by Biggirl
A fellowship more secret then the Illuminati with members more invisible than, well, anything you can actually see. For centuries rumors have floated around that there were people, women mostly, who do a thing no right thinking individual would ever openly admit to. And yet there is evidence that this fellowship has numbers in the hundred thousands. Millions even.
Maybe I exaggerated a little about the “centuries” part. It was 1908 when Gerald Mills and Charles Boon created Mills and Boon Ltd in England. The first book they published was a romance. Although they were a general interest publisher, they soon became well known for their “little brown books” (secret code in 1930’s United Kingdom for “romance novel”.
Meanwhile in Canada, Richard Bonnycastle founded Harlequin books. He too pretended not to be part of the romance book -secret cabal connection. But money talks and bullshit also likes to read romances but won’t admit it. Soon Bonnycastle was listening to his wife’s advice about those English Doctor/Nurse romance and buying North American reprint rights. By 1964 Harlequin was reprinting all of Mills and Boon’s romances.
And then, in 1972, Kathleen Woodiwiss ripped her first bodice. The Flame and the Flower (followed closely by Rosemary Roger’s Sweet Savage Love) completely rocked the paperback publishing world. Everyone complained --in fact everyone still complains—about the new super sexed, alpha male dominated historical romances. Nobody read them because they were nothing but trash. But the secret fellowship somehow managed to buy 4,634,000 copies of it and send it to 74 printings.
They’re out there somewhere. I have numbers to prove it. I’ve gained access to their secret files through one of their “organizations”. They were cleverly hiding in plain sight. The Romance Writers of America has compiled these shocking figures: In the year 2000 $1.37 billion dollars was spent on romance novels. 37.2% of all popular books sold and 55.9% of popular paperbacks sold were romance novels in 2000. They even claim that 9% of romance readers are men!
“Impossible!” you say. “Unfeasible! Irrealizable! Inconceivable!” you continue before I wrestle the thesaurus away from you. But it is true. It could be your girlfriend or your mother. That guy who you think is going to the bathroom every five minutes to wank off could actually be in there—reading romance novels!
Sources
Romance Writers of America
Mills and Boon U.K.
HarperCollins Kathleen Woodiwiss
Harlequin.com history
Interview with Richard
H Bellringer, former president of Harlequin Books
Barbara Cartland's Official
Site