2004 Romance Author Roundtable

8. AOTW: What are some things that you think could help increase awareness and sales of romance books?

Kimberly Raye: Compared to other industries, book publishers do a paltry amount of promotion for authors and titles, i.e. their "product." I think this is due for the most part to the fact that in the past, publishers didn't have to publicize books. The romance industry blossomed in the eighties without benefit of promotion. Authors hit the New York Times list and made huge profits, and all without any major effort from their publishers. But times have changed. Consumers have more to choose from when it comes to entertainment. Even so, publishers are still doing the same thing they did twenty years ago --- they're putting a book out there and watching it sink or swim. This isn't true for music and movies. A record or production company often has a concrete plan to push a new artist. The primary goal of this plan? To develop name recognition and influence public perception. Perception is everything. If consumers perceive something as a hot new trend, it will be.

I think today's publishers need to realize that they have more sales power than they realize. But to use that power, they need to develop and utilize a solid marketing plan, complete with a decent budget and savvy ad people. I think books are a lot like milk. With sodas and power drinks dominating the beverage market, who wants a boring glass of milk anymore? No one, and so dairy producers responded with an effective ad campaign that gave milk more visibility and made it more hip. Publishers could take a lesson. Consumers might be more inclined to pick up a romance novel if they saw their favorite actor or pop star with a book in hand. Just an idea . . .

Mary Balogh: My main suggestion is already being implemented --- though I don't claim any credit! The sleazy covers that used to adorn our books so that male buyers would choose the books to go into their stores are gradually becoming a thing of the past. They almost never gave an accurate idea of the book within the covers. I wept over some of mine! Most romances now look like real books.

Nicole Jordan: Publisher support is one crucial thing --- providing good visibility through distribution and shelf space. And celebrity support such as the successful "Reading with Ripa" program gains romances a whole new audience. And, of course, the phenomenal success of Nora Roberts can only be good for our genre, because it gets large numbers of readers to read romance and women's fiction.

Laura Lee Guhrke: This is a tough question. Publicity always helps. I also think it would be good to do research on the younger demographic, seeking out the types of romances they would like to read. It seems to me that all romance readers discovered the romance novel when they were young, usually in their twenties, and once they picked up the first one, they were hooked.

Lisa Jackson: Is there a lack of awareness? (More than half of all paperback fiction sold is romance . . . ) That said, I think each author should promote his or her own work through the media, booksellers and librarians. For example, in addition to my author website, www.lisajackson.com, I built an interactive website called www.themysterymansion.com, where each of my villains has a lair in a spooky mansion. There are games, pictures of the books' characters, contests and other fun stuff. It gets a lot of traffic.

Stephanie Bond: Stereotypes for a product/industry are almost always invented by people outside the industry. The only way to tear down stereotypes is to persuade non-romance readers to see what they're missing! Personally, I'd like to see publishers mobilize the romance-reading community itself with something like a "Give a Friend a Romance Novel" day. Our readers are our greatest champions because they know firsthand how much romance novels can enrich a woman's life.

Jill Marie Landis: First, I'd put the romance section at the front of the chain stores and not back by the fire exits.

Secondly, I think that readers in general need to be educated as to what a romance novel is. The perception of some "non-romance" readers I know who "don't read romance" think that a "romance" is only a series category, like a Harlequin or Silhouette.

When I ask them if they've ever read Nora Roberts, Jayne Krentz, Catherine Coulter, Linda Lael Miller, Debbie Macomber, or other bestsellers from our genre, they say, "Sure, but they don't write romance."

I think publishers will have to start pushing reading in general and offer lower prices to get readers hooked on new authors. Romance will sell itself.

People are spending less time reading and more time on the Internet, answering emails, watching television and DVDs. Hey, what are you doing right now?

Karen Rose: I think more publicly exposing the wide variety of plots, themes and subgenres would be a good first step. I have people write me who say, "I picked your book up on a whim. I don't normally read romance, because I didn't think I'd like it, but I will from now on." What's happening is that these readers have a perception of what they believe romance to be --- which is usually a small slice of the overall pie. Showing the full range of possibilities and letting people know how rich the genre really is would open a lot of minds connected to feet that normally walk elsewhere in the bookstore.

Linda Francis Lee: Discussions like this that are available to all types of readers help to increase awareness of the fact that romance novels make up over 50% of all mass market sales. I also think the new direction of more originally executed covers helps as well.

Linda Lael Miller: I think people need to be educated about what romance has become. Also, it's a feminist issue with me --- some factions seem to believe that anything created for and largely by women must be inherently inferior. What a load of horse pooh.

Judi McCoy: We need to let readers know that our books can be fun yet address modern problems or situations, even when we write fantasy. When a reader closes my book, my most heartfelt wish is that they sigh with satisfaction and say, "Wow, there was so much to think about in that book. It was funny, thought-provoking, sexy, and a joy to read."

Lisa Kleypas: I think continuing as we all are --- trying to write, publish and promote the most wonderful novels we can, and believing that readers will respond to our efforts.

Beverly Jenkins: If non-romance readers would stop dealing with romance as if its writers use crayons and pictographs. Yes, there are some badly written romances on the shelves, but there are also some badly written mysteries, horror and sci-fi being published, too.

Jane Feather: More mainstream publicity, maybe.

Susan Crandall: I'm afraid this isn't my strength. For my part, I'm going to keep writing a book I can be proud of and asking those people with the raised eyebrow if they've ever READ a romance.

Cherry Adair: Writing great books and getting them out to readers!