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Love in the Time of Self-Publishing: How Romance Writers Changed the Rules of Writing and Success
Lessons in creative labor, solidarity, and inclusion under precarious economic conditions
As writers, musicians, online content creators, and other independent workers fight for better labor terms, romance authors offer a powerful example—and a cautionary tale—about self-organization and mutual aid in the digital economy. In Love in the Time of Self-Publishing , Christine Larson traces the forty-year history of Romancelandia, a sprawling network of romance authors, readers, editors, and others, who formed a unique community based on openness and collective support. Empowered by solidarity, American romance writers—once disparaged literary outcasts—became digital publishing’s most innovative and successful authors. Meanwhile, a new surge of social media activism called attention to Romancelandia’s historic exclusion of romance authors of color and LGBTQ+ writers, forcing a long-overdue cultural reckoning.
Drawing on the largest-known survey of any literary genre as well as interviews and archival research, Larson shows how romance writers became the only authors in America to make money from the rise of ebooks—increasing their median income by 73 percent while other authors’ plunged by 40 percent. The success of romance writers, Larson argues, demonstrates the power of alternative forms of organizing influenced by gendered working patterns. It also shows how networks of relationships can amplify—or mute—certain voices.
Romancelandia’s experience, Larson says, offers crucial lessons about solidarity for creators and other isolated workers in an increasingly risky employment world. Romancelandia’s rise and near-meltdown shows that gaining fair treatment from platforms depends on creator solidarity—but creator solidarity, in turn, depends on fair treatment of all members.
As writers, musicians, online content creators, and other independent workers fight for better labor terms, romance authors offer a powerful example—and a cautionary tale—about self-organization and mutual aid in the digital economy. In Love in the Time of Self-Publishing , Christine Larson traces the forty-year history of Romancelandia, a sprawling network of romance authors, readers, editors, and others, who formed a unique community based on openness and collective support. Empowered by solidarity, American romance writers—once disparaged literary outcasts—became digital publishing’s most innovative and successful authors. Meanwhile, a new surge of social media activism called attention to Romancelandia’s historic exclusion of romance authors of color and LGBTQ+ writers, forcing a long-overdue cultural reckoning.
Drawing on the largest-known survey of any literary genre as well as interviews and archival research, Larson shows how romance writers became the only authors in America to make money from the rise of ebooks—increasing their median income by 73 percent while other authors’ plunged by 40 percent. The success of romance writers, Larson argues, demonstrates the power of alternative forms of organizing influenced by gendered working patterns. It also shows how networks of relationships can amplify—or mute—certain voices.
Romancelandia’s experience, Larson says, offers crucial lessons about solidarity for creators and other isolated workers in an increasingly risky employment world. Romancelandia’s rise and near-meltdown shows that gaining fair treatment from platforms depends on creator solidarity—but creator solidarity, in turn, depends on fair treatment of all members.
- GenresNonfictionRomanceWriting
288 pages, Hardcover
Published June 4, 2024
14 people are currently reading
273 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 17, 2024
This book was not what I expected…but I loved it! The author examines the romance novel industry through an academic lens, exploring the history of the genre and its writers from the 1970s to present day. Years of research went into this book, and it shows!
The most interesting finding, for me, was that romance writers were uniquely poised to thrive when self-published ebooks started to emerge. The author attributes this to factors including the pre-existing tight-knit relationships romance writers had with their readers, and the culture of sharing advice within the industry. One thing I really appreciated about this book is that the author centres the experiences of BIPOC and queer writers, and emphasizes that while the industry has become more welcoming to them, it still has a long way left to go.
I was super impressed by this book, and I think it should be on more people’s tbrs!
The most interesting finding, for me, was that romance writers were uniquely poised to thrive when self-published ebooks started to emerge. The author attributes this to factors including the pre-existing tight-knit relationships romance writers had with their readers, and the culture of sharing advice within the industry. One thing I really appreciated about this book is that the author centres the experiences of BIPOC and queer writers, and emphasizes that while the industry has become more welcoming to them, it still has a long way left to go.
I was super impressed by this book, and I think it should be on more people’s tbrs!
April 22, 2025
Es ist eine überarbeitete Diss, und sehr redundant, aber das ist vielleicht Absicht, damit man jeden Abschnitt auch für sich allein verstehen kann. Lesevergnügen also gering, aber es war vier-Sterne-interessant.
October 25, 2024
An excellent combination of social science and history, this book provides a higgly readable social network survey into Romancelandia and its ethics of care and also a history of the US Romancelandia, mostly observed through the establishment of and changes in RWA and the self-publishing revolution. I learned a lot!
Read
December 17, 2024DNF as it is more academic than I want. Interesting content though and I have a new appreciation for self-publishing.
February 10, 2025
An interesting look at the history of romance and RWA thru the lens of labor, care, and networking
November 16, 2025
Well, this text appears to be the "book" version of Larson's Stanford dissertation:
Larson, C. (2017). An economy of words: Precarity, solidarity and innovation in digital book publishing. Retrieved November 16, 2025, from https://purl.stanford.edu/tj537zq5515
This is the description of the dissertation as given on the Stanford page linked above, and it serves as a description of this book as well:
this dissertation shows that romance writers, unlike many other creators, have seen an increase in both autonomy and economic security under digital conditions. Through an income survey of 4,200 romance authors, I show that these authors became more economically secure after the rise of e-books, while income for authors in all other book genres declined. Drawing on interviews and participant-observation, I show that starting in the 1980s, romance authors responded to widespread industry sexism with feminist social tactics that, paradoxically, gave them an advantage over other writers after the rise of e-books. Specifically, these authors—who were outsiders in the highly elite book industry—developed a very different type of professional network than most writers. This "open-elite" network, a type of network that has been associated with innovation at specific times and places across history (John F Padgett, 2010; Powell & Owen-Smith, 2012; Stone & Stone, 1986), accelerated innovation after the digital disruption of the publishing industry.
