Romance novels have evolved quite a lot since the first novel written in 1007. One of the most recent romance novels was published in January 2009 by a brand new romance novelist, Denise Robbins. One of the main differences in the readers of romance novels between then and now would most likely be that now, readers encompass many different social lifestyles, whereas, then, only the elite and prosperous individuals could afford the luxury of schooling to learn to read.
Romance novels have long been popular with men and women alike and have been around since the year 1007 with a book called The Tale of Genji written by a noble woman of Japanese descent named Murasaki Shikibu. The English version of this book is 54 chapters and is approximately 1,000 pages. It wasn’t until the 1700’s that Romance novels gained in popularity with the publication of Pamela or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson, who had close to 500 published works.
Romance (novels) usually center around 2 individuals who may or may not like each other in the beginning and will either be set historically, modern, wild west, paranormal, mystery and other time periods. The plot of romance novels will build to a climax and will usually end in a happy ending of the same 2 individuals falling in (love). The story will revolve around a mystery, cruel landowners, pirates, vampires or modern business corruption where good wins over evil.
Romance writers/authors are from all walks of life. Men, as well as women write a lot of the romance novels and do quite well. Writers will generally write 1 or 2 novels a year, whereas, other writers will write more than that. For example, Barbara Cartland published a novel every 2 weeks, which earned her the all time best-selling novelist. One of the best selling male novelists is Eric Jerome Dickey.
A few romance (novelists) actually write under pseudonyms in order to get all their work published due to the different publishing house contract guidelines. An example of an author who uses pseudonyms is Nora Roberts.
Romance writers actually are a diverse group as many writers also have careers in such industries as mathmeticians, lawyers, scientists and engineers just to name a few. Writing (romance) novels is a unique talent and generates more than 1 billion dollars in sales each year. That figure counts for more than 51 million readers.
Some of the most popular authors and best selling books are listed in the “Top 100 Romance Novels.
Margaret Mitchell
Gone With The Wind
Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice
Sense and Sensibility
Persuasion
LaVyrle Spencer
Morning Glory
Hummingbird
Danielle Steele
Journey
Bittersweet
The Ranch
Fern Michaels
Finders Keepers
Free Fall
Hokus Pokus
Sandra Brown
Slow Heat In Heaven
Mirror Image
Texas: Trilogy
Mary Balogh
At Last Comes Love
First Comes Marriage
Then Comes Seduction
Monica McCarty
Highland Warrior
Highland Scoundrel
Highland Outlaw
Iris Johansen
Pandora’s Daughter
Long After Midnight
Storm Cycle
Catherine Coulter
Double Take
Born To Be Wild
Tailspin
Victoria Holt
Mistress of Mellyn
On The Night of the Seventh Moon
The Captive
While romance novels will continue to generate a huge following, there will always be some that look at this type of novel with disdain. However, readers will always want to lose themselves in a good book to forget their worries and fantasize.
