Romance Novels and RWA

One of my RWA (Romance Writers of America) chaptermates brought my attento to this MSNBC clip from the Today Show about romance novels and the recent RWA conference in San Francisco.

Take a moment to watch. I know a lot of people thumb their noses at romance novels and romance writers. As a newly published author, I'm asked, "What kinds of books do you write?" I'll answer with, "Romance, a combination of romantic comedy and suspense." Quite often their response is, "I don't read those kinds of books."

Well, somebody does. Most likely, the very person that thumbed their noses at romance reads romance, they just don't realize it. Romance sells more books than any other fiction category. Yup, it's true, more than mysteries, more than SciFi, etc. Last year romance novels generated 1.375 billion in sales according to statistics on RWA's website.

Why are romance novels so popular? Part of the reason is what authors call the HEA--happily ever after. If you're like me and hate bad endings, you know that romance novels guarantee a good ending. With all of the stress and bad news in our lives, it's rewarding to escape into a fantasy world if even for a few minutes.

Another reason is diversity. There are romance novels for every taste. You can read steamy or sweet, paranormals, suspense, historicals, contemporaries, futuristics, science fiction. You name it, you can find it in romance.

Romance continues to grow and meet the needs of a young audience. The romance novel of today is very different from the one of twenty years ago. It'll be interesting to see where we are in the next twenty years.

So keep reading, and we'll keep writing.

Hi from RWA Nationals

Hi, everyone, Jami Davenport from the Romance Writers of America's National Conference in San Francisco, California. I'm rooming with fellow Siren authors, Wendi Darlin and Allie K. Adams. We all arrived within an hour of each other on Tuesday afternoon only to find that our suite was "downgraded" to a small room with two small beds. Well, needless to say, there was no other room at the inn, so we're making do quite nicely actually.

Allie took us on a whirlwind tour of SF yesterday, complete with a packed trolley ride, in which Wendi and I were hanging on for dear life; and a rollercoaster ride by an accommodating taxi driver down SF's steepest hills. I think we left our stomachs somewhere on the 2nd block down the hill.

Wednesday night, we attended the literacy booksigning. I'd promised Nora autographs for some friends so I stood in Nora's line for 45 minutes just to get them. I'm happy to report that fellow Siren author, Lara Santiago, sold out of all her books at her first RWA booksigning. Later, we met Lara, Morgan Ashbury, and Morgan's husband for a lovely dinner in the hotel.

Then this morning I drug myself out of bed and went to a breakfast hosted by Debbie Macomber, who is the founder of my local RWA chapter. Debbie was hosting several Aussies and New Zealanders who were a hoot. After that, we met Lara and Morgan at the luncheon. Are you getting the theme of this so far? We're eating our way through San Francisco!

Victoria Alexander gave an entertaining talk at the luncheon on nuggets of wisdom. One of which was: If literary fiction is like wine then popular fiction is like water--and everybody drinks water.This afternoon we'll attend workshops and parties this evening. Needless to say, we're have a wonderful time connecting with old friends and making new ones.