The book definitely reads like a dissertation. It is very very dry reading, and I'll be honest, I expected this to be written more for a popular audience, and more specifically, written with juicy insights for indie or self-published authors. But no, it is VERY academic... with passages such as:
You can also think of Romancelandia as a "field" where these connections form. In sociology, several schools of thought definite fields somewhat differently, but as sociologist Clayton Childress notes, they all agree that a field, generally, is a 'social arena of attention and habituated action.' Within fields, various entities or actors (people, organizations, technolgies, etc) focus on a shared interest, united by a general understanding of how things should work. Fields exist at a middle level of social processes, between micro-level individual actions and macro-level societal forces. These levels mutually shape social action and the flow of power in society. (page 35).
Really, what this book should be called, is:
The rise and fall of the Romance Writers of America, told through the academic lenses of organizational theory, labor sociology, media economics, and more
So, not what I was after, but perhaps this is a five star book for someone who likes reading works of labor history and organizational theory. The only takeaways I'll have from this book are:
138 - within a month of the release of Chat GPT, authors were self publishing books written by A.I.
159 - half of the romance reading population reads a book / week. otherwise, the US reading population reads 1 book a month
162 - with the rise of ebooks, the median income of romance writers rose 73% between 2009 and 2014. At the same time, the median income of all authors DROPPED 40%
177 - some authors "stuff" useless, filler pages, into their e-books, so that while using Kindle Unlimited, readers will have to skim, and flip through, these pages on KU... which for the author means that they get more "page reads" and therefore a tiny bit more income from KU
Larson, C. (2017). An economy of words: Precarity, solidarity and innovation in digital book publishing. Retrieved November 16, 2025, from https://purl.stanford.edu/tj537zq5515
This is the description of the dissertation as given on the Stanford page linked above, and it serves as a description of this book as well:
this dissertation shows that romance writers, unlike many other creators, have seen an increase in both autonomy and economic security under digital conditions. Through an income survey of 4,200 romance authors, I show that these authors became more economically secure after the rise of e-books, while income for authors in all other book genres declined. Drawing on interviews and participant-observation, I show that starting in the 1980s, romance authors responded to widespread industry sexism with feminist social tactics that, paradoxically, gave them an advantage over other writers after the rise of e-books. Specifically, these authors—who were outsiders in the highly elite book industry—developed a very different type of professional network than most writers. This "open-elite" network, a type of network that has been associated with innovation at specific times and places across history (John F Padgett, 2010; Powell & Owen-Smith, 2012; Stone & Stone, 1986), accelerated innovation after the digital disruption of the publishing industry.
The book definitely reads like a dissertation. It is very very dry reading, and I'll be honest, I expected this to be written more for a popular audience, and more specifically, written with juicy insights for indie or self-published authors. But no, it is VERY academic... with passages such as:
You can also think of Romancelandia as a "field" where these connections form. In sociology, several schools of thought definite fields somewhat differently, but as sociologist Clayton Childress notes, they all agree that a field, generally, is a 'social arena of attention and habituated action.' Within fields, various entities or actors (people, organizations, technolgies, etc) focus on a shared interest, united by a general understanding of how things should work. Fields exist at a middle level of social processes, between micro-level individual actions and macro-level societal forces. These levels mutually shape social action and the flow of power in society. (page 35).
Really, what this book should be called, is:
The rise and fall of the Romance Writers of America, told through the academic lenses of organizational theory, labor sociology, media economics, and more
So, not what I was after, but perhaps this is a five star book for someone who likes reading works of labor history and organizational theory. The only takeaways I'll have from this book are:
138 - within a month of the release of Chat GPT, authors were self publishing books written by A.I.
159 - half of the romance reading population reads a book / week. otherwise, the US reading population reads 1 book a month
162 - with the rise of ebooks, the median income of romance writers rose 73% between 2009 and 2014. At the same time, the median income of all authors DROPPED 40%
177 - some authors "stuff" useless, filler pages, into their e-books, so that while using Kindle Unlimited, readers will have to skim, and flip through, these pages on KU... which for the author means that they get more "page reads" and therefore a tiny bit more income from KU
June 5, 2024
This book analyzes the history of women's labor and the rise of "Romancelandia". Interesting concept and I can't wait to read more.
I was able to read the Libby sample from the library.
Labor History/Romance/Writing/Publishing
I was able to read the Libby sample from the library.
Labor History/Romance/Writing/Publishing
September 24, 2024
Great stuff and super interesting, but very academic and because of that can feel repetitive. Still, a great read for romance authors or those interested in what makes this genre unique.
December 9, 2024
3.5/5
thorough research. though as another commentator noted, at times the argument/content's quite repetitive.
thorough research. though as another commentator noted, at times the argument/content's quite repetitive.
December 31, 2025
An important piece of publishing history, especially for a romance lover!!
August 10, 2024
Well researched, balanced viewpoint. I learned a lot about romance writing as an industry.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews