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> readers really altered their preferences to avoid being seen with a physical romance novel. I'd be cautious about coming to this conclusion so definitively.

> readers really altered their preferences to avoid being seen with a physical romance novel. I'd be cautious about coming to this conclusion so definitively. The vast majority of romance readers are women, many in a cultural milieu that differs from yours. Reading romances is not universally looked down upon — several of the highly educated women in my family do so unabashedly, for example, as do I. E-reading is also cheaper and consumes less space than physical books. The number of niches and options therein exploded with self-publishing. I suspect that those factors are more important than avoiding the potential embarrassment of someone seeing you reading Danielle Steele. But I wouldn't put high certainty on my guess either :P

kaitai 9y ago
Overall agree... even with Danielle Steele comment... but what about paranormal reindeer shifter novels? Or erotic menage a trois set in Victorian England? There are plenty of "simply sweet" books you wouldn't mind being asked about on the train, but there's a wide swathe of books you might not want to explain! E-books solve a real "fat-tail" problem in romance at the same time that they allow discretion in public places. These days only Amazon knows you've got a thing for hot billionaire Navy SEALs who turn into otters at night. A physical bookstore would not be able to stock all Chuck Tingle's novels and turn a profit, and people in towns too highbrow to stock romances wouldn't be able to buy them without mail-order. (In some towns it can actually be really hard to find romance novels for sale on paper, and there's a huge bias toward the NYTimes bestsellers.)
- DrScump 9y ago
  Or erotic menage a trois set in Victorian England? Ha! A former colleague who was a Tech Writer later followed her dream and became a published author specializing in Victorian era historical romances. She was particularly thrilled at her first contract because she most loved to travel to London, and now she could write off the travel costs on her taxes as research.

kaitai 9y ago

Overall agree... even with Danielle Steele comment... but what about paranormal reindeer shifter novels? Or erotic menage a trois set in Victorian England? There are plenty of "simply sweet" books you wouldn't mind being asked about on the train, but there's a wide swathe of books you might not want to explain! E-books solve a real "fat-tail" problem in romance at the same time that they allow discretion in public places. These days only Amazon knows you've got a thing for hot billionaire Navy SEALs who turn into otters at night. A physical bookstore would not be able to stock all Chuck Tingle's novels and turn a profit, and people in towns too highbrow to stock romances wouldn't be able to buy them without mail-order. (In some towns it can actually be really hard to find romance novels for sale on paper, and there's a huge bias toward the NYTimes bestsellers.)

DrScump 9y ago
Or erotic menage a trois set in Victorian England? Ha! A former colleague who was a Tech Writer later followed her dream and became a published author specializing in Victorian era historical romances. She was particularly thrilled at her first contract because she most loved to travel to London, and now she could write off the travel costs on her taxes as research.