Publishing Romance

John Markert is associate professor of sociology at Cumberland University and has published numerous articles analyzing aspects of the social events and the media. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Paperbacks in Society2. The World of Harlequin: 1949–19793. The Four Phases of Love: American Romance Publishing in the Seventies4. Silhouette Books: Challenging Harlequin’s Supremacy5. The New Dawn: Romance Publishing Comes of Age6. Risky Business: Rushing to Cash In on the Romance Craze7. The Editorial Ear: Selective Listening8. Alive and Kicking: Harlequin Regains Market Supremacy9. Line Diversification: The Byword of the New Millennium10. Romance Publishing at the Outset of the New Millennium: Market Share, Competition and Content InnovationConclusionChapter NotesSelected BibliographyIndex

"Despite romance novels making up 23 percent of the U.S. fiction market...the genre is still pushed aside as mommy porn or the default reading of lonely cat-laden spinsters”—Washington Post.