Talking About People Who Aren’t Here

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? 

 

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Random Musings

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  1. Judy says:

    My uncle is one of those non-Net people.  Although he is 85 years young, he has several computers (and knows how to use them), is a rabid Jane Austen fan, and is the one who originally got me started on Betty Neels, he has never seen the need to join the online world.  I know he haunts used bookstores so he apparently relies on recommendations from the staff.

    I, myself, rarely look for romance reviews online.  I used to subscribe to Romantic Times Magazine but found the reviews so wrong, wrong, wrong most of the time (i.e, their rating was usually the exact opposite of mine), that I gave up on them.

    I’ll try recommendations from my favorite used book store and browse the shelves of the library (avoiding anything published by Avalon).  Occasionally I will try a romance suggested by BookPage or Library Journal but mostly I wing it.

  2. SylviaSybil says:

    My mom, who is in her 40s, will only buy books she has already read.  Rarely, she will seek out other books by an author she really enjoyed.  But she won’t even check out unfamiliar books from the library.  New reading material comes from her friends, her cousins, and more recently from me.

    I’ve gently pointed her towards several review sites and shown her how to use “If you liked this you might also like” features on Amazon and Goodreads, but she says it’s too hard to look for new books and she’d rather take recommendations from people she knows.

    I think it’s primarily a time constraint for her.  She only reads about 30-60 minutes a day and she doesn’t want to waste even a second of that on a book that’s untested.

  3. I buy the majority of my books this way: just cruising through Target or the grocery store. We don’t have a book store or a library in my town, so asking for help really isn’t an option. It’s only when I have a big chunk of book money to spend that I take the time to look up reviews and wander through the forums to find books that I can buy from Amazon or Ebay. My impulse buy books are ALWAYS whatever is on the shelf and doesn’t have cover art that makes me blush.

    I read the reviews here, but by the time I get to the store I can’t remember if people thought they were good, bad, or ugly. Sometimes I can’t even remember if *I* thought the last book I read by the same author was worth reading. Meh.

    The back cover and first page play a HUGE part in my decision making process.

  4. Karin says:

    Just wanted to add, that for authors to get new readers like me who don’t (or didn’t) read blogs and reviews, it helps most if the book has a hook in the first few pages. Because if I start reading it in the bookstore and can’t put it down, obviously that’s the one I’m taking to the register. I don’t really pay much attention to cover art, except that the cover clues me in that I’m picking up a romance novel. Here are some 1st chapter attention grabbers that have worked for me: last minute runaway bride; or runaway from an abusive situation(Forbidden-check!); hero accidentally enters the wrong room at the inn and meets the heroine; stagecoach holdup(My Lady Notorious-check!); bride auction; rescue from the brothel(Tempting Fortune-check!)  But if it’s a certain genre (Gothic, vampire) or era(Victorian) that I don’t care for, I won’t even crack the cover.

  5. Shelley says:

    Like a few others I saw while skimming down, I am mostly that reader. Like you, I am happily connected to the internet at all times. I am also a librarian, and I love to read and use reviews of adult books even though I work with children.

    But I don’t connect those when it comes to romance. *g* I visit Harlequin’s website monthly, and read excerpts from the books that have the plot/pretty cover I like. If I like the writing in the excerpt, and it’s in my budget, I buy. If I am uncertain or my budget is small that month, I go to Borders and skim a bit more to make the final call.

    That’s been my MO the last few years, anyway, since discovering their site. Before, and for other publishers, I just walk the shelves at Borders to look for decent titles/covers and check plots and writing styles.

    Even though I see reviews here and know about DA, that’s just not how I shop. In this genre, anyway. I respect your opinions, but I trust my instincts more. I am willing to overlook things for the right plot or feeling, and what I will overlook from book to book is so personal that other people can’t lead my way.

  6. In some ways I miss the pre-internet days of hit and miss and the excitement when I found a new author I loved. Glomming was work in those days: no Amazon where you can get pretty much any book, in or out of print, at the touch of a button. I remember the thrill of finding an early and unobtainable Suzanne Enoch at a yard sale.

