8
votes
Romance and erotica is the top revenue-generating literary category in the US, accounting for more than half of all mass-market paperbacks sold
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- Title
- Book Genres That Make the Most Money | Bookstr
- Published
- Jan 6 2017
- Word count
- 291 words
This is not a surprise to me at all. Growing up, my grandma, all her friends and most older women her age that I knew had subscriptions for what was basically soft erotica in the form of romance novelettes. Two of my aunts have the same or similar subscription 30 years later.
These are older women who were taught that sex is wrong and should only be for procreation between a husband and a wife. For at least one of my aunts, these books are probably the only way she knows how to explore her sexuality.
Anecdotal as well, but in my experience it's not just old women that enjoy these types of novels either; My "hard living", "hard drinking", ultra-redneck, retired industrial welder, NASCAR loving, elk/moose hunting, game meat jerky making uncle reads a ton of "trashy" romance novels too.
When I first saw him reading one, with Fabio on the cover of it no less, I literally did a double take... and when I asked him about it, he said he was introduced to them by his hunting buddy who always took them with him on long hunting trips. I'm not going to lie and say I didn't rib him for it... because I did... but the more he talked about them and how before he had been introduced to them he hadn't read a book (other than technical manuals) in decades, the more guilty I felt for having done that... and now whenever he visits I make sure not to give him shit for it but instead just ask him judgement free questions about what he's been reading lately.
The heart wants what the heart wants. Good on you for having an more open mind.
Here in Brazil romances with muscle guys on the cover with names like "The Widow", "Only One Night", "The Lawyer" sells like water.