Thoughts on Writing and Romance

I'm at 28K words or so into my NaNo book and on target to finish somewhere around November 22 according to my online report card. Whew. It's true that slow and steady wins the race. Not that I've won yet. There's still Thanksgiving to get through and Joy is getting tubes put back in her ears this week. So many more struggles here at home to compete with my time.

Remember when I wrote about the details of the Romance Publishing industry this summer. Where here are some new numbers to grapple with:

· Romance novels currently comprise the largest share
of the consumer book market as reported this fall in Time Magazine. More
than one out of four books sold is a romance and romance novels earned nearly
$1.4 billion in sales last year. The happy ending feature of romance
novels seems to be the uplifting aspect that appeals to people even more in a
recession.

· Some of the challenges the publishing industry
struggled with in 2008 and is continuing to in 2009 include the following:
imprints reorganized, independent booksellers struggle, mass merchandisers like
Wal-Mart continued to dominated the book-selling scene; proliferation of
used books, book piracy, increased competition for consumer leisure time.

· Americans only spent 3.9 hours per week reading
books in 2008, while they spent 15 hours online and 12.1 hours watching
television. The biggest challenge for the publishing industry to overcome may be
increasing the perceived value of reading. Industry analysts believe the
book business should remember that the future of content isn’t about whether
it is seen, but whether it is valued.

So, while it's not all peaches and sunshine the Romance industry is still keeping the publishing industry afloat. While you may not think that 'romance' is for you I would venture to bet that there's a romance book out there somewhere that you'd love. There are so many subgenres within the romance umbrella that it's almost impossible not to find something you don't love.

If you like funny - try a Jennifer Crusie. If you like suspense - try Linda Howard. If you like terrorists - try Cherry Adair. If you like vampires - well, there are so many to pick from:) And if you just want to get more ideas you can take a look at the reviews I've been writing or go over to my sister blog and see the books I've been reading over the course of this year.