    Good reviews on online sites have introduced me to some great authors I might otherwise have missed. OTOH I take bad reviews with a large pinch of salt: I won’t order a poorly reviewed book online, but I’ll pick it up in a store and read a few pages to see how it appeals. I’ve seen too many good books get crappy reviews to write off a book because of one reviewer’s DNF. Reviewing is such a subjective business.

  7. Tessa says:

    So…if romance is $1.6 billion (that’s the RWA number, yes?  and includes all subgenres) for NEW sales thru reported channels, what do we think the total market is if you could include used sales?  Is it double?

    Related question: in magazine publishing, when they sell ad space they use a “readership” number that assumes (based presumably on some research) that each purchased copy is read by some number of readers greater than one ( call it “y”), so you get copy sales * y = number of people who see your ad. 

    So what do we think an average “readership” number, or “pass-along readership” number would be for your keepers?

    And (finally, I promise), what do we think ebook sales will do to this pass-long readership?  I admit that this is the biggest obstacle for me to getting an ereader (aside from just the cost), if I love something, I want to be able to pass it on/lend it out.

    Thanks for indulging my twinned business-wonky tendencies.

  8. Kalen Hughes says:

    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.

    Well, I’d never say no to coffee with a LEO! But honestly, I’ll do a blog and post pics when Gail and I meet up. Promise.

  9. rudi_bee says:

    My friends are those people, while I’m fully into the online researching. All of us have our own short list of favourite authors who are auto-buys but mostly when my friends want something new to read they ask me for a recommendation or they raid my bookshelf.

    However we also have this game we play. One of us will go and pick out the trashiest sounding Mills and Boon we can find. Then as they read it they make notes in the margine. The book is passed from person to person with each of us contributing little pieces of sarcastic gold whenever the mood strikes. Its snarky fun and probably the reason that secret baby billionaire tycons keep finding their way into Romancelandia.

  10. Abby says:

    So, I think I might even still be that reader, because as much as I read reviews on here, I still tend to buy books either by impulse or recommendation.

    I started reading romances after a group of college friends introduced them, and I read anything I could get by those authors (mainly Kleypas and JQ).  Once I had worked through their catalogs, I grabbed random books my friends had, and got into Tracy Anne Warren that way.  I also had a few misses that way- Christina Dodd and Stephanie Laurens (seriously, how many times can a character grimace?!).

    I rarely pick up books I’ve read reviews of, mainly because I can never remember titles or authors… I usually see what’s on clearance for under $3 and choose based on blurb and reading the first few pages.  If I find something I like, I’ll end up buying everything that author published. 

    So yeah… that’s how I do it, anyway, and I’ll be 26 next month (eep for me!).

  11. Abby says:

    I should amend that to say that the only reason I ever found out about this website was because I saw the book in a bookstore and picked it up for a friend (I never actually gave it to her either!).  So there!

  12. ms. bee says:

    Back in the 90s, pre-Internet, I found my romances through bookstore browsing, a lot of bookstore browsing. I still have fond memories of spending Saturday afternoons in bookstores reading backcover copy, gazing bemusedly at man titty, and then selecting the books. Fun times and I read widely.

    I found SBTB and DA several years ago and have been a long time reader. I still do a lot of bookstore browsing, though. Something about the physicality of picking up books and leafing through the pages, thrill of the hunt that the Internet can’t replace.

  13. Kilian Metcalf says:

    @Francesca:  OMG, Angelique!  I was totally convinced that those were the books that Misery was about.  I hadn’t even thought of her, except when I read Misery, for years.  When I was a teen, I devoured those books.  Would you believe tht Sergeanne Golon is still alive at 89 and still fighting Hachette for her rights to the books?  Angelique has to be the mother of all romance heroines.

    trouble32 – Angelique had enough trouble to keep 32 women busy

  14. Spoilerbaby says:

    For a long time, I read romances but didn’t use the internet to find them at all.  I didn’t consider myself part of a community of romance readers.  I occasionally took recommendations from friends, but for the most part I would just browse the books on the shelves, skimming the backs.  I still buy this way at the grocery store, the pharmacy, and at major book chains.  I can’t really afford consistent internet access, and can’t afford a subscription to Romance Times, so it makes sense.  Sometimes I’ll find romances by looking at who wrote a blurb for a book I liked.  I’ll also sometimes force myself to find new authors by picking a shelf at the library and telling myself that I have to get two books from that shelf.

