Increased Romance Sales

I read an interesting article this morning about the surge in romance sales due to the ongoing Covid-19 crisis. As much as I love romance novels myself, I've never really spoken to friends or family about liking this genre, it's always been a private thing. Lots of my friends and I speak about fiction, or non-fiction books that we read, but I find that reading romance novels isn't always something people are open about, and why is that?

As the article states, this isn't the first time that sales in romance novels have increased. And not only have sales increased, "sales for most every consumer item you can think of declined - except for romance novels." This surge of sales has not only just recently happened, but happened in the great recession of 2008-2009, post-9/11, and other times. But why?

Romance novels mostly follow the same premise, people who are intended to be together, end up together, something that can seem very comforting "when the world seems to be falling apart." Humans are social beings in nature and as Dianne Moggy, Vice President of editorial with Harlequin states, "Harlequin books are a safe place in the world because there is a guaranteed happy ending for every story; they deliver feelings of hope and positivity that can remain with you long after the last page."

For me, and many other readers, we want that happy ending, the hope and positivity that comes with reading a romance novel. Not only are we able to escape the current world and our uncertainty, fear and unhappiness, but we are given the promise of a happy ending and positivity - something that will always pull my attention to a romance novel.