Romance fiction enjoys comeback as women seek escapism
Romance novels are enjoying a renaissance in Australia but their female characters are no longer just dreaming of marrying a knight in shining armour.
The contemporary female protagonists in modern-day romance fiction deal with real-life struggles and dramas, are proactive rather than passive and have agency in their lives.
And readers are here for that, with an average annual growth rate of 49 per cent over three years for Australian sales of romance fiction, a genre once trivialised as a low-brow guilty pleasure.
According to Nielsen BookScan Australia, 3 million romance books, valued at $46.4 million, sold in 2024.
With romance sub-genres such as rural, historical, paranormal, erotic, billionaire, LGBTQIA and romantasy, the female protagonists in these stories are diversified and represent women's experience across different cultural, faith and class backgrounds.
Collins Booksellers owner Natasha Hunt in Sale, Victoria has observed an uprising of female writers in the fiction and memoir space, and women who want, as readers, to be inspired and feel joy, particularly with romance, general fiction and romantasy.
"There's some fantastic literature out there," she said.
Ms Hunt describes that immersive experience and the pleasure of touching the pages and feeling the weight of a book as an alternative to doing "bite-sized bits on the phone" and endless scrolling.
"They hold a book, they sit in their favourite place, their favourite couch, looking out the window and immersing in that story, sipping a wine or a coffee or whatever brings them joy."
It is also a portal for learning about life and relationships.
In a world of digital transactions in which people lack connection, Ms Hunt believes women are seeking depth, nuance and the lost art of getting to know someone slowly, even if that is through a story.
The slow awakenings, prolonged courtships and gradual unravelling of a book offer a counter point to the relatively superficial online realm.
"The world is hard at the moment. Books are not cheap, but people will buy a book and then share it with their family and their friends — it's the gift that keeps giving."
Upper Pakenham-based rural fiction author Jennifer Scoullar has published 13 books, but only after a career change.
Her ambitions to become a writer were thwarted by her mother's insistence that she pursue a career in law.
After years of working as a lawyer with the National Crime Authority and Legal Aid, she became burnt out and desensitised to the daily stories of human struggle, a burden that took a toll on her wellbeing.
Feeling that she was losing her empathy towards people, she delved into the escapism of writing, creating worlds where she could control the behaviour of her characters and the situations they faced, even granting them a more optimistic future.
Eventually she made the break and quit law to write.
It was a move that would bring an end to her marriage, and confront her with the challenges of raising her four children alone.
She completed a year-long novel writing course with Writers Victoria but with no industry connections or big profile to launch a book in a market saturated by celebrity cookbooks and biographies, Ms Scoullar's chances of being published were slim.
But then a friend suggested attending a writers' conference, where she was able to pitch to publisher Belinda Byrne, sister of First Tuesday Book Club presenter Jennifer Byrne, who was on the hunt for a rural fiction writer.
The chance meeting resulted in a book deal with Penguin Australia.
Stratford-based author and women's literary event organiser Lisa Ireland is in the process of writing her ninth book published by Penguin Random House.
Originally from the western suburbs of Melbourne and a teacher for 20 years, Ms Ireland said her books had mirrored the various stages of her life, from finding love, to motherhood through to middle age.
She believes the women's fiction movement is primarily driven by younger female readers, who are discovering books and authors through TikTok and Instagram and want to see their own lives represented.
"Our stories are just as important as men's stories," Ms Ireland said.
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