    I think a lot of it is class privilege—whether you can afford to connect to a far-flung community—and how much you identify as a “romance reader.”

    Actually, one way I always have of getting recommendations is having conversations in the bookstore or the library.  If someone’s browsing in the romance section, I’ll occasionally strike up a conversation and see what authors they like.

  15. KristieJ says:

    Before I was plugged into the online community, I know I read a lot of bad books!  I think I used to return to UBS’s almost as many as I read, now I hardly return any.  So when I found an author I loved, I was almost desperate to find their backlist.

    But even more than good rec’s, the real plus of being in ‘the romance community’ is the sense of belonging I feel.  Knowing that I’m not alone in my passion for romance and that I have lots and lots of people.

  16. It always surprises me when I talk to someone who says they don’t spend any personal time on the Internet. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course – but it’s like meeting someone who doesn’t ever watch TV. I’m both amazed and a little envious that they can resist the time suck.

    I first learned about this new thing called the World Wide Web when I was in library school in 95 or 96 – the only browser at the time (I think) was Mosaic, and our professor showed us a live cam shot of the Cambridge coffee pot. I was a word processor/help desk technician at a law firm at the time, so I got the Web access on my desktop long before it became standard.

    I’ve been in love with the Web since the first day I saw it. God bless Tim Berners-Lee.

  17. Kwana says:

    This does not surprise me at all. I still like to just browse the bookstore look at a pretty cover and read the cover copy to find a good book. I also like to see what’s at my local CVS.

    Now the customer you are talking about is totally my mother in her 50’s and my grandmother who just got the Internet for “The Google” she is a huge romance reader. Has stacks that she gets from my aunt, from the grocery, from Costco, from the drugstore and from me. But before me and my aunt she was the one that got them herself. From where I don’t know but they were steamy because I read them.
    Now I know for a fact this woman will not look up a romance review. I probably can put my blog on her home page and I doubt she will click on. Her computer is strictly for the news and solitaire.

  18. Kathleen Ronan says:

    I didn’t read the other posts, so I’m just answering for myself.  First off, I try to avoid WalMart for any purchase for a laundry list of reasons I won’t bore you with.  Secondly, I tend to use my public library.  Alot.  Even if I incur a late fee, I end up spending less than I would on books.  I read continually, incessantly, voraciously, and on a wide range of subjects depending on what mood I’m in.  So I would go broke on a single mom’s income if I bought everything.  Besides, my late fees at the library go to a good cause:  buying MORE books for me to read.  Yummy!

    As for how I pick a book either in store or library.  Well, start with this:  I rarely buy on-line.  Only if someone has made a recommendation that I can’t find any other way.  When I get to the store or library, I like to be very touchy-feely.  I like to browse the shelves and displays for titles (not so much art, actual titles) that catch my imagination.  Then I like to read a little of the first few pages to see if I like the style and if the story gets me “hooked”.  If it’s good enough to pique my interest from the first pages then I should bring it home and snuggle up with it.  It’s rare for a cover to capture me based solely on the art.  Though an old favorite “Sea Star” by Pamela Jekel did capture me with the cover.  The woman portraying Anne Bonny looks so strong and regal to me that I wanted to know more about her. 

    I also read far more than romance of any kind.  This is based on my mood, the setting I’ll be reading in (i.e. vacation/beach reads), and just what catches my taste on any given day.  I really can’t say I “follow” a particular author.  I may for a few books, but too steady a diet will leave me bored.

