Kindle | Romance fastest growing segment in e-books

Romance is currently the fastest growing segment in the market of e-reading, ahead of other categories such as mystery, general fiction, and science fiction. Data for this came from Bowker, which is a publishing industry research organization.

Publishers and retailers have ridden the market surge and have earnestly begun to pursue digital readers who are romance enthusiasts.

“Romance is becoming popular in e-books as it is in the print editions,” said Matthew Shear, who is the publisher and the executive vice president of St. Martin’s Press. The publishing group releases about 40 to 50 romance novels each year.

All Romance, an online retailer of e-books, reported that sales have increased twofold, with the raciest books being the most sought after.

According to the Romance Writers of America, about 75 million people have read at least 1 romance novel in 2008. Readers of romance are mostly women who are in their 30’s and 40’s and are in a relationship.

Surging sales in e-books have made it difficult to predict sales of print in the long term, with Kelly Gallagher, who is the vice president for publishing services of Bowker, saying that sales of e-books are “definitely cannibalizing print.”

According to Allison Kelley, who is the executive director of the Romance Writers of America, “when books were out of stock or out of print, they were hard to find, but e-books have changed all that.”

Small press publishers and online retailers of e-books have all recently sprung up, all specializing on Romance e-books.