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https://theconversation.com/romance-bookstores-are-booming-in-australia-and-worldwide-and-fans-are-lining-up-for-love-249357>
"Once, if you wanted to buy romance novels, you had to know where to look. Some
small outlets stocked paperback romances, as well as department stores like Big
W in Australia and Walmart in the United States. So did some bookstore chains,
but romance wasn’t usually front and centre.
In 2025, things have changed: romance novels are no longer relegated to dark
corners. Thanks in part to BookTok and Bookstagram, they’re more visible than
ever, with an average growth rate of 49% for three years, according to Nielsen
Bookscan figures. Australian romance readers are “propping up a flatlining
national book market”, according to journalist Melanie Kembrey.
Major bookstores now have dedicated romance shelving spaces. Huge romance book
signing events are being held in convention centres. Romance readers lined up
for the opening of dedicated romance bookstore Romancing the Novel in Sydney’s
Paddington last year. It’s just one of many romance bookstores around
Australia, part of a worldwide trend.
It’s not the first romance bookstore boom in Australia – that came
significantly earlier and receded in the early 2010s. But now they’re back,
bigger than ever, joining successful romance bookstores around the world, from
the US and Canada to the United Kingdom and France.
This indicates a newfound communal pride in romance as a genre. While it has
frequently been derided and dismissed, leading to some readers feeling
embarrassed about or concealing their reading, the pendulum has very much swung
back the other way."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