  19. Griffin says:

    I’ve got to toss my lot in with the other grocery store romance buyers here. I went to a really small boarding school up in the mountains that was isolated from pretty much everything (if walking I had my choice of a florist, a Burger King, a Friendly’s and a CVS).  We had a shuttle on Saturday nights that would go to the grocery store.  It was one of those ones with a book aisle (glory be!) and once I’d read through their stock of science fiction, I moved on to romance as the next available source of food for my insatiable reading appetite.  At the time I knew only one person who read romance novels so it was pretty much a solitary process of reading and choosing books.  Now, of course, I’ve got lots of romance-reading friends and whole wonderful internet community 🙂

    @Kalen and the other Alexia Tarabotti junkies: I’m so excited to hear that you’re reading these!  I’m completely hooked, and I’ve been blaming one of our regular bookstore readers (drat him!) for giving it to me several months too early so that I have to suffer until “Blameless” comes out in September (it’s going to be a loooong summer).

  20. Kathleen Ronan says:

    Oh.  I forgot to tell you about my computer savvy skill set.  I have been using the internet since about 1992.  I cannot live without it.  Literally.  I e-mail.  I read blogs.  I bank.  I shop.  But some things I cannot do on-line.  I like to be introduced to my friends (i.e. my books) before I bring them home.  I like to touch them, laugh a little, get the feel and the scent of them before I invite them in to my home to kick back over a glass of “Three Buck Chuck”.  If this sounds a little…er…intimate, you are right.  To me, it is.  I’m going to be spending a significant amount of time with this book.  It’s going to be a reflection of where I am in my personal space and my imagination.  It may teach me something new.  So I need to get a feel for it’s “personality” first.  I can’t do that on line, and I may never make the break into e-readers like the Kindle because of the touchy-feely factor.  But I might just be a little weird about my little bound friends.

  21. Annmarie says:

    Before I became ‘downsized’ I would buy anything that caught my interest.  Sometimes it was the cover and sometimes it was the blurb.  If it sparked a want, I bought it!  I bought via Amazon, BAM!, Borders, CVS, supermarkets, and anywhere else that had a book shelf.

    I was online in the romance community but reviews held little sway over that spark of interest that caught me offline and in line (so to speak).

    Now that I’m unemployed (and have been for 9 months), I am much more discerning with my romance buying bucks.  I buy almost 100% via Amazon and I read every review before buying. 

    I visit here and DA to find top rated books before going to Amazon & then I read the reviews there too. 

    It’s a sad existence. 

    There’s something fun and thrilling about ‘discovering’ a new author all on your own. 

    FYI: I’m 41 (this week), I have been reading romance (I’m talking Bertrice Small, Harlequin, Kathleen Woodiwiss etc) since I was 8 (shocking!) and I’ve never took a ‘break’ from romance reading (it’s more than a hobby cause I’d be lost without it).

  22. Marilyn says:

    My mom and her friend purchase their books at the grocery store or Target unless I give them mine after I through.  I think it’s that way for most retired people who don’t use the internet.

  23. Gwynnyd says:

    If a person has no internet, or never thinks to use it for book recommendations, then they buy what they can find.  Why else would an author like Cassie Edwards be “best selling”?  Since the scandal of a few years ago, I have made it a point to look at the book racks in grocery stores, truck stops, and other places where there is a very limited selection of books to see what they have. Almost always at least one Cassie Edwards book stares back at me.  And it feeds on itself.  That’s what there is, so people buy it, and since people buy it, it must be good, so more gets written and put in the same places, where the same people buy it because that’s all there is, ad naseum.  That population is by far the majority of readers. 

    The good thing about the internet is that it makes it possible for someone without a cadre of like-minded friends and relatives to share books with, or a local bookstore, or a convenient library to get off that cycle if they want to.  Do they want to?  Hard to say.

