For decades, the Romance Writers of America (RWA) served as a champion for the mostly female authors of one of the country's most popular - and denigrated - genres of fiction. Read more
In 1972, Avon Books published "The Flame and the Flower," by Kathleen Woodiwiss - a hefty historical romance that traded chastity for steamy sex scenes. It arrived in the thick of the sexual revolution, and readers loved it: It was an instant bestseller that's credited with birthing the modern romance genre. Read more
The Authors Guild, along with five other writers' groups and the nonprofit Open Markets Institute, has sent a letter to the Department of Justice asking the government to block Penguin Random House's pending acquisition of Simon & Schuster. Read more
If it hadn't been for the pandemic and the near impossibility of visiting Vivian Stephens in person, I'm not sure I would have been so attuned to her voice. It is gay and mellifluous; she always sounded delighted to hear from me, a reaction most reporters are not accustomed to. Read more
For years, RWA's members of color had felt stigma and hostility like that experienced by Huguley and Malone; they'd felt unwanted, disrespected, or simply shut out. So had the queer members, and the poly members, and everyone else who didn't quite fit into the traditional romance mold. Read more
Romance Writers of America is attempting to turn the page on a damaging racism row, abolishing its top literary prizes and replacing them with awards in a new format it hopes will show "happily ever afters are for everyone" and not just white protagonists. Read more
As a controversy over bias and a lack of transparency at the Romance Writers of America continues to roil the country's foremost writers association for romance writers, the RWA has announced that it will postpone the 2020 RITA Contest until next year. The RITA Award is the U.S.'s top prize for romance fiction.
A white romance novelist's ethics complaint against the author Courtney Milan for calling her book a "racist mess" led to the censure of Milan and sparked an uproar across the publishing world. Now the novelist, Kathryn Lynn Davis, says that her original complaint about the professional harm she suffered was not accurate.
Not to say that it's something in the water, it's often noticed by international observers that the two major publishing markets have different entertainment-genre priorities. The Americans love love. For the Brits, good literature is murder.
IN 2013, the Romance Writers of America (RWA) estimated that sales of romantic novels amounted to $1.08 billion, and accounted for 13% of adult fiction consumed that year, outselling science-fiction, mystery and literary novels. In the five years to 2015 in Britain alone, romance and erotic fiction sold 39.8m physical books worth £178.09m. Read more
'Sometimes the ideas just come to me. Other times I have to sweat and almost bleed to make ideas come. It's a mysterious process, but I hope I never find out exactly how it works. I like a mystery, as you may have noticed.'
‘I usually go back a little bit and then move forward. The objective is that I want the reader to be transported. Writing is like a ride - you're getting into a spaceship and you're going somewhere where you're going to have an adventure. It takes you away from the moment that you're in and your real life... Read more
£1,000, publication on the Conversation's website, and mentorship from a Curtis Brown literary agent and a Faber book editor.
The Conversation Insights is partnering Faber and Curtis BrownSee Curtis Brown listing in launching a writing prize for academics. The Conversation Prize aims to discover 'the most promising new writers from the world of academia' and is aimed at experts who are keen to develop a trade publishing career. Read more
Your world is constructed: you have a comprehensive setting, a cast of characters (human and/or otherwise), and a plot ready to launch. You come to the first lines of dialogue in the story; how do your characters speak? In this article I'll look at some useful strategies, and some of the pitfalls, involved in fantasy dialogue. Read more
A new study of current trends and consumer attitudes to buying and reading books has found the UK to be among the nations with the biggest reading public.
Author Helen Fielding says Bridget Jones has found a new audience with Gen Z, who have more problems than young women did 30 years ago but take comfort in the character's trials and tribulations.
Keira Knightley is latest star to publish a children's book, but some say trend pushes aside genuine writers and makes it harder to find great children's fiction
This year, Frankfurt Book FairWorld's largest trade fair for books; held annually mid-October at Frankfurt Trade Fair, Germany; First three days exclusively for trade visitors; general public can attend last two. will include a space dedicated to the boom in New Adult publishing. In the fair's own words, the 8,000 sq metre area will offer "an additional home to the successful New Adult genre and its subgenres Romantasy and Dark College [known in the UK as Dark Academia], along with many queer publishing houses". Read more
The volume of hardback books sold in the first week of publication by some of the bestselling authors is down compared to their previous titles, despite the fact that in some cases revenues have either remained flat or gone up marginally, analysis of Bookscan data reveals. Read more
'The really heroic thing about Nick Hornby is that he lives in north London and rarely leaves it... Every English writer needs their corner that is forever England - but only a few brave men choose to make that corner Highbury.'
Writing about Scarpetta
‘I usually go back a little bit and then move forward. The objective is that I want the reader to be transported. Writing is like a ride - you're getting into a spaceship and you're going somewhere where you're going to have an adventure. It takes you away from the moment that you're in and your real life... Read more