novel that I ever read (Vice by Jane Feather) was an ironic birthday present from a friend. I think that she got it from Edward McKay’s. She gave it to me in the winter of 2007, but I didn’t read it until the spring of 2009, after this site convinced me to give the genre a chance through sheer awesomeness. I didn’t like it much, so I figured that I should try a romance involving ships and cross-dressing, elements that I enjoyed in other genres. That didn’t work out very well, either, so I gave up for a while. Then I went to college and started buying romance novels at the CVS. Surprisingly, this turned out to be a fairly reliable method of selection. In this way, I discovered Mary Balogh and Sabrina Jeffries, my two favorite authors. Then again, I discovered Georgette Heyer through the Internet, and also Laura Kinsale, although I’ve yet to read anything by the latter.
Like a lot here, I was that reader too until a couple years ago, and most of my friends and family are still that reader. They buy books the old-fashioned way: Look at the cover, read the back blurb, read the first page, return to shelf or place in basket. (I’m sure there’s a cute flow chart graphic in there, with boxes that say “If you find the word “bosom,” flip to first page.”) If they place it in the basket, read it, and like it, they pass it around to friends. That’s how they discover new authors.
To me as a newer author, my old way of buying books is fairly unnerving, because it means I as author have little influence over that unconnected reader until step 3 of her buying process. I just rely on my cover designers and copy writers (not to mention the distributors and book store staff) to do a great job and hope for the best.
I’m on the internet now, but when I started reading romances, I wasn’t (and the internet certainly wasn’t what it is today). Being on the internet has definitely changed the way I select romance novels. The first novel I read was a Catherine Coulter that was lent to me by a friend on vacation. I liked it, so I went to the library and found other books by her, and then other books with similar spines (shelf-browsing). That’s how I ended up with Judith McNaught and Amanda Quick. I’d usually read the back cover/any other copy I could find to get an idea of the plot. I found some good books that way, and some bad ones. I would return to familiar authors, but I also did a lot of random choosing.
Skip to today: I’m on the internet, and I read this site and Dear Author regularly. Now, when I go into a store (or library) I’m more likely to look for specific authors/titles based on reviews I’ve read. I usually only shelf-browse after I’ve ascertained that there isn’t something I’ve heard of that I want to buy. The author’s name means a lot more to me now, and the spine design means less because I have access to the internet. That said, a good/interesting spine will catch my attention anyway, and it is invaluable for people who don’t go online/read reviews.
I think it all blends and blurs though . . . My eye was caught by the cover of Gail Carriger’s Soulless. I bought it based on nothing but that image. Then the book started getting buzz. Then I finally got round to reading it. Then I recommended it to friends. Then I figured out that I know Gail (after emailing her in reader mode to squee about how much I’d loved the book, LOL!). Saturday night my friends and I were talking about how much we’d enjoyed Changeless too, and the books both got handed to someone who hadn’t yet encountered them (thus creating a new buyer for Blameless when it come out, LOL!).
Oh Kalen Hughes, you are a lucky woman! I wish I knew Gail because I LOVE her books and I want to talk to her about them over a nice cuppa. I do know someone who knows one of the top three on American Idol this season, that & nearly grabbing Dan Hampton’s ass in a bar is as near as I’ve come to greatness.
Well, I’m going to stick out like a sore thumb and say that I just don’t buy books. Usually. But I will not buy a book until I’ve read it first. That’s where the library comes in. I get everything I read from the library, or from used book sales (my favorite way to buy books!). Then if I didn’t like it, I can either take it back or just donate it to the library or to another book sale. If I loved it, then I’ll look up an author’s backlist (including anthologies, which is part of how I discover new authors).
As for discovering new authors, I get recommendations from a friend who’s a big romance reader/writer, though she’s really into paranormals & I can’t stand them. I don’t really use the internet for reviews, per se. I do use websites that say “if you like so-and-so, you might like so-and-so,” or fantasticfiction.co.uk which has lists of links to similar authors that other readers like.
I could offer the cuppa, but only if you too live somewhere in the San Francisco Bay Area, LOL! She and I have been trying to meet up for just that for a couple of months now (stupid day jobs).
Sad to say, nowhere near San Franciso. Could I send a proxy? I have a friend who works for the SFPD. He could take pictures of the historic event.
I’ve been a romance reader for about 30 years, but an offline reader until fairly recently-that is, I’ve been using a computer for a long time, but I didn’t use it to find books, except occasionally reading Amazon reviews. I had a short list of authors I would buy automatically, and particular romance series lines that I knew I usually liked. Aside from that, I would select books by skimming a few pages in the bookstore and reading the back cover blurbs and descriptions. Or I would try out unfamiliar authors by getting them in a used bookstore or the library. This method worked well enough-very rarely did I end up spending money on a lemon, on the other hand there would be dry spells where I couldn’t find anything new to read, so I would just dig one of my old favorites out of the closet and reread it. I signed up with paperbackswap about a year ago, and just discovered SBTB a few months ago, and now I see that I had been missing some really great authors that flew under my radar; like Loretta Chase and Joanna Bourne, to name two.
I have been that non-online romance reader/buyer for most of my life up until I found this site. While I have been computer savvy for many many years my reading was based IRL. I bought romance novels based on the the blurb or some knowledge of the author (usually in spite of the atrocious cover art). My romance reading career started with Beatrice Small at the tender age of 14 when I got one from a friend who looked so furtive and guilty I just knew it was something I had to read. It wasn’t until many years later after high school when I picked up a Nora Roberts novel in a vacation house that I found that I actually liked romance in my romance novels rather than *just* adventure and sex. All of this was years and years ago and I would stick pretty close to these two authors unless I bought a harlequin from a revolving wire shelf in the drugstore because I was heading on a trip or needed to stand in line somewhere. Later I found romantic comedy while looking for a good mystery novel in the library (where I found many Jennifer Crusie books shelved) and was hooked
. SO for years I was buying authors I knew or books I saw on wire shelves without even the thought that there were groups of people who talked about reading romance novels or reviewed them for my reading pleasure.
…then came that fateful day when by some twist *or twisted* fate I stumbled across this site…
I live in the boonies and until probably 8 years ago, never read a book review in my life. I “belonged” to a book club and picked and chose my books strictly by name recognition or the blurb on the back. These were mailed to me on a monthly basis for years. We had a fairly good sized used book store about 30 miles away and once a month or so, I’d visit and collect from 30 to 50 paperbacks which a bunch of us would pass around for the next month or so.
Wow, in the busyness of just day to day living, I did not realize how much my book buying had changed.
ok. I know a couple of people like this at first I thought it was just my older sister. She gets her books from me… but as I think of it some more, I have to say… I know about 3-4 people that qualify. First, my older sister. She gets her books from me or the library. Second and third, my best friends from high school. They pick up books at random from the romance section, go for favorite authors, or books they’ve been given and like they will look for more from that author.
Fourth, I’d say is a lady from work. She picks her books up from Walgreens, Target type stores.
Maritza M.
I didn’t start reading romance until I started reading reviews on the Internet, and I don’t think I would ever have been hooked if I’d just picked up books randomly based on cover or blurb. I am quite particular about my likes and dislikes in romance. I want a strong heroine, a hero who is equally strong but without any hint of abusiveness or stalkery behavior, and a relationship based on the characters choosing one another rather than being forced together (e.g. I don’t like paranormals where two people are “destined” for each other whether they like it or not). Because there’s no particular line or imprint that specializes in this type of romance novel, the only way I can find it is to read reviews. I don’t buy any romance novel unless I’ve read a detailed review or I know it’s an author whose work I like.