By Lori James
PALM HARBOR, FL: Digital publishing is a popular topic at the moment, and it should be. During a time when our overall world-wide economy is struggling, digital sales are up, way up. The top selling genre? Romance. At AllRomance.com we’re carefully watching this rapidly shifting market. With over 30,000 romance titles, and close to $3 million in annualized sales, we’re in a unique position to monitor trends in the industry. One thing we can report, is that 2009 has been a very good year.
All Romance Ebooks, LLC opened the doors to our first digital bookstore in November of 2006. We wanted to create a store where readers could come and buy all the Romance they need from all the publishers they love. The phrase became our tagline and the store, aptly named All Romance, opened with 18 participating publishers and close to 2,000 titles. In our three years in business we’ve not only experienced tremendous growth, but the digital industry in general has as well. We keep abreast of technology, try to look at and evaluate all of the new e-book readers, communicate frequently with publishers, and attend trade shows. But at the end of the day, there’s one thing driving this big beautiful digital bus: the reader.
Readers come to our site every day and cast their vote to support reading digitally with their dollars. The average price point of a single e-book is around $4.67, a small price to pay for hours of escapist entertainment with a guaranteed happily-ever-after. Not only are readers spending more on e-books, the e-book reading population is growing, and it’s growing fast. We’ve experienced a 250% increase in our customer base this year.
Myth: Digital reading is only for techies
Not true. Digital reading is for your grandma. We know this because A) we spent thirty minutes helping her download and install Adobe Digital Editions yesterday so she could read the latest Harlequin Blaze, and B) the “over 60″ demographic grew significantly for us in 2009.
According to RWA’s 2009 Reader Statistics, “the heart of the U.S. romance novel readership is women aged 31-49 who are currently in a romantic relationship.” We’re seeing something slightly different. Although it’s clear woman and men (10% of our customers are male) of all ages are reading digitally, only 40% of our customers are under 30. While it’s true that the younger folks who are more comfortable with technology are still buying the bulk of digital romance novels, the tides are definitely shifting.
Myth: New York publishers are leading the digital world
Although there are many strong advocates for digital among the traditional print publishers, some of whom are innovative role models, they aren’t leading in terms of sales. An important factor here is Digital Rights Management, a form of encryption.
Piracy is the issue that drives publishers toward the decision to employ DRM, and we sell both encrypted and unencrypted files on our site. What we’ve come to understand is that romance readers don’t like DRM. Yes, that’s a very broad and general statement, but since only 3% of our sales from 2008 and 2009 were for DRM titles, I think we can make it. Even though we saw several new and compelling reading devices introduced this year and experienced overall growth in the digital market, there’s been no increase in the market share for DRM sales.
Which publishers are forgoing the use of DRM? For the most part, that would be the indie presses, the same publishers who were early adopters of digital publishing.
Myth: Microsoft is king
Where have we seen growth? Adobe is by and large our customer’s most preferred file format. With about 70% of the files downloaded being Adobe, the race here isn’t even close. Their position is solid and has remained fairly steady since we opened our doors. Most computer users have read documents with Adobe Reader and they find the transition to using the software to read books simple and easy.
More interesting is what’s been happening with second place. We have what essentially amounts to a 3-way tie between the LIT (MS Reader), PRC (MobiPocket), and Epub (Open e-book) formats with both MS Reader and MobiPocket losing market share to the more versatile and smart phone-friendly Epub.
Myth: Romance = Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl. Boy and girl live happily-ever-after.
Romance is also about werewolves falling in love with girls. Sometimes it’s about two or more boys falling in love with a girl. It’s even about boys falling in love with boys. Formulaic is out. Edgy is in.
In 2009 we saw a 22% decline in straight contemporary. What were the niche sub-genres in which we saw a significant increase? Rubenesque (i.e. stories that feature women with curves), Paranormal, Werewolves and Gay Fiction—and the hotter the better. At least in terms of sales. At All Romance we have publishers rate the sexual content of their titles using our Heat Index and we provide those ratings to our customers. A full 97% of our sales are rated 3 or more flames, that’s the point at which love scenes start to become more graphic and the language more direct.
Myth: Reading digitally is expensive and requires special gadgets
If you have a computer, laptop, PDA or smart phone, you can probably read an e-book on it. You can come to either AllRomance.com (our romance specialty store) or OmniLit.com (our general bookstore) and find well over 100 free reads to test out. You can download Adobe Reader, MS Reader, Stanza, Mobipocket, eReader, and a host of other reading software programs at no cost. You can even gift one of our freebie e-books to a friend and let them try it.
Having said that, I have to admit that the gadgets are cool. This holiday season is predicted to be huge for the e-book industry, with e-book readers holding a top position on many a bibliophile’s wish list. If Santa delivers this Christmas, we predict digital publishers will be having very happy New Year.
Lori James is the COO of All Romance Ebooks, LLC.
CONTACT: Lori James directly.
SHOP: The All Romance Ebooks online bookstore.
48 Comments
Great article, Lori. I think ebooks are definately the wave of the future.
GA
Wonderful article and Lori, your online bookstore is awesome. easy to buy, easy to download.
KyAnn
Great article Lori! All those who think romance isn’t respectable and that ebooks are a fad are now eating their words as both climb steadily in sales. Keep up the great work!
Roni Adams
Great article, Lori. This is a very exciting time in the publishing industry. It will be interesting to see what the new trends are next year.
Marci Baun
Publisher
Wild Child Publishing
Freya’s Bower
Great article Lori,
It’s about time the digital revolution took off, and romance leads the way! As ever!
David Bowman
Publisher
Bluewood Publishing
Terrific article! I have been writing romances for a number of years, and have moved into the erotic romance, erotic thrillers, paranormal genres. Needless to say epublishing is here to stay, although in the beginning the growth was quite slow as many were still unfamiliar with the concept of ebooks. Yet, with eReaders like the Kindle, and devices like the Iphones, and all the rest of the teckkie stuff now available, readers are beginning to see how fantastic it is being able to download a book wherever they are, especially with the rising popularity of erotic romance, and then being able to discreetly download these books away from prying eyes. I think the availability of our books online might be one reason why one of my stories made the best selling list at Cooler Books. And we as authors and publishers are at the beginning of what can still explode into an even bigger market for writers.
Collette Thomas
Erotic Romance Author
Todd Hollow Series at Damnation Books
Great Atricle!
And speaking from the publishing stand point of a mainly e-book compnay. All romance e-books gives my company and authors the visiblity they need. So easy to upload books and so very easy for my authors to promote
Cheers
Kelly ann Pearson
Publisher
Sugar and Spice Press
Dear Ms. James,
As a writer of books in overlapping niche markets mentioned in your article (I write primarily paranormal gay fiction, definitely more than three flames!), I’m thrilled with your announcement. AllRomance.com and OmniLit.com have opened up a far wider audience for my work than was previously available to individual small presses alone. Your customer service is also exemplary, efficient and courteous, and is one of the features that sets you above your competition.
Congratulations, and I wish you continued success!
Jaye Valentine
Excellent mythbusting, Lori!
Zetta Brown
Messalina – Devourer of Men
Logical-Lust Publications
Great article! As a digitally published author I can attest to the fact that the romance of our mothers is long gone. Romance readers of today want it all and authors of today deliver! Vampires, werewolves, shape shifting cats, witches, and all too mortal men and women are the subjects of e-romance novels that pushes the envelope in the bedroom with anything goes, wet, wild and fun sex!
Rie McGaha…fantasy that keeps you up
As one of the authors who has their book listed with All Romance E-Books I love aboslutely love how they work! The company is amazing and with advertising and all the options they offer. I could not be happier! Fabulous Article Lori!
Hugs and Cheesecake!
Dahlia
Terrific, Lori — I really respect what you do and not just because you sell my books
A friend who runs a small niche publishing co always describes the indy publishers as mammals running under the feet of the dinosaurs. The business model for publishing is changing drastically, and those who don’t look ahead will be left behind.
Very interesting, Lori. As a writer, its exciting to know my fave genre, gay erotic fiction, is selling well. Great article.
Bryl R. Tyne
Author
Noble Romance Publishing
Dreamspinner Press
STARbooks Press
Ravenous Romance
As a publisher of the ‘boys falling in love with boys’ erotic romance, gay romance, I have to agree. Doors are opening to all kinds of romance (love is for everyone), and Allromance is a gateway for readers to find the type of reading they want without restrictions. Our niche market is mainly, but not exclusively, made up of straight women and gay men who love reading about men in love and our sales have been increasing each year as new readers discover what we have to offer in both print and digital books. Allromanceebooks helps pave the way for readers.
