Mobile
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Arts / News Romance novels booming
Posted By Anita Overcash on Wed, Apr 8, 2009 at 9:56 AM
More folks reading romance novels? Yeah. This article in the NY Times says romance novels are being sold more than other genres of books. Read more below.
In a recession, what people want is a happy ending.At a time when booksellers are struggling to lure readers, sales of romance novels are outstripping most other categories of books and giving some buoyancy to an otherwise sluggish market.
Harlequin Enterprises, the queen of the romance world, reported that fourth-quarter earnings were up 32 percent over the same period a year earlier, and Donna Hayes, Harlequin’s chief executive, said that sales in the first quarter of this year remained very strong. While sales of adult fiction overall were basically flat last year, according to Nielsen Bookscan, which tracks about 70 percent of retail sales, the romance category was up 7 percent after holding fairly steady for the previous four years.
At Barnes & Noble, the country’s largest book chain, where its chief financial officer, Joe Lombardi, recently warned that overall 2009 sales were likely to fall between 4 percent and 6 percent, sales of romance novels are up. And in the first three months of this year Nielsen Bookscan tracked a 2.4 percent rise in romance sales compared with a slight decline in sales of general adult fiction for the same period. Those figures may underestimate the demand for romance, since a significant portion of sales come from retailers like Wal-Mart that are not tracked by Bookscan. Read more here.
Speaking of...
-
The Moffett Restaurant Group Celebrates the 20th Anniversary of Barrington’s Restaurant
Oct 12, 2020 -
Cancer's better with a side of 'shrooms
Aug 7, 2020 -
The Art of Influence
Aug 2, 2020 - More »
Latest in The CLog
More by Anita Overcash
-
Milling around Haberdish
Dec 28, 2016 -
Farewell; my time at The Loaf
Dec 28, 2016 -
Today's Top 5: Thursday
Dec 22, 2016 - More »
-
Jigsaw, Dating App That Hides Users’ Faces, launches in Charlotte, NCTo Fight Superficial Dating App Culture 3
-
Question the Queen City: The story of Mabel Rea 4
The Charlotte native went Hollywood, returned home and met a tragic demise.
-
Knight and Day: Plot eclipsed by stars 1
Cruise and Diaz are main reasons to consider seeing mindless action flick.
