What Makes Romance Novels So Profitable for Publishers: How Can You Emulate That?

This week Andrea Sachs of Time magazine reports that "Romance novels . . . are helping some publishers hide from the worst of the recession.

More than 1.4 billion in sales last year attest to it romance novels' success. That's the largest share of the consumer book market (1 in four books sold). Part of the reason for this is price but another reason is that romance readers are loyal. Read that Loyal with a capital "L."

How do you build loyalty regardless of the genre you write in? Read the chapters on branding in The Frugal Book Promoter.

But here is the basic principle and, really, you already know it. Loyalty is built by continued, caring contact with your readers. Almost every section in the TFBP is about one method or another for doing that.

The chapter on writing thank you notes won't hurt, either. (-:

What is your favorite way to stay in contact with your readers?

PS: The picture of TFBP is of publisher Nancy Cleary's own copy. Thank you, Nancy, for the visual! (-:

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books for writers, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Her FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog.