Reading Romances

What is your preference?

When I look back at all the romances I’ve read over the years, it seems to me they have changed.  No longer do readers want “just” a romantic movie or book where the central theme is a love story and there’s a satisfying end to the story.  Most of the time that means “lives happily ever after”.

No, today’s reader wants something extra.  Whether it be the amount of heat, that’s in a book or a movie or something suspenseful, today’s romance has a secondary and sometimes a tertiary plot running through the novel.  Then there are sub-genres: paranormal, western, Amish, inspirational, contemporary, historical, young adult, erotic or suspense.  A veritable smorgasbord to choose from!  And each person who loves a good romance has a different perspective on what they like or don’t like.

These days the category or series romances are popular.  Personally, I love them because some of the same beloved characters show up again in another story!  Or sometimes it’s the setting where all the stories take place. It doesn’t matter, readers love them.

While researching what surprised me was the number of men who read them.  A whopping 18% of all readers are men.  The men I know wouldn’t touch them unless they were being forced to as is the case with my husband who gives me feedback on dialogue.  Perhaps men who read them are incredibly secure in their own masculinity to do so.

The statistics on the age of readers today were also surprising.  I would have thought it would be more baby boomers, but it wasn’t.  Very frequent readers were under the age of 34!  And only 64% were e-book reader which also surprised me.  Personally, I use a service with my iPad mini to read as many as I can in a month for a small monthly fee.

There are other statistics regarding romance readership but these were the most interesting.

Are you surprised by the statistics?  What’s your favorite sub-genre of romance?

 

7 Comments

  1. Sherri says:

    My sons read my books, probably because they are in them, I actually have several male readers, a couple who are Beta readers. My father-in-law reads everything and is one of my biggest supporters.

    1. Seralynn Lewis says:

      It took my husband almost two years to read my books and he read them one right after another. Now he beta reads for me. Pastor’s wives have read my books as well as elders in the church who want to know when the next one is coming out! Writing a book takes time. 😉

  2. Peggy Lovelace Ellis says:

    I’ve noticed that romances are no longer only romance. I like the depth of story that a touch (at least) of mystery brings to happily every after. This reminds me of a few decades ago when cozy mysteries stopped being simply mysteries. At that time, people who supposedly knew what they were talking about said at least 30% of a cozy should be romance. I don’t doubt Agatha Christie flipped in her grave! Being a mystery fan, I had to adjust to what I considered an unnecessary intrusion. I suppose romance readers today feel the same way.

    1. Seralynn Lewis says:

      Thank you for your comment. I have been a romance reader for decades. When I first started reading them, it was all about the romance with no sub-plots whatsoever. And I loved them, but I’m at a point in my reading that I love a little suspense and mystery along with the romance. I found it hard to distinguish between a romantic suspense and a straight romance until I learned the difference from a writing instructor I had.

  3. D. Denise Dianaty says:

    My favorite sub-genre is paranormal romance. It’s the genre I chose for my ebook novelette, *The Dance Plays On…*

    1. Seralynn Lewis says:

      Thank you for reading the article. And good luck with your book!

    2. Louise Glass says:

      That’s mine also. I’m doing a series of paranormal romances called the Dream Lover series on Amazon and I’m working on book two right now- I took a break. My readers are 18 percent men- the rest women- all ages. Very young to eighties!

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