Laura Baumbach
Publisher
ManLoveRomance Press, LLC
MLRPress.com
As an author of gay romance and gay mysteries (usually with a little romance thrown in for spice) I think we have only seen the tip of the ice berg in ebook sales. As the price of readers come down and the available titles go up, the market is going to boom. I personally love ebooks and I’m really happy that I can say all my titles are available in that format. I look forward to many more.
Great article, Lori.
Pat Brown
http://www.pabrown.ca
Where mystery and romance meet and no one comes out unscathed.
All I can say is that I questioned the viability of digital reading a couple of years back and wrote on on-line article about my dubiousness –”Is Anyone Out There Really Reading E-Books?” — and ended up getting such a “Hell, yes!” response that I immediately set out on a concentrated campaign to get all of my print books presently available on the marketplace (about fifty of them, in just about every genre) converted into e-book format, if they weren’t already. I haven’t been disappointed. In the past couple of years, my royalties from e-books have increased even more impressively than from my print sales. My latest mainstream romance, DARE TO LOVE IN OZ, is just out from Savant Books ( https://www.createspace.com/3407866 ), and I’m already lobbying that publisher to see that this book of mine, too, becomes available for digital readers. Color me impressed!!!
Thanks for adding more updated information to my database! You’re reinforcing some of the things I’ve been hearing (and saying) since 2001, which means indie was on the money all along. Not that I doubted that. Then again, there’s a reason Harlequin’s new Carina line is attempting to adopt the indie model, complete with no DRM. It works very nicely, if you have a good business model, authors on board, marketing plan, and quality…and distribution like ARe/OmniLit.
Brenna
Great article. As a publisher of everything under the sun but specializing in edgy, dynamic stories, I believe e-publishing is the wave of the future. I’m pleased and proud to partner with All Romance, even though you don’t get all Eirelander’s books.
Again, great information.
Best,
T.J. Killian
Editor-in-Chief
Eirelander Publishing
http://www.eirelander-publishing.com
Count me in to the “As a…” club!
As a guy who swore fervently that he’d never *read* Romance, and now writes gay male Romance with an enthusiasm that sometimes borders on mania, I am extraordinarily please with articles like these, Lori. Your clarity and insight in debunking the myths and mysteries of not only the rapidly growing market, but the increased ease with which readers can participate, paves the way for for this new wave to grow still further.
Portals like AllRomance are a perfect “beach” for anyone to grab a surfboard and ride that wave to find something among the thousands of titles and tastes they’ll enjoy again and again.
The sun is bright, the waves are high and curling, and I’ve got my board in the water. Come ride!
Patric Michael
Dreamspinner Press
MLR Press
http://www.patricmichael.com
What a great article. It’s nice to know we stand a good chance now as compared to ten years ago.
The digital world will continue to grow as more readers become informed of their options.
Great article, Lori! In a world going green globally e-books make sense. And it’s easy to store several books in my iphone and I always have a book available whenever I want, which makes e-books less bulky and convenient. As an author and reader, I’m excited about the e-market!
Gracen
Elfin Blood, Noble Romance Publishing
http://www.gracenmiller.com
Excellent, informative article. As an author, again and again I find my decision to add epublishing to my business plan confirmed.
And as so many others here have already said, aRE is a wonderfully author-supportive company.
Hi Lori
Good article – I love the way you address all those myths. E-reading is smart, sexy and ‘green’. More power to the ARE/Omnilit elbow.
Charlie
As an author there was so much in this article that resonated with me. Thanks for all your hard work, Lori.
Stevie Woods
http://steviewoods.com
As an author there was so much in this article that resonated with me. Thanks for all the hard work, Lori, it is much appreciated.
Stevie
http://steviewoods.com
Great article, but I’m going to throw a little bouquet here. A friend of mine bought a Kindle some while back and (I’m happy to report) immediately went to All Romance to download one of my novels. He had some problems, and called me in amazement at how helpful and responsive the site was; the wrong format he’d downloaded was replaced instanter with the right one. Since this guy is a real nitpicker, I took that as a sensational endorsement. Just thought you’d like to know.
Victor
I am so excited and can’t wait to join the ranks of the above authors. What a great article.
~Hales
This is a really great and inspirational article. Thank you.
