Who Reads Erotic Romance?
January 20th, 2011 by Talya Bosco
I had an interesting conversation with a bunch of friends of mine the other day. They all know I write, and that I write “perverted” stories, but not the specifics. So we were discussing it.
I pointed out to them that the statistics point that women that read romance in general tend to be college educated between the ages of 25-45. When asked where I got these statistics by one woman who seemed disbelieving, I was able to assure her that studies have been done by everyone from RWA, Romantic Times, Amazon, etc.
We then discussed what seems to be popular and why. None were surprised to learn that m/m/f and m/f/m were popular. One commented “Well, yeah, women want that attention of two men on them.”
They all seemed to understand perfectly why Dominant males are popular and submissive woman. Which brought us into a whole new conversation about “I want a man to be able to carry me, throw me down at the end of the football field and ravish me”. (I should have expected that from M but she surprised me nonetheless.)
They even accepted the idea that m/m romances are very popular with women. “It shows how romantic men can be.”
All of this is nothing new to most of us authors or even regular readers, but I was impressed by their attitudes. I live in a very rural, very right wing area, and it was nice to be able to have this conversation with a fairly large group of women (all 25-45).
These women might not read my writing, but they know why women would choose to. And they were very nonjudgmental. Who knows, I think I might have created a future reader or two for us erotic romance authors.
Good post, Talya. Women into their eighties read erotic romance. Many women over 50 both read and write erotic romance novels.
It’s great that e-readers are selling well enough to finally bring ebooks into the mainstream. Ebook sales are booming!
Best–Adele
Oh, I agree older women read romance, I was just stating the stats of the most common. I think I should have stressed the COLLEGE educated part. That’s what always seems to surprise people.
Thanks for commenting, Adele!
I’ve been self-publishing an eBook series – an erotic romance from mostly a male perspective. I’m really new at this and just trying to see if there’s actually an audience for what I write. To my surprise, I’ve gotten an outpouring of support from the male 35+ crowd as much as I have women. I really think there’s a void that isn’t being filled. A lot of men prefer reading erotic romance to looking at porn. My husband (who refuses to read my books) confessed to me he was one of those types of guys but he doesn’t read it anymore because he feels like he’s cheating on me.
Anyway, sorry if this is out of line. I’m not here to promote myself. I just surfed into your blog and couldn’t resist the urge to say what I’ve learned recently.
Shaina, thanks for commenting. I didn’t think you were here to promote yourself at all.
I think it’s interesting that you have gotten such support from men. I guess – to be completely honest- I’ve never thought they’d be that interested in it. But if you think about it, if they are readers and like to use their imagination, that would make sense. After all the Penthouse stories and the like were always geared toward men. Although that was more porn/fantasy than erotic romance, if the men are mature enough to want romance, then why wouldn’t they read about it instead of looking at pictures.
Thanks for making me think
First of all, what a nice website is this
I think it is great that there is an online forum where woman can share their ideas/opinions about erotic romance novels.
In my circle of friends is it still a bit of a taboo to read erotic romance.
I also find it interesting to read that also men like to read erotic romance. I also have never thought about that in that way.
The E-book sales are booming at the moment. I was questioning myself: what if the erotic romance stories would be filmed? If there were little episodes with erotic romance stories, would I watch them online or buy them in a store?
I takes away the space for your own imagination and fantasy, but still I would consider watching them. My friends associate it with watching porn. I believe erotic romance is something totally different than porn. If they film the stories in a tasteful and attractive way and from a womans point of view, I think I would enjoy watching them.
Would love to hear how you feel about this
Thanks! Fenna
Fenna –
I don’t know if they were filmed if that would go as well. I personally like to read them because of the fact my imagination is put into play. I don’t want to watch everything. And for me, books/stories that are put into movies never catch the original feeling or emotions of the books. I feel it’s harder to put romances of any kind onto film and still make it work anywhere near as well.