Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Romance Bullish In a Bear Market

Yesterday's New York Times had an article titled "Recession Fuels Readers’ Escapist Urges."
At a time when booksellers are struggling to lure readers, sales of romance novels are outstripping most other categories of books and giving some buoyancy to an otherwise sluggish market . . .

While sales of adult fiction overall were basically flat last year, according to Nielsen Bookscan, which tracks about 70 percent of retail sales, the romance category was up 7 percent after holding fairly steady for the previous four years.
The article quotes Jane Litte from Dear Author saying that, in bad times, a happy ending is "really kind of a relief."

Libraries are seeing an upsurge in readers as the economy limits readers' discretionary dollars.
At Fictionwise, the e-book seller recently acquired by Barnes & Noble, about 50 percent of sales are romance books, said Steve Pendergrast, chief technology officer. “Romance readers tend to be voracious readers,” Mr. Pendergrast said. “The ability to instantly download and start reading is potentially more important to that audience than any other audience.”
To read the entire article, go here.

1 comment:

Gayle Hedrington said...

Good article Maya, we all need more happy endings. I also think that romance is an escape not only from finances, but from technology, and the hectic life that most women these days live.

After having a hard day at work, dealing with kids problems a husband too tired.. who wouldn't want an escape to romance, love or Bad Boy.

Gayle