This post may be a bit brief (for me) because we're editing the first part of Duke of Eden, the serialized novel I'm going to publish exclusively on Kindle for the amazingly low price of 99 cents per installment. I've still got to write the product description but, Yes Virginia - the man tittie cover will hit Kindle next week. Be sure to check out the book then!
The serialized publication/value price of Eden actually relates to this post. As I was working on edits yesterday, I clicked over to Google News - my home page for Internet Explorer. I've customized my version to show certain types of stories, and yesterday up popped a Bloomberg Businessweek story of all things. Naturally, I got distracted from my work and had to read the piece right away. The romance genre meriting a piece on a prominant business site was worthy of notice, and its worthy of mention here.
The piece was titled: Romance Fiction: Getting Dirty In Dutch Country. It focused on how romance fiction is - even in this Friday the 13th of economies - on the rise. The story mentioned the writer's opinion that the many and varied categories of romance, including Amish, knitting and paranormal specifically, helped keep romance climbing towards the top. I don't really disagree with the piece, I just don't think the writer attributed the rise to all the right factors.
According to the article, publishers say that book sales declined by 1.9 percent in 2009 after a 3 percent drop the previous year and books appear to be "suffering a slow and rather boring death." The article doesn't talk about ebooks, which have been undergoing dramatic growth.
The piece notes that despite declining sales in books overall, one genre has been experiencing "steady and unusual growth." Yeah, that's right, ROMANCE. The Romance genre increased to $1.4 billion, up by $100 million, or 7.7% from the prior year. In a down market and a down economy people are buying more romances than ever. Well, duh. When have we ever, ever needed to believe in happy endings more than today?
Mysteries can get your mind working on a puzzle instead of the Citibank bill. Thrillers can tingle your spine and make you forget the debt collectors who keep jingling your phone. Women's fiction can remind you that you should spend more time hugging your friends and less worrying about the bank balance that won't cover your bills. Nonfiction can teach you to love yourself and to ignore the wolf at the door. But only Romance can remind you that the heart matters more than the bottom line. Only Romance guarantees that you're plunking down those scarce dollars for a happy ending. And more and more, if readers are going to spend money, they're going to do it for work that lets them curl up and take a trip that's going to end in a good way. There won't be a wierdo in a Freddy Kruger mask - unless the characters are into that sort of thing.
It all reminds me of a conversation I had with a cousin who is a big used car dealer. He had recently sold the new car dealership and was back to his real line of work. I asked if he was worried about business in the current economy. He tilted back in his chair and said, "Slick (that was his nickname for me), when the economy is good, the used car business is good. And when the economy is bad, the used car business is great."
And just this week, my boss and I were talking to a Claims Rep for one of our insurance companies, who was worried about a hotel owner/insured. His business had been going through some tough times but my boss had talked to him and things were going better. That's true all over the Grand Strand region of South Carolina this year. The Myrtle Beach International Airport has said that just about each month this season has broken the record set the month before. I can tell you that judging by traffic jams and lines at restaurants, business in Myrtle is booming.
Our good fortune in Myrtle is partly due to the bad fortune of our brothers and sisters along the Gulf Coast. And I see license tags of many, many other states were I'd bet the folks would normally be vacationing along the Gulf beaches. And we sympathize for the owners in those states that were already suffering and are now suffering more. But Myrtle's growth is due to much more than just fortunate geography.
Myrtle Beach has always been one of the cheapest family friendly places to vacation. But even so, last year, business was down in Myrtle. I think its that after such a long stretch of stress, people need a break. They can't afford Vegas or Atlantic City. The pricey beaches of Florida and the Mouse that requires a golden budget or the rich folk areas of Florida are beyond too many budgets. But a vacation in Myrtle? It's an affordable splurge.
Used cars do good in good years and great in bad years. Everyone has to have a car to get to work. In good years, many folks will trade the three year old car they bought new for another new car. In the present year, which is not just bad, but is the worst year I can ever, ever, recall, most people will drive their car until it just won't go anymore. Then, they'll get the best deal they can on an older model in the best condition they can afford.
But we'll all still look at the Mercedes, or the Ferrari or the restored to cherry condition Vette or Mustang. And we'll sometimes weave fantasies about the guy driving that car. A writer might build a whole book around those fantasies. In other genres, the car might be hot and police might be looking for the driver, who just killed his business partner. It might be driven by a man whose identity was just stolen as part of an elaborate plot to overthrow the government or to control some imporant part of a big buisness. It might be driven by a killer who washed away every trace of blood before he garbed himself in a designer suit to look for his next victim.
But if the reader is very, very, lucky, the writer who spotted the bad ride was a romance novelist. Then the driver will be a bad boy billionaire who can buy everything he could possibly need and most of what he wants. He believes he can buy everything but he's about to be taught a lesson in love by......his secretary, or his ward, or his best friend's little sister. No matter what smart lady teaches the rogue that the one thing he can't live without doesn't have a price tag, the story WILL have a happy ending.
And just like Myrtle Beach's gain may be another resort's loss, the romance writer's gain is more and more another genre writer's loss. But that's okay. Romance writers are a friendly bunch and there's always room for new converts. The Bloomberg piece talked about suspense writer Kelly Irvin who's new book is..............yeah, you guessed it...........a Romance.
In these bad times, the romance genre is the Myrtle Beach vacation that more and more readers are plunking down their hard earned dollars for and getting in their used car to drive to, but that's okay......... a happy ending is just around the corner!!!