Ah, summer, where scholarly prose yields to beach reading. Of all the book titles published in 2009, 13.2% (9089 titles) were romance novels generating $1.36 billion in sales (second only to the movie tie-in genre and about three times the size of the classic literary fiction genre), according to the Romance Writers of America trade group. Like all other book categories, bodice rippers are sailing, hiking, galloping, and otherwise racing onto e-readers. Major trade publishers say e-books now make up about 9% to 10% of overall sales.
The typical reader, women aged 31 to 49 years old, reads about a book a week, according to a NY Times article, and major publishers like Random House are digitizing their backlist as fast as they can. Harlequin Enterprises digitized nearly 10,000 titles, dating back to 2002. Barnes & Noble started a 'romance store' for its Nook Color e-reader, discounting titles to $2.99 to hook new readers.
The only odd part -- the publishers often do not have digital rights to the cover illustrations, so about half the books come with blank covers...shades of mailing items in a plain brown wrapper.
Backlisted e-romance novels: not just a guilty pleasure, but a profitable one, too.
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