Today’s topic was sparked by Fatin’s blog about the romance section of her local bookstore. She’s an avid romance reader who goes to the bookstore several times a week and she isn’t happy with the way her local romance section is handled.
I could spend days on this topic because I totally agree with her. I’ve been in a lot of bookstores and it’s always the same. You have to search for the romance section. None of the employees are well-versed in romance books. The displays are lacking. Books that are NOT romance are classifed as romance (though I don’t see this as much at Borders, thankfully.)
I hope to tackle this topic more on another day. What I want to talk about today is related and equally frustrating: romance readers in bookstores.
About a year and a half ago, I got a part time job at Borders (which I loved by the way. And probably came out behind, financially. But that’s beside the point.) I didn’t mention my annoyance at the way the romance section is treated. But I took joy in straightening the romance section, turning certain books I’d heard good things about face out, to be more noticeable (I strongly believe covers can sell books if done well), and finding customers who liked to talk romance books.
Finding customers who liked to talk romance books.
That turned out to be an interesting adventure. Here’s what I observed every single day:
A lot of women sneak over to the romance section nervously. Many of them, when I casually asked if I could help them find something, acted like I’d walked into their bathroom stall to chat. The majority of them would say no and walk down the aisle, away from the attention. Some would even leave the section, as if they couldn’t stand that they’d been “busted.”
I’m not naive. Romance has always been the redheaded step-child of fiction, even of genre fiction. It gets made fun of and put down and disrespected regularly. (Which is also another post.)
But how many of us who read romance are helping the cause at all? WHY are we letting everyone else tell us that we should be embarrassed if we read romance? I know that Fatin isn’t embarrassed and has been vocal about getting her section some love. I know a few others online, from the Writeminded Readers Group, who are as vocal. A few others. Why are the rest of us letting our genre be treated this way?
If you’re reading this and aren’t an avid romance reader, you might be surprised to learn that romance is the best selling genre in the fiction section. From the Romance Writers of America website:
Romance Market Share Compared to Other Genres
(source: Simba Information estimates)
*Romance fiction: $1.37 billion in estimated revenue for 2008
*Religion/inspirational: $800 million
*Mystery: $668 million
*Science fiction/fantasy: $551 million
*Classic literary fiction: $446 million
And yet we sneak over and pick our books quickly before an employee can catch us in the act. We don’t ask for the book we can’t find because…it’s romance. We don’t mention that the books selected by the national chains as “romance”…aren’t. We just get our books and go.
So while I agree with everything Fatin said, I have to wonder how much to blame we, romance readers, are. Hats off to Fatin for venting about it. More of us should do the same. Getting the romance genre some respect is a tall order but romance readers are some amazing, intelligent people. Next time you’re at the bookstore looking for romance, be bold. Stand up for your genre. Ask for the books you can’t find. Show interest in the section. And of course, keep voting with your dollars. Maybe someday bookstores will figure it out.
Anyone else want to weigh in? How is the romance section at your local bookstore handled? Are you happy with it? If not, have you ever spoken up about it? Have you ever gotten into a good discussion of romances with an employee? (I have to say, the few in “my” bookstore who would discuss with me…we had some GREAT conversations!) Or are you one who’d rather not be “caught” in the romance section?
I’m a vocal romance reader at my store. At least 2 of Larissa’s books and 3 or 4 of the Sydney Croft books have been shelved in general fiction because that’s what the computer said. I have the ladies at the customer service counter update the setting in the computer right in front of me and they move the books to the Romance section before I leave the area. I usually go on Wednesdays to give them enough time to put out new books.
If I can’t find what I’m looking for, I always ask. I’ve even had to get them to move a few (just a few) new books from a center aisle display to the Romance section so that loyal romance readers can find them as well as grabbing center aisle foot traffic.
I always share recommendations with some of the friendlier employees as well as the ladies who work in the childrens section since they don’t have the time to explore other areas of the store. They always want to see what I have in my stack for the week.
Hey Amy!
I see the same thing at my bookstore. If I try to talk up a person who is browsing in the romance section, to see if they want help, I always feel like I’m intruding and they leave soon after that. Why? Drives me insane. Be proud of what you read, what’s the big deal, I say?
Im a proud romance reader but i digres sI read every genera so ill proudly walk in and brows every section usually spending more time in romancethen other generas but I always ask them for help discuss things with the store clerks people who are browsing the romance section Ill even move a few books that are shoved back that should get soem attention to the fronts of the shelf so people can see . It irks me to no end when i cant find something then when i ask they direct me to a different genera and inform me that bok isnt romance ect which i do get on my soap box and inform them i should know i follow every romance author i can then i find new ones to stalk later and if they wanna sell books maybe they should knowtheir generastoo and its really bad business to contridict true fans example Anyabasts witch series was not in romance wasnt in paranormal romance where did i find it in horror i said ok fine i could possibly see that if no one ever readthem when i pointe dout they were in the wrong spot the lady looked at me and said how would you know do you work here so i politly said no i dont work here im just a huge fan and they are in th wrong spot which of course caused the manage rto come out and apologize to me forethe rudeness cause i said it loud enough the whole store could hear along with I may not work here but if i did id at least know my genras and not assume a customer is wrong just because i dont read that author
I’m not ashamed to admit that I read romance and I have no problems asking for help in locating a book…I also try to educate the employees if they have the book in the wrong catagory. Somestimes it works and other times it doesn’t, really depends on the employee. I think that romance readers do need to be more vocal, it’s great to read romance and stores need to treat us with more respect and treat the books we read with more respect!
