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.
Awards and Recognition
- A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year
Christine Larson is assistant professor of journalism at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her writing has appeared frequently in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and other national outlets, as well as in such scholarly journals as Information Communication and Society and Media, Culture & Society. She is the coauthor of Influence: How Women's Economic Power Will Change Our World for the Better.
"A rigorously researched history of the industry, Larson’s book explores the rise of [the Romance Writers of America] and of a sprawling network of editors, writers, readers and fans that helped make romance one of the book industry’s most popular and lucrative genres."—Robert Ito, New York Times
"Eye-opening. . . . A rewarding deep dive into an influential corner of the publishing industry."—Publishers Weekly
"An intriguing study of how the staggering success of romance e-books has turned the publishing industry on its head. . . . An important story of how new trails can be blazed with persistence and imagination."—Kirkus Reviews
"An insightful work of literary criticism, Love in the Time of Self-Publishing shows how an informal labor network of romance writers impacted the greater literary and publishing world."—Foreword Reviews
"Eminently readable and impossibly well researched, Larson's book is at once an efficiently written investigation into the history and current state of romance publishing and a perceptive and balanced assessment of the potentials and pitfalls of the gig economy and creative labor. . . . Refreshingly, Larson avoids tired, elitist concerns about the quality of the literature and instead focuses on what kinds of communities, opportunities, and voices this female-dominated, billion-dollar industry fosters, and how corrections can be made to promote broader inclusivity. A must read for anyone interested in contemporary publishing and gig labor."—Choice Reviews
“In this revelatory and poignant book, Larson shows how the oft-dismissed field of romance writing has been at the forefront of transformations in the technologies and organization of labor. Deeply original and written with heart, Love in the Time of Self-Publishing is indispensable reading for anyone trying to navigate the evolving landscape of cultural work.”—Brooke Erin Duffy, author of (Not) Getting Paid to Do What You Love: Gender and Aspirational Labor in the Social Media Economy
“In this powerful and persuasive book, Christine Larson argues that the ‘gig economy’ might better be known as the ‘women’s economy.’ Yet against its isolation, precarity and exploitation, she offers a message of hope, showing how romance writers created networks of care and mutual aid to survive and thrive in the brave new world of digital work. Could this be a happy ending, after all?”—Rosalind Gill, author of Perfect: Feeling Judged on Social Media
"Few academic books are written with such great flair as Christine Larson’s study of romance fiction writers. It provides a compelling study of self-publishing and self-organization in a key site of feminized creative work, and a dramatic account of how social media helped bring latent conflicts to the surface."—David Hesmondhalgh, University of Leeds
“What do romance writers have to teach the rest of us about the future of work? A lot, according to Larson’s brilliant and beautiful book that shows how to make good digital futures through solidarity and care built on different ways of networking.”—Gina Neff, author of Venture Labor: Work and the Burden of Risk in Innovative Industries
“Love in the Time of Self-Publishing is a welcome addition to the now vast literature on the popular romance genre. By focusing on the people who actually made romance what it is today, it enables us to better understand the sources of the genre’s longevity and increasing popularity at a time of great cultural upheaval and massive restructuring in the culture industries. Larson recognizes romance writers as the professionals they are and traces their quite extraordinary achievements with appreciation and care.”—Janice Radway, author of Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy and Popular Literature