- Jason
Great article. I see that publishers are working their way toward digital more and more and I say, “hallaleuya!” Thanks for bustin’ those myths, too. Digital is better for the environment, easier on the pocketbook and accessible to people who don’t live next to a bookstore or even a big town. Now that I have a Sony Ebook Reader (as opposed to the old PDA I had) I love reading everywhere I go. I think it will be terrific when public libraries add ebooks to their”shelves”–no more waiting for the book to come back in and no late fees. LOL
Sarah McNeal
As a writer of contemporary romance between a man and a woman, I sure hope my audience doesn’t dry up! That being said, e-publishing is growing for many reasons. No used paperbacks lying around needing to be dropped off somewhere once you are done with them, no trees were killed to publish, they are cheaper, and with the e-readers, just as portable as paperbacks, with the added advantage that if you finish what you are reading on vacation, you can just order up another book and not be out of something new to read. As an author, I found it impossible to even get anyone at the big publishing houses to look at anything I write. But I’ve had 3 books e-published this year, and will continue to submit them to the more author/reader friendly e-publishers.
Fiona McGier
http://www.fionamcgier.com
Now that Barnes & Noble.com have an ebook section and an ebook reader – the Nook – on the way, I think we can safely assume ebooks are here to stay. Good news for all of us – writers, publishers and readers rejoice! Thank you for the great article, and for endorsing the fact that love and romance are for everyone.
Thank you for this informative article on the wave of the book lover’s future. As an author, it is rewarding to know my finished story will be available to the public within weeks, not months. As a reader, the options of E-book are far preferable. I can read on my computer screen, handheld, or if I insist upon paper in hand, I can print it myself. I know that’s not very GREEN of me, but it’s just one printing which will be read, as opposed to hundreds of books returned to warehouses which will probably never again be seen by the public.
Fantastic article. It’s really amazing how far ebooks have come and how we ebook authors are finally getting recognized as being a genuine slice of the publishing pie.
Excellent post Lori!!
Having worked with you I know just how much you put into the company. All Romance has really boomed and I’m proud to say I was there from the start.
I had no idea what an ebook was before meeting Lori. I’ve learned so much since then.
If it wasn’t for Lori and Barb, I probably wouldn’t be here talking today. They got me started.
Keep up the great work!!
Great article!
Here in Australia we were a little slow to accept the ebook, but now they are becoming very popular.
H.C.Brown
Author of Sizzling Romance
Excellent article! Very informative for not only those familiar with e-publishing but to the potential readers and writers who may have been wary of taking the leap to to digital. Thank you.
WTG, Lori! Awesome article and you nailed it on the spot. Your articles are always very imformative. Keep them coming. Happy Holidays. Mae
Have published an e-book combining erotica and science fiction. It’s the first of five providing Vayna’s story, who is born a slave and slowly progresses towards the freedom she ardently desires. The book’s URL is http://www.eloquentbooks.com/Vayna of the Steppes.html The publisher can be reached at marketingmanager@eloquentbooks.com Thank-you.
It’s nice to see that the anecdotal truths that long time customers and dedicated readers have known and championed for several years is being proven with factual statistical purchasing data.
I’ve been actively promoting and converting readers to ebooks for a long time now. One of the first places I always start is by sending them to ARe. At ARe I know that they will find a great selection that will have many tempting choices for them to choose from. More importantly, should something go wrong in the early ebook adoption process, the great customer service at ARe goes a long way toward establishing a comfort level that brings them back for more…
Great article. I love the lines–’Formulaic is out. Edgy is in.’ I can’t stand romances that follow a certain formula. No offense to those who write it, but I like to read different romances. And write them too.
At book signings I always try to convert readers to electronic formats. Lately, I have come across a lot of people who have Kindles and they are delighted when I tell them most of my titles are in Kindle. I think print books will stick around, but I also think ebooks are here to stay.
kelleyheckart.com
Fabulous article, Lori! This explains why All Romance sold so many of Circlet Press’s title FAEWOLF, which is a gay paranormal werewolf romance! Literally 50% of all our ebook sales on the title have come through AllRomance, with the rest scattered among the Kindle Store, Fictionwise, et al.
I’m sure we’re going to see a rush of new readers after everyone gets their new Nooks, Kindles, Cool-ERs, and Sony Readers for holiday gifts this year, too. Rock on.
http://www.circlet.com
Very well done Lori. I am so happy to be a part of All Romance eBooks and it’s been wonderful to watch it grow steadily.
