It's always disappointing when I visit a city's beloved indie bookstore and they have sections for horror, mystery, and thriller, but no romance section. I don't understand not stocking one of the best selling genres there is!
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Next time you are in Madison, CT please come visit our beloved indie bookstore R.J. Julia Booksellers. They have a whole section on romance, robust and well curated. Also, in Chester, CT, we have a whole bookstore dedicated to romance, lucky us! Montgomery and Taggert: https://www.montgomeryandtaggert.com/
also, if I'm understanding your larger point, there is sometimes disdain on the part of some towards the genre, which IMO is just silly. Great writing is great writing, no matter the genre. I appreciate bookstores that pick the best of the best of all genres, to the extent that their space allows.
I’m sure there are good romance books out right now and probably some I’d enjoy, but frankly there’s been such overlap colloquially between romance and erotica it’s just tiring trying to sift through
Check out Friendly City Bookstore in Columbus, Mississippi, a destination bookstore. They'll personally find you what you need! (NOT an employee 🤣, just a loyal customer )
Anyway, if you’re a fan of romance or would like to learn more about how the genre is fighting for a better, more progressive world, I have a podcast called REBEL EVER AFTER! I interview a different author every episode.
In the oughties, I went to a much-beloved and famous local bookstore and asked about Jennifer Crusie. "Oh, we don't carry *that* sort of thing." Not just no romance section, but not buying the books at all.
Speaking for The Bookies Bookstore in Denver: We do. We like having genres of interest to everyone. If you are ever in Denver, come by and see us. Bonus: our owner is a woman and is very progressive.
snobbish dismissal of romance goes back decades, booktok hasn't changed anything in that regard. if anything booktok has helped a lot of people find romance who didn't know they'd enjoy it before
I wonder if it's a reflection of a society that cannot abide romance?
Its as if love & partner emotions are somehow a dirty secret.
Romance might be woke?
Misery loves company?
Hopefully the pressure of sales targets will shift that stance.
After all romance & love drives most music too.
Dreaming.
Romance is viewed as the sort of cash cow formulaic fantasy that many authors exploit for easy money. An indie bookstore might want to distinguish themselves as a more literary enterprise. Just letting you know, it's viewed more as smut than literature in the industry.
I told you why an indie store might choose not to carry romance novels, so that makes me an asshole? Your profile doesn't list you as a romance author; I also didn't know that you'd be so overly sensitive that you'd jump to conclusions that I was being cruel. Not my problem.
Romance (of all stripes) paid our rent. Series, "bodice-rippers" and stuff like "Longarm" which was aimed at men (and we had a lot of men who came in for "feminine" romance".
So the idea that one wants to "distinguish" is more gatekeeping.
Yes, we had a significant SF focus (in part because one of us had encyclopedic knowledge of that genre; and we were in LA, where SF fandom was a large part of our friends/initial customer base), but if you choose to exclude based on nonsense like 'smut', you are kneecapping yourself.
Go to The Strand, in New York, or Odyssey Books in LA, and there are TONS of "romance" and none of it treated as mockworthy. There is a lot of really good writing, from Gothic, to Dinosaur, to Western to...
Judging the books by their covers is amateur hour.
As someone who worked at an indie bookstore, that sounds pretentious as hell. We just wanted to sell books people want to buy and the romance section was our fastest mover of stock, pretty much the only section I had to restock daily.
One of the best and sometimes worst features of indies is that they’re selling from the curation of the shoprunner rather than selling to market. It’s what enables an all-romance or all-horror shop to exist. Those that don’t have romance likely don’t have owners who love that genre.
Here's me, shaking my head and mumbling to myself "Which store is it *this* time? Do they like leaving money on the table? I had hoped we were past this. SIGH."
I am a dude. I am far from the target audience of romance novels. But, barring the old Harlequin romances my grandmother used to read, there is nothing wrong with them. People gotta stop hating fun things that they don't groove to.
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You can listen here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rebel-ever-after/id1779077876
JUST LETTING YOU KNOWWWWWWWW
Sad really some romance books are really cute
Its as if love & partner emotions are somehow a dirty secret.
Romance might be woke?
Misery loves company?
Hopefully the pressure of sales targets will shift that stance.
After all romance & love drives most music too.
Dreaming.
Romance (of all stripes) paid our rent. Series, "bodice-rippers" and stuff like "Longarm" which was aimed at men (and we had a lot of men who came in for "feminine" romance".
So the idea that one wants to "distinguish" is more gatekeeping.
Judging the books by their covers is amateur hour.
So spare me the misogyny.
Section was. Good to see you again.