  24. Patricia says:

    When I first started reading romance, there was no internet.  I would go to book stores, big box stores, etc. and look at what was being featured.  I would read blurbs and maybe a few pages to see if the book looked interesting.  Those that were prominently displayed were usually the ones that the book store thought would be the hits.  I was a big fan of the Signet Regencies and would pick up a few a month.  After a while I developed my personal list of authors that I would auto buy and those that I would never buy.  I would talk to other readers that I knew had similar tastes and get their recommendations on new authors or good books.  I would look at the NYT best seller lists.  I am not sure that my ways of choosing books has changed all that much with the internet with the exception that the “talking to other readers” is now supplemented by reading a few blogs.

  25. Stacy Boyd says:

    Love this thread!

    When I first read romance, I was not allowed to buy them and as I got older, I didn’t know anyone else who read them. So I was on my own. My first was an accidental pick-up at my great-aunt’s house. This lead me to the adult fiction shelves at the library. Robyn Carr (medievals, because the covers looked similar to that first book), Philippa Carr (because she was next to Robyn), then Victoria Holt (she was Philippa’s other name) and then any historical-looking cover I could find. In college, with no money and a library that couldn’t keep up with my habit, I found a used bookstore. I would buy my favorites as new books, then trade them in for riskier, unknown authors at the used bookstore.

    Today, I know so many people who love romance that I have more recommendations than I can read. I get some free books at work, and I buy a lot of new paperbacks. It’s easier now that I have a salary. Most of these come from the chain bookstore. Being in NYC, there aren’t that many big-box or grocery stores that carry books and the independents don’t often carry romance.

  26. Laurie says:

    I’m not sure what category I fall into (if any, I don’t like pigeonholes), but I’ve been an internet reader for a little over 7 years.  I can almost pinpoint the day – I was on bedrest for a difficult pregnancy and desperately needed something new to read for an escape.  I found the Baen Online (Free) Library – followed shortly by Harlequin’s website, and have been hooked on ebooks and online reads ever since.  My iPod touch is my favorite thing in the world.  Granted, I’ll read just about every genre there is, but I have a nice healthy romance collection.  I did start with Kathleen Woodiwiss, Bertrice Small, Johanna Lindsey and Laurie McBain, like so many others ahead of me in the comments (I borrowed them from my mom and my aunt).  I still go back and reread those, and rec them to others. 

    Before I started looking for books on the computer (and even after that), my main sources for books were thrift stores, used book stores and yard sales.  I’d look for authors by friend or family recs at the stores.  At yard sales, I’d see what they had for sale.  If they had several books by authors I knew I liked, then I figured it was worth the quarter (sometimes even a buck) to see if I liked some of the others they had.  So, I guess I was getting recs from perfect strangers, just like I do now from the internet.  The biggest problem with those sources has always been filling in gaps in a series or getting part of the way through a book and realizing that it’s book 3 of a 6 book set and ruining any suspense when I do find books 1 and 2.  It’s a little easier to avoid spoilers now, with the internet.  🙂  Ebay also makes it much easier to fill gaps in a series. 

    With the advent of ebook readers and online books, I’ve found many new authors just by reading the free ebooks offered (many mentioned on this site).  Julia Spencer-Fleming, C.T. Adams & Cathy Clamp, Elizabeth Moon and many others offered the first book (or two) in a series for free, prompting me to buy others.  I don’t know how successful this is as a marketing ploy, but it works on me (if the book is good).  I find fewer via reviews, honestly, though I have several on my Amazon wish list (i.e. I’m not willing to buy them myself, but if someone wants to buy me a book, it’s a pretty good bet I won’t have it and I’m at least mildly interested in reading it).  While I’m definitely an “online reader”, I still find my books the old-fashioned way.

  27. Zarrin says:

    I must admit, while I spend a significant portion of most days online, I rarely read romance novel reviews, and when I do it is usally to see what was said about a book I have already read.  Here’s how I developed as a romance reader:

    High School: Completely Undiscerning – read whatever the small town librarians would let me get my hands on.

    Post-HS:  Still Undiscerning – read whatever I found at the store or library, neither of which had good selections.

    College: Beginning to Discern – began shopping at 2nd hand stores, now choosing based on interest in plot, rather than whatever I could find.