Ally Robertson
ceo: http://www.eternalpress.ca
I really enjoyed the article. I had my first novel e-published this year and I’m very happy to hear that e-books are here to stay. I love the submission process with e-books…no worries whatsoever…no printing…no trips to the post office!
Wonderful article. Everything was right on. As an erotica author it’s a true pleasure that e-publishers are so open to the various romance genres, which include paranormal and erotica. What I enjoy is the fact that my e-publishers have high standards when it comes to the work they accept. They really expect and accept only the best.
Mary Corrales
Dhampir Passions, Eternal Press
Clandestine Eyes, Breathless Press
I’d like to represent the reader side, here ^^, and also comment on how excellent I think Allromance as a site and Lori James in her customer service: you have the heat rating, you have truly long excerpts that give a very good indication of whether a reader will enjoy the tone of a new-to-her author, you have lots of format options (even if I have to decide at the first download which one will be my permanent format to re-download if I need it) you have a wishlist for future purchasing – and the one time I had trouble with a download, you personally reacted very fast providing me with an alternative link so I could read my purchased book as soon as possible.
May the New Year be profitable for all you writers, publishers and shops, and full of enjoyable books for us readers.
P.S. I’m obviously in the minority, but I like the edgy new romance as well as the good old non-suspense, contemporary, character driven romance – and am pleased as punch that I can get those in ebook as well!
Oh and I’m also a reader whose percentage of drm-books is much fewer than her overall purchasing of ebooks, and the ones I buy get stripped of their drm – mostly so I can convert them to my preferred reading format for my eReader.
Lori,
I’ve always been impressed with All Romance eBooks consumer-oriented aims — and how consumer *aware* your company because of them. I hope we get to see you reporting in here at Publishing Perspectives on a regular basis. I know I’d benefit from it!
Best wishes,
Debra Hyde
with Ravenous Romance
This is some very good information, particularly the fact 70% of your sales are for Adobe! I’ve been putting off uploading our titles because the only format I have is Adobe. Maybe I’ll go ahead and get on the stick! Thanks for the info!
Best wished for the Holiday Season and a prosperous New Year!
Charlotte Holley
Gypsy Shadow Publishing
I’d like to thank Lori James for the enlightening statistics on the e-book Romance audience. I’m an author of paranormals with Eternal Press and a big romance fan.
As a fifty-something, I was a bit leary of reading an entire novel in PDF form, but that stopped after the first one I read. Now, I can confirm that I love the convenience of e-books and find them easy to read. The fact that they are environmentally friendly is a big plus. While I still buy hard copies of many books, I find myself buying more and more e-books for light reading.
It’s also nice to hear that my chosen subject matter – werewolves vampires, etc. – is still on target.
8 Trackbacks
[...] lot of money and have a lot of fun doing it. At the Web site Allromanceebooks.com, discussed in our lead article today, the site asks readers to rate each book’s “heat index” (explained below). [...]
[...] Lori James of All Romance EBooks shared some of her insights as a retailer of romance digital books. DRM clearly inhibits sales as only 3% of sales at her site are for DRM’ed ebooks. It’s another article that I thought was really fascinating although I do wonder whether anyone though Microsoft was a player in ebooks. Hasn’t it always been Adobe? [...]
[...] figures cited above are similar to those cited in a recent column at Publishing Perspectives which features Lori James talking about the sales of ebooks at her sites All Romance Ebooks and [...]
[...] you think e-books are hot in romance? Publishing Perspectives does. They have numbers and quotes, including information that the over 60 demographic reading [...]
[...] In your Publishing Perspectives article, you noted that Adobe is far and away the leading format, and this corresponds to my [...]
[...] You should! Slightly embarrassed by the stylized “chiseled pecks and heaving bosoms”? e-Book sales (sans cover) are through the roof as well! Problem solved. Do you keep a box of favorite salacious [...]
[...] experiment.) Of course, this makes complete sense. Genre publishing, particularly romance fiction, has had ebook only publications for years. Maybe that’s why romance readers — which one would not expect are necessarily more [...]
[...] experiment.) Of course, this makes complete sense. Genre publishing, particularly romance fiction, has had ebook only publications for years. Maybe that’s why romance readers — which one would not expect are necessarily more advanced [...]