Some of the hot news this week promises hotter sales in 2011 for crafters of HEAs, like yours truly. Yes, Virginia, Bowker says it. The New York Times says it. Even Smart Bitch Sarah Wendell says it. And if the Smart Bitches say it, then it must be true - "Romance is now the fastest-growing segment of the e-reading market, ahead of general fiction, mystery and science fiction, according to data from Bowker, a research organization for the publishing industry."
Industry honchos say that the "discreet power" of the e-book reader mean that "romance novels are now enjoying a renaissance." The popular wisdom is that e-readers allow their owners to read whatever they like privately, without displaying the covers of the books. Romance novel covers have long been a platform for showing long-locked bare-chested lads with rippling abs embracing a longer-locked lady with a low cut bodice or a silk gown tight enough to show off her pebbling nipples.
Those-who-know-these-things say that lots of ladies have been hesitant to indulge in lovely, lusty tales because of these cover images. In the NY Times piece a CFO of All Romance quotes e-reader customers who've said they can now indulge their love of romance novels - without having to "show my husband what I'm reading." The switched.com piece says mass-transit commuters with e-readers are downloading romances in record numbers because they don't have to worry "about a fellow traveler casting a judgemental glance" at the book cover.
I have trouble identifying with any of this. I've never cared what anyone thought of my romance novels - covers and all. Whatever romance novel I was reading accompanied me to college and law school classes. The only time I ever had a professor object to a book didn't involve a romance novel. (At Francis Marion University one of my profs made me take me take James Joyce's "Ulysses" outside her classroom and made me promise never again to bring the novel back into her presence. It turns out the professor wrote her doctoral thesis on the book and never wanted to see it again.)
And women worrying about telling their hubby they are reading a romance or being afraid to show him the cover? Oh, please. Who are these women? Did they poll refugees from the 1950s? If a woman is that concerned with her hubby's opinion of her reading material, then her marriage has far, far deeper problems than romance novels.
Besides, in my household Mr. Quack designs the romance novel covers. All of the earlier book covers were pretty non-offensive and gender neutral, but they were striking covers with very graphic images. They're killer covers but they don't necessarily sell sex and lust. We both adore the covers, but the one I'm writing now, The Duke of Eden (it's up as a serial on Amazon BTW), has a much more graphic cover. Currently in Casa de Quack hubby and I have been talking about him doing some new covers for the earlier books that are more graphic. Yes, we're talking about adding pebbling nipples and rippling abs.
Why? Because we've learned that sex still sells. And Quacking Alone Romances is very much a joint enterprise. What's good for the brand is good for our bank account. And what's good for the brand is what sells. Some of the very best-selling e-reading material is erotica of the kind that can make me blush - and that ain't an easy thing. We've learned that the graphic covers grab the eye and we'll never get readers to press the buy button if we don't get their attention first.
I don't think that romance sales are going up because women can read the books without fear of being judged. Most of the ladies I know are strong women with independent minds and don't care a fig who does or doesn't "approve" of the cover of whatever they are reading. I think romance sales are going up because a new generation of women is getting out in the dating and working and real-life world. And they're discovering that reality offers few happy endings.
If women want to be entertained with sex and lust and forbidden desire then romance is the genre for them. If they want heart-tugging moments and heroes who'll face and overcome their worst fear for their ladies then romance novels (including my Forever series) are the books for them. I think that the covers grab the eye, but the plots sell the books.
Don't get me wrong. There may actually be a few timid women who will only buy romance if they can do it on an e-reader where their husbands or total strangers won't "judge" or "disapprove" of the covers. And if those folks are looking for a good romance, I hope they'll pick up one - or two - or ALL of mine. But I hope that reading romance gives them more than love and lust and happy endings. I hope that it gives them strength and independence.
There's nothing wrong with a sexy image. Ask Ford, GM, Mercedes, Victoria's Secret, or Calvin Klein. Ask any of the folks at Project Runway. Ask the shampoo companies, Cover Girl or Tyra Banks, Miss J or any of the folks at America's Next Top Model. Sex sells and that's as American as Apple Pie.
Lord love a duck, I'm happy to hear everyone, including Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch talking about romance selling and recognizing that the romance buyer is "really, really valuable." I've been a romance reader and a romance buyer for a lot longer than I've been a romance author. And I agree that romance buyers are amongst the most loyal folks on earth and they're buyers who will go back and buy the entire backlist of a new author they discover. If the anonymity of romance buying on an e-reader makes it easier for some folks, then I'm glad of that too. The biggest hurdle is getting the readers to read a romance novel. Once a reader has jumped that particular fence, then she's on the other side. And romance novels are like potato chips - you can't buy just one.
Even if the covers irritate you a little, you'll still want them on the device. Another lawyer who agrees with me on that is the Iowa attorney who runs a blog under a pseudonym, "Jane Little" of Dear Author. She's quoted in the NY Times article as noting that she finds the covers irritating and doesn't love them but she'd "rather have them than not have them" when she downloads a book.
So we, at QA Romances have come to believe that a sexy cover will still be a big marketing advantage in the age of the e-reader. I'm glad to see that more and more and more folks are buying romance. It's just that whether they flash those covers on a paperback or tuck them away in an e-reader, we'd rather that more of them be our covers.
Even if those-who-know-these-things say that buyers are buying more romances because they don't have to display the covers, those covers had a LOT to do with why the reader bought the book to begin with. So I guess, what I'm saying is this:
Pebbling Nipples, Rippling Abs and Ringing Registers Ahoy!