- Serve Your Patrons
Serve Your Patrons. Romance novels are the most popular of all the popular fictions. Just look at the numbers. In the past year, 64.1 million Americans have read at least one romance novel. That's up from 51.1 million romance readers 2002 and 41 million in 1998. Twenty-five percent of romance readers checked their last romance novel out of a library. Do the math—that adds up to a lot of patrons! - Increase Circulation
Having a romance reader friendly library is good business for your library. Romance readers outnumber all other genre readers; and romance readers are avid readers. (See References below for more information on these readers.) Catalog your romance novel collection—yes, the paperbacks, too—and your library's circulation numbers will likely soar. It's happened at libraries all over the country. For more information on the advantages of cataloging romances, check out the January/February issue of Public Libraries for the article "Romancing Your Readers" (p. 43-48) which I co-authored with librarian John Charles. - Please Readers
These books have a powerful appeal to their readers. I'm often asked why. My answer is they're both powerful and popular for the same reason that paintings by Monet and music by Tchaikovsky are—because they appeal to the emotions. In our culture, we too often value logic above emotion. (Perhaps that's one of several reasons why mysteries and science fiction were much quicker to gain recognition in the library community than romance novels.) Think about it. When was the accusation "You're so emotional" considered a good thing? Yet humans are emotional beings—and romance feeds our craving for emotion. - Support Women
Ignoring this genre opens you to the risk of being accused of having a sexist collection. If you catalog mysteries and have a selection process for them, purchasing them and not just depending on donations, but don't do the same for romances, then your collection is unbalanced. You're not treating all genre fictions equally. Romance novels are mostly written, edited, and read by women. To treat romance as an ugly stepsister of other genre fiction is to treat your female patrons as less than worthy. Don't send a negative message to your female patrons. - Keep Current.
All romance novels are not all the same, and new romances are published daily. Keeping up with romance adds vitality and currency to your collection. To find out who the most popular authors are and investigate the current best sellers, visit Romance Writers of America's website at http://www.rwanational.org. There you'll find information in RWA's Honor Roll of Best Selling Authors as well as links to all author members' websites. - Embrace Diversity.
Romances are incredibly diverse. There are many subgenres in addition to historicals and contemporaries. For example, there are paranormal romances, which can be further broken down into vampire romances, ghost romances, time-travel romances, werewolf romances, witch romances and so on. Vampire romances can then be broken down into smaller subgenres like chic-lit vampire romances (like those of Mary Janice Davidson) or regency romances (After Midnight by Teresa Medeiros), to name a few.
If you are unfamiliar with the romance genre, you can learn more about it from Romance Writers of America (RWA). Their website has a section specifically for librarians (http://www.rwanational.org/librarians/librarians.htm). This section even includes a semi-annual online newsletter Checking Out Romance, intended to educate librarians about the genre. RWA will be an exhibitor at PLA in Boston this March (Booth 316). Stop by and see me at the booth, where you can get more information about the genre as well as a Romance Reader Friendly button for your Readers Advisory desk and a Romance Rules ruler (free while supplies last). Also watch for the PLA workshop "What's Love Got to Do With It: The Enduring Appeal of Romance" on Thursday, March 23, 4-5:15 pm. In addition, each year RWA sponsors a special Librarian's Day Event at our annual conference, which is in Atlanta this July 26th. Daylong workshops and a lunch as well as a goodie bag of free books are all included for the price of $25. Libraries Unlimited Senior Editor Barbara Ittner has described this event as something "any librarian who deals with fiction should attend". Registration for the event is limited. More information, including workshop schedule and registration form will be on RWA's website (Librarians Section) after January 28th.
Why Romance? If you're still not convinced, read a good romance. There are plenty of them out there.
References
Romance Writers of America, Readers statistics 2005. Accessed January, 1, 2006, http://www.rwanational.org/statistics/reader_stats.htm
Cathie Linz is an award-winning and best-selling romance writer; and the Library Liaison for RWA. Her most recent book, Good Girls Do (Berkley, January 2006), has been reviewed by Library Journal and Booklist, where it received a starred review. (Incidentally, the heroine of the book is a librarian.)