    Post-College:  Began buying large lots of books off Ebay, built up a web page, and began trading books with women all over the country.  At one point I had over 1000 random romance novels to trade, and hundreds more to be read.  I still chose my reads based on plot, but began to develop a fondness for certain authors (I think the 1st author I started to collect was Teresa Medieros).  I also began shopping at a 2nd hand store that specialized in romance novels.

    Post-Grad:  I’ll read pretty much anything by my dozen or so favorite authors, can scan the shelves at the library for titles by new authors that might interest me (I swear I can tell if a book is likely to interest me just by looking at the spine), order specific titles through inter-library loan, and sometimes use the AAR website to find books in the plots I most enjoy.  I’ve gotten a lot more discerning/snobby about what I am willing to ready, and avoid almost everything with cheesy cover art (unless it is by a favorite).

    As you can see, even as an avid internet user, the web has had very little impact on my reading habits.

  28. Before the internet, I’d buy/read books that caught my eye and had interesting back cover blurbs (I still do that now).  Reading the first few pages probably helped in limiting poor book choices since I’d still read the majority of the books I bought this way.

    Romantic Times definitely helped when I bought new books. I’d make my list, go the store, and then read the blurb and a few pages before I’d buy the book. I don’t actually know many romance readers in real life, and the ones I do know have different reading tastes than I do, so I don’t really go off of recommendations.

    Now, I still use Romantic Times to see what’s new, but Twitter and the Internet definitely help bring new (and new to me authors) to my attention (so I guess those count as recommendations though I admit I have now bought a few blah books based off of over hype).

    The growth of books in a series definitely make it easier to auto-buy though. If I like the previous books in the series, then it would reason I’d like the next book, right? The “new book” sections at the bookstore also help a lot. Makes it easier to browse the new books instead of walking up and down the aisle picking out the new books mixed in with the older books. (Yes, I use to go to the bookstore/library often enough to recognize when a new book was shelved.)

  29. Susan says:

    Until 5 years ago I was that reader. I didn’t read any romance book magazines and didn’t have a community of like-minded readers. At that time, all the romance books I read came from what I found at the library, “my” bookstore, the airport, Target, the grocery store, and very occasionally a recommendation from a friend (though I have very few friends who will admit out loud, in person, that they read romances).

    GalleyCat introduced me to SB, and through it, DA, about 5 years ago when they posted on an SB cover snark. After a few visits I knew I had found “my” community.

    I had been living in the dark ages where I thought all of Harlequin was only the Presents line I pilfered from my mom’s bookshelf (NOT TRUE!), that Avon was the only publisher who offered historical romances (NOT TRUE!), and other stupid misconceptions. For an educated girl, I was one un-educated romance reader.

    Since finding an online community of readers, I’ve read dozens of new-to-me authors, I’ve gotten an ebook reader and now read more than ever, and I get to talk to smart, fellow readers.

    This internet thing is pretty great.

  30. My mom is that reader. Although not specifically romances.

    She picks up books at the supermarket. She picks them up in the Bible Bookstore (she’s reading the Jerusalem’s Undead series) Bargain Bin. She gets them at the library and Wal-Mart and sometimes Borders or Barns & Noble. (she mostly buys magazines there) Sometimes, she picks them up at garage sales or second hand book shops or thrift stores. She likes those because they let her try new authors for a quarter.

    She gets them from me, because I buy what my friends are writing, and then she goes to B&N and requests other books by those authors.

    As far as I can tell, she buys based on cover copy and art. Sometimes, she’ll buy by author.

  31. Zoe says:

    Clearly I am online now because I read this blog (nice blog, by the way!). However, back in the pre-internet-as-we-know-it early ‘90s my friends (and their mothers and their mother’s friends) and I used to devour regencies. My friend’s mother would buy them in huge boxes and bags from local used book stores and we would read them and pass them around. We used to write our names in the front covers to keep track of which ones we had read (after a while all the empire dresses start to look alike). If there was a particularly good one we would make sure it made the rounds and there were particular authors we liked more than others. We all agreed that any book with the word “Rogue” in the title was guaranteed to be a good one. Now it seems crazy to read books by an author you like without finding out their complete bibliography and reading them in order. Back then it was “Hey – a Johanna Lindsey we’ve never seen before – score!” Looking back it all seems so haphazard and quaint. It was fun, though.

