A curious phenomenon is going on in the publishing world. Unless you’ve been living on the dark side of the moon, you’ve probably heard about the explosion of e-books. While it is true that e-book sales increased around 150% in the past year, one category of e-books has exploded beyond all expectations.
Romance.
Romance is far and away the fastest-growing segment of the e-book industry. There are a couple of reasons for this, perhaps the most obvious is that a person buying an e-book need not confront a store clerk who sneers at the sometimes mortifying covers that are slapped on romance novels. Please note that I said “person,” not woman. Although the predominant readers of romance novels are women, we know for a fact that men purchase and read plenty of romance novels. I have received fan letters from men who loved The Lady of Bolton Hill, and have seen men in the libraries where I work curled up in a carrel with romance novels.
Another explanation for the strength of the romance e-book market is an author’s backlist. Most bookstores won’t let a new release sit on their shelves more than a month or two before making way for newer titles. Romance readers are intensely loyal to the authors they enjoy, and once they discover a “new to you” author, they will eagerly seek out that author’s backlist. In the past, they often discovered those titles were out of print, but the miracle of e-books has made it affordable for publishers to re-issue older books, and those older titles are moving.
Recognizing this trend, publishers are rushing to convert the backlist of romance novelists at a faster rate than other genres. The typical romance buyer will purchase, on average, three books per month. That is a valuable customer the publishers want to please.
I confess to preferring a traditionally printed book over an e-reader…..but am planning an experiment for 2012. I’ll be getting a Kindle with one of those nifty covers for Christmas and giving it a whirl. I’ll let you know how it goes!