I have to say that my Borders is not bad in the way they keep up their romance sections, and I have no problem on flagging down an employee to ask “Hey I can’t find such and such book.” Even my husband has stopped an employee at Borders to go “My wife is looking for the new Kenyon book and we know it came out today..”
I don’t sneak to the section.. More like “Sprint” towards it like a child to the toy section. LOL. And I’ve chatted often with the employees while getting checked out. I remember when Johanna Lindsay’s The Present came out. I turned the book and went “Awesome! A new Malory book.” A woman sort of beside me goes “A new Malory book you say?” Snatched a copy and she hurried her butt up to the counter. When I finally went to the counter and this woman goes “Find everything alright.” I was giddy about finding Lindsay had another Malory book. I of course mentioned I did and we started chit-chatting about that series of books. It was just great to know there were others out there at the time who liked the same series I did.
Amy! LTNS!
I’m one of those people who often scours sites for authors I’m familiar with and once a new book is out, I’ll go buy in the store if I’m headed in that direction (or I’ll just buy online). When walking into the store, I usually walk with purpose. The last time I went, an employee saw me walk directly to a book, pick it up and then walk to another author’s book, pick up one of those, etc. She stopped me and said she was relatively new there, wasn’t ‘hip’ on much romance, but has read a few books in the genre to become more knowledgeable in her recommendations. She saw that I didn’t peruse the aisles but knew exactly what I wanted, so we got into a discussion about good books in the various subgenres: paranormal, historical, contemp. and erotic. I gave her lots of food for fodder. Actually when I came back into the store a month later, she made a bee line for me when she saw me and said every book I’d recommended, she liked. Heh. She even took my phone number down for ‘future help’. LOL Anyway… She mentioned a lot of the phenomenon that you’ve listed.
One of the issues I think plagues romances is of course the purple prose of yesteryear. Your mom’s Harlequins, so to speak. That’s not to say the bodice rippers are not present in recent releases but it truly is a stereotype of romance. It makes some women feel silly for buying this guilty pleasure, perhaps not because they’re embarrassed to read the book but because of how they made be perceived for reading it. Because after all, romance is fluff, dontcha know? ~roll eyes~
Another issue I think is how NY has treated erotic romance. I won’t get started. Well not too much. Ok, fine. I will. Erotic romance has the WORST reputation. At first, as you know, anything too spicy was in the Erotica section next to the Women’s and Sexual self-help. Obnoxious books like PENTHOUSE LETTERS pretty much summed up what was perceived as the sub-genre. Written porn. Then the e-pub industry exploded. Erotic ROMANCE became all the rage. NY took note. And thought, ‘we can do better’. No. They can’t. But I digress. They started publishing erotic romances, which then of course, made it to the romance shelves. But as I’m sure many of you have noticed. The books became more and more erotica. Sex by page 3. Plots that made no sense, or plots that were barely there. And unfortunately many of our GREAT erotic romance authors have capitulated to these NY demands. This has NOT helped the romance genre in gaining any sort of credence in the fiction world.
I think NY is taking note of these, because imprints such as Aphrodisia have decreased sales. Are they still publishing? I don’t know. I stopped writing/reviewing anything by this imprint because most of their stories were sexfests. I want CONFLICT. I want ACTION. I want CHARACTERS to love! Berkley Heat and Avon Red are a little better, but truly I pore over their blurbs and even skim a few paragraphs here and there in the book before buying. That’s how bad some of these books have gotten. Do I blame it on the authors? I’m trying not to. As you know I have romance author friends. And some have shared with me their battles with their editors for ‘more sex, less plot’. So, authors that I already know can write, I try not to blame them (although, as somewhat of a purist, I do get annoyed that they’re allowing the industry to dictate how they should write), but authors who I’ve only known to write erotic? Yeah, sometimes I confess I holler, ‘how the hades did this person ever get published?!’ The one problem with that sort of response from readers often will prevent the reader from purchasing another book by this author, even if she hops sub-genre fences and moves on to, say, paranormal or historical. Because the bad taste is already there.
This whole erotic romance debacle is why I stopped reviewing for RT. LOL Ask Maya. She was pissed when I told her that. Because I loved her erotic romances and always gave them great reviews! Still do, actually, but I felt like I’d become just another snarky erotic romance reviewer in general. And for a while, I couldn’t even read erotics, because I was afraid of what I’d find. Now, I’m easing back into the sub-genre again, but I have to confess I read much more suspense, paranormal, contemporary, and have come full circle back to historicals. But there are many who view Romance as a whole the same way that Erotic Romance is viewed: without much credence, and ‘all about the sex’.
Okay, I’m verbose. I know. Sorry for manipulating the comment section. I’m very passionate about this subject as you can tell.
But I do think the Romance section has such a bad reputation is due to perceptions, be it perceived as ‘fluff’ or ‘trash’. We, as readers, and you as novelists, just need to grin and bear it, all the while changing perception through education, one person at a time.
Grrr, this is take 3 for replying, thanks to my OVERSENSITIVE LAPTOP. (Going to throw it if it does it again!!!)
In short, what I tried to say was: Thank goodness for awesome, passionate readers like you guys who do speak up, who know the genre, who feel strongly about it. Like Denise said, all we can do is change perceptions, one person at a time.
Good to see you, Denise! Loved your long post and do know what you’re saying about perceptions. If the people who are so busy judging “those” books by what they read in the 80s would pick a few up today, I think they’d be shocked. In a good way. It’s getting them to try it though…