  32. MaryK says:

    One thing about grocery store/WalMart book buyers – that may be their only source of new books.  In some areas, there just aren’t many bookstores.

    Where I live there is plenty of shopping of all kinds within a 30 mile radius of my house. There’s a Bass Pro, clothing stores, grocery stores, Starbucks, two shopping malls, multiple stripmalls. 

    But you have to go to the far edge of the 30 miles to find an actual bookstore.  Somebody who stays within 10 or 20 miles of home has only the grocery store book aisle to shop from.

  33. DS says:

    Way before the internet—my mom used to get bags of Harlequins—all short romances were Harlequins no matter who published them, from neighbors.  One person would have a subscription, bag up a couple of months worth in a grocery bag and it would get sent around the neighborhood.  Sometimes some would write “good” or “v. good” on the teaser page but that was all the reviews available.  Oddly enough, I don’t remember anyone discussing the books at all—or maybe they did it when the snotty kid was not listening.  It couldn’t have been because of the sex, there wasn’t that much in the short ones in those days.

  34. Aliza Mann says:

    Well, as embarrassing as it may be, I used to be one of those people.  I would sit in Borders for hours reviewing anything romance.  Yes, I had access to the internet, and I happen to work in IT so I am quite savvy.  I just simply enjoyed looking for romance.  I guess you could say it was the hunt that I liked most.
    Just before Kindle and iPad, I would find women sitting in the lobby of our office building that were so enthralled and disconnected from the rest of the world that I just knew that they were reading a good one!  They would happily tell me the name and what they liked about it, etc. etc. Since the movement to non-print media, it’s been a little harder. So, now I depend on blogs.  I’m also an aspiring author, so I needed to move out of the dark ages, set up a blog and begin looking at what the rest of the reading and writing community is doing.
    I think I was skeptical of the reviewer’s integrity…
    At any rate, my method was through word of mouth and just by walking around a book store until I found something that interested me.  I still do that every now and again, just to remind myself of how a book feels. 🙂

  35. Sharon says:

    I used to be one of those folks, and I guess I still am in many ways.  I’ve been an avid romance reader ever since I pulled a Mary Stewart off the shelf of my Catholic grammar school library—they stocked Victoria Holt, too, can you imagine? Pretty tame stuff, but still…

    During high school I read the usual scandalous stuff—Rosemary Rodgers, Kathleen Woodiwiss—and then Judith McNaught came on the scene, shortly followed by Laura Kinsale.  I mostly looked for authors who were blurbing the books I was already reading, or whose books featured similar covers or themes or historical periods.  I sort of book-hopped, I guess, just like we’d jump from link to link these days.  As a young mother, I bonded with a group of other young moms who frequented a local used paperback store.  We’d drop the kids off at school, head to the store, swap and/or purchase our books, head to the coffee shop and chat—those were great times!

    Nowadays, I check out sites such as this (I love this site, but I don’t really jump in because I feel so old compared to everyone else—who was it mentioned party lines?  I sure do remember those!) and RT and publisher’s and author’s sites for recommendations, reviews and heads’ up on new releases. 

    We are out here, however, to some degree.  And even if we still prefer the chance exchange face to face at the library or a bookstore, we’re certainly still reading, still looking for the next new favorite. 🙂

  36. MichelleR says:

    This just makes me think of my childhood and teens where this is how everyone I knew behaved—books picked up at the grocery store or drug store or K-Mart. Well, then there was the used book store.

    When I get my time machine I’m totally going back to my pre-teens and teens and heading for the cardboard boxes of read books in the basement. What a nostalgia kick that would be! Man, the original Man Tittys! Pre-Fabio even! Oh, and tons of gothics—women running from ominous houses toward a cliff leading down to storm-tossed seas.

