Here’s some interesting data about mass market paperback
romance fiction sales at major non-bookstore retailers in 2014. These guys move
a lot of units, btw, tens of millions every year.
- Contemporary Romance is the largest subgenre right now
- Romantic Suspense is going strong, with the biggest gain of any subgenre
- Historical Romance is up
- Paranormal is up slightly
- Erotica is a very small part of the market
- Amish romance is booming!
- The top 20 authors are up significantly
- Movie tie-ins are the biggest winners (Nicholas Sparks is considered a romance author here)
- Promotions that help readers find new authors based on authors they already like are very successful
Lots
to ponder here…here are some of my personal conclusions:
- It looks to me as though the subgenres are cycling much faster than they used to
- As the economy is stabilizing, people are happier to read contemporary romance—they can escape even into the world of today, and they like to see a contemporary world where people are working out their differences and coming to a HEA
- Romantic suspense and mystery share similarities in reader demographic, and this is a robust subgenre that likely will never tank
- It’s nice to see Historical up—it was in a downturn for a while there, but there will always be an audience, IMHO
- Also nice to see paranormal up—I attribute this to really imaginative authors creating great stories with paranormal elements like shapeshifters and dragons
- Romance readers love to immerse in new worlds, be they paranormal, contemporary, or Amish
- Discovery is and will be a key concern for some time to come
Historical romance is up! Good news, Deb. Thanks. :)
ReplyDeleteI enjoy hearing the statistics. Historical was never down for me lol. And contemporary still hasn't grabbed me but I keep trying. After historical I like suspense, paranormal, mysteries and some horror. Normally I don't read both ends of the spectrum such as erotica or inspirational but I never rule any book out!
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