'The Indicator from Planet Money': Why the publishing industry is hot for romance

Romance is one of the few profitable genres in the self-publishing industry. How romance writers turned e-books into a publishing juggernaut.

Transcript

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Romance novels are one of the bright spots in a tough publishing industry. Print sales have doubled over the last few years. Wailin Wong and Darian Woods from our Planet Money podcast, The Indicator, explored why.

WAILIN WONG, BYLINE: If the last romance novel you looked at was a paperback at your local supermarket, with a woman and a shirtless man embracing on the cover, well, fetch your smelling salts 'cause things have really changed in the last couple of decades.

DARIAN WOODS, BYLINE: Yeah, romance is one of the fastest-growing and bestselling categories within publishing. Christine Larson is a journalism professor at the University of Colorado Boulder.

CHRISTINE LARSON: So I define romance as an almost entirely female-dominated industry of books mostly written about women by women and for women.

WOODS: Her research involves studying authors' incomes between 2009 and 2014. That window of time covers the early boom in e-books, which was fueled by Amazon's Kindle and Apple's iPad.

WONG: Using data from author surveys, Christine found that during this period, romance writers saw their median income rise by 73%. Contrast that to a 42% drop in income for other authors.

WOODS: Christine lays out two big factors for the success. No 1., an early adopter mindset and a willingness to experiment with digital technology.

LARSON: Romance writers were actually the very first writers to start digitally self-publishing, even long before the Kindle came out.

WONG: When Amazon introduced self-publishing in 2007, romance writers took to the platform right away. They were also really productive, often publishing multiple books a year.

WOODS: And these authors didn't need the approval or marketing muscle of traditional publishers. Many writers already had built relationships with readers online via early internet communities like Prodigy.

WONG: Romance readers historically buy more books than the average American, and these readers flocked to e-books.

WOODS: The second big reason behind the commercial success of romance writers, Christine says, is that they formed something called open-elite networks. This is where more established or senior members of a group are willing to forge relationships with newcomers. Priscilla Oliveras is an author who has published eight romance novels and four novellas. Priscilla says she believes helping other authors improves conditions for everyone.

PRISCILLA OLIVERAS: If I'm offered this opportunity or this contract at these numbers, why would I not think - you know, my friend who I know is working equally as hard as I am. And so I think they are equally as deserving.

WONG: One of the newer authors in Priscilla's network is Natalie Cana. Natalie said that the beginning of her career was lonely, but then she learned about a conference for romance writers. And from there, she started making connections.

NATALIE CANA: I really found having that network super helpful, especially having and building a network with other women of color, because we know that the system works differently for us than it works for other people.

WONG: Natalie eventually signed a contract to write three books about a Puerto Rican family in Chicago. Next week, the third novel in the series comes out. It's called "Sleeping With The Frenemy," and it's about a firefighter reuniting with an old flame. Pun intended, Darian (laughter).

WOODS: I get it. I get it.

WONG: Wailin Wong.

WOODS: Darian Woods, NPR News.

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