    And the original V.C. Andrews with the scary step-back covers:
    http://www.completevca.com/lib_stepbacks.shtml

    purpose85: Yeah, that would be a good year for the time machine.

  37. Donna says:

      Angelique has to be the mother of all romance heroines.

    OMG!! Killian I had totally forgotten these!! I LOVED these books! I cannot believe I have gotten old enough to say I read them like, gulp, 30 YEARS AGO.

    Griffin, I feel your pain. Gobbled “Changless” down in one day & now I must suffer withdrawl pains until September.

  38. Jen M in AZ says:

    I am a newbie to the romance genre.  I only really started seriously reading romance in the last year or so, which is surprising, as I work in a bookstore and read about 2-3 books a week.  The author that hooked me was Julia Quinn.  Every time I was shelving in the section, I would see the blurb on the front of her books calling her “the contemporary Jane Austen”.  I heart Austen, and this blurb always caught my eye.  Finally, I just said, what the heck, and read one.  And then her entire backlist.  A few times.  Now, I am looking for good historicals like Quinn (even though I did finally read Nora Roberts despite years of aversion. Her Bride series was just too popular to ignore!). 

    But, the point is, I never would have found her books through the internet.  I love the internet, I buy books online, I have an eReader (a whole week!), but when shopping online, mostly I am going to look for authors or genres I already know.  If I hadn’t held that Quinn in my hand, I never would have seen that little blurb on the front, and never would have let my horizons be expanded.  I love the online community I have found, but nothing (for me) will entirely replace wandering the aisles of a bookstore, judging a book by it’s cover, and sometimes even taking chances picking up books DESPITE their cover.

    Also, my spamword is likely29.  Such a good guess, but I only turned 28 last week, thus my new ereader!

  39. Deb says:

    Late to the party, as usual.  I second (third, fourth) the comments above from us “women of a certain age” who started out reading Jean Plaidy historicals and things like the Angelique series and Forever Amber.  Since my mother was (and still is) an avid reader (although not of romances), her friends would pass along their used books and as a teen I would rummage through them looking for anything with a “gothic” (old sense of the word) cover—especially books by Victoria Holt (aka Jean Plaidy—yes!).  I started keeping a list of authors I liked and would look for them at the drugstore, grocery store, used book store, etc.  Sometimes I’d save my allowance and have my mom write me a check to Fawcett-Crest so that I could order a book I really wanted from the list in the back of a book I already had.

    Although I love the internet and being connected to various communities that reflect my interests (including romance novels), I sometimes miss those days when it would take weeks—even months—to find particular books & authors.

  40. Kristi says:

    I was totally that reader until about 3 years ago when I started writing.  I would buy books at a bookstore (unsupervised…I hate salespeople in general and bookstore workers around here have a high snootiness bias against romance), order off Amazon, or borrow from my mom’s bookshelves.  Post-high school, I have very few friends who read romance (not counting the RWA gals I’ve met the past few years), so I didn’t really have anyone to borrow from.

    But it never occurred to me to look for an author’s website.  I never tried to look for romances in the library either, because when I was growing up (in Indiana), anything hotter than Victoria Holt was absolutely NOT carried in the public library (more of that snootiness).  I’m happy to say that the libraries here in the Lou are much more liberal.  I haven’t noticed outright Erotica, but they have whole cases of Harlequin Blazes and new paperback releases of all types.

    But Romantic Times? Reviews?  What were those? How did I decide what to read?  Gosh, I’d look at the author’s name, the cover art, read the back, maybe skim the first page or two, and make up my own mind.  Finding books I liked on Amazon was much harder—I still hate their browsing and the recommendations are always too narrow or just plain wrong for me.  For mail-order books, I just had to know what I wanted (usually a new release hardcover since they had a good discount %).

    I have rarely bought from the big box stores—their selections are always too small, too focused on a few big-name authors (and not generally ones I liked), or too many trade paperbacks of the “book club” variety (insert additional snootiness here).

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