Romance writers

For Arielle, discovering romance novels was like uncovering a new world.

At 15, she belongs to a new generation of romance readers who have fallen in love with the genre after finding it online.

In 2023, romance fiction was the top-earning subgenre of fiction in the United States. Even if you're not a romance reader-yet-you've likely picked up on the buzz. Romance readership has grown exponentially since the hellish year that was 2020, and it was not a small market to begin with.  Read more

Saying that romance is a genre the literati love to hate is a hackneyed truism. The preponderance of tropes, if they're not well handled, can give romance a predictable or formulaic feel. Why, then, are they so enduringly popular? Why do they continue to outsell so many other genres, when the story's outcome in all cases is a given?

Last year ended #HEA (that's happily ever after) for Romance & Sagas, as sales continued an upward BookTok-boosted momentum to hit £62.4m through Nielsen BookScan's Total Consumer Market. That's the category's second-best total ever, only bettered by 2012's Fifty Shades of Grey-fuelled (£68.3m) climax.

All my favourite memories as a teenager - and I insist you fully judge me for this - are of sitting in my bedroom, reading. I have a huge family and, as the only black sheep introvert, my escape was hiding away with a novel. I would withdraw from all the loudness and reality of my life with a novel that made me laugh, cry and - above all else - pretend.