The Importance of Self-Publishing for Female Romance Authors
Romance is a genre about women taking control of their bodies and being empowered by choice. There is something even more empowering about female authors taking control of how they wish to see their stories published.
Self-publishing enables authors to publish their own books by taking on all parts of the publishing process themselves, independent from a traditional publishing company (Phillips and Clark, 2019) and is a route that has led many women to global success. Perhaps the most well-known example comes from E. L James with the Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy, who originally self-published her fan-fiction based on the Twilight Series in 2011. The trilogy was later picked up by Vintage Books and became a global book and movie sensation (Poliakova, 2021) that drastically impacted the perception of the romance genre (for better and for worse). Similarly, Colleen Hoover began self-publishing with her book Slammed in 2012 and has gone on to sell millions of books and reach several best-seller lists. Kennedy Ryan, author of contemporary diverse romances uses a combination of self and traditional publishing as a route to escape the systemic traditional barriers that make it harder for queer, neurodiverse or authors of colour to publish (Augusta, 2021). Ryan praises self-publishing as a breakthrough, stating ‘I’m not waiting for someone to give me something…I can make it myself’ (Augusta, 2021), an example of a truly empowered woman.
But exactly how and why is self-publishing so empowering for female romance authors?
Owning their work
To begin with, self-publishing allows women to make a name and career for themselves, even if their work or the author themself is marginalised by mainstream publishers. Research from the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) (2020) details that self-publishing platforms see authors earning up to 70% per book, whilst traditionally published authors earn approximately 7.5%. Female self-published authors earn 40.9% more than their male counterparts, a reverse image of traditional publishing (ALLi, 2023). Having the final say in every aspect of their book, self-publishing leads to a strong feeling of satisfaction and empowerment with the end product (Baverstock and Steinitz, 2013). These monetary benefits, without having to give up the ownership, editorial decision making or marketing choices, are a huge advantage of the self-publishing route and are immensely empowering!
Escaping the romance stigma
As romance readers ourselves, we all know and have felt the impact of the dreaded romance genre stigma. Self-publishing presents a huge opportunity for authors to minimise the impact of this romance and erotic stigma upon their publications, a stigma routed in a misogynistic society, intent on controlling women’s bodies and decisions (Cameron, 2020). Romance criticism can be identified as the following (Choyke, 2019):
- easy to read: implying the readers are not intelligent
- porn: implying the readers only read novels for sexual reasons
- trash: implying the novels are bad despite the meaningful content.
- women will gain unrealistic expectations from reading romance books
As lovers of romance, we know that these accusations are categorically false and are not representative of why we love to read nor the romance community. Self-publishing frees authors from the traditional publishing constraints, where the author can freely publish romance stories that feel important to themselves and the readers.
Furthermore, the erotic content of romance books is empowering and liberating for readers, representing a safe space for women to explore their sexuality, fantasies and desires. Women are the active sexual participants, rather than the subjects with their agency placed at the centre of every scene (Choyke, 2019). For many women, and I imagine many readers of this blog, this level of choice and empowerment occurs for the first time in their life within the pages of a romance novel. Self-publishing opens up opportunities for authors to publish kinds of erotica that are underrepresented by the traditional publishing industry, diversifying the essential market for women’s sexual exploration that the traditional industry is only just waking up to.
The Romance Community
Helping to connect authors to readers, social media and self-publishing go hand in hand. A thriving pre-existing romance community lives online, which self-published authors frequently use to diffuse their works and connect to their audience. Community book groups, that many of you may be apart of, create places where women finally have a space where they feel comfortable to express their love of the genre (Cameron, 2020), and most importantly, make friends!
This sense of community extends beyond the digital, with romance reader events, like RARE, where I met some of my personal favourite authors (Figure 3) and our HEA Pop-Up events, provide opportunities for authors and readers to connect over the stories that they love! The relationship between author and reader is vital, given the often intimate and personal aspects prevalent in the romance genre. The romance genre is made up of a strong community for self-publishing authors to connect with, a community that all readers hold dear to their hearts.
Closing
All these reasons are evidence that we, as readers, should continue to support and read self-published romance. As consumers, diversifying where we buy our books from, away from the big selling corporations and towards indie bookshops, where all of these aspects are at the heart of what we do, is vital for the longevity of our beloved romance communities!