Book sales have soared since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, particularly romance novels. That’s because in times of uncertainty and duress, people often seek the comfort and reassurance of the guaranteed happy ending which comes with the romance genre, says Dr Jodi McAlister.

“I wish I could give you some complicated answer that made me sound intelligent, but the real reason is they are nice, especially during times of darkness and uncertainty,” said McAlister, who has a PhD in English and History. She has also authored four young adult fiction novels, two academic books, and just released her first adult romance novel, Here for the Right Reasons, having spent the 2020 lockdown at home in Melbourne working on the book.

“I realised at one point I hadn’t touched another person for seven months and thought there’s got to be something psychologically wrong with that.”

McAlister notes that getting exact figures on the rise of book sales can be tricky as most of the companies that conduct the studies don’t include self-published or amazon books, which are a large part of the market, especially romance novels. She believes one of the best indicators is when mainstream booksellers who previously had a small, often hidden romance section start expanding their shelf space for the genre, and that Tik Tok has also played a role in that growth.

“There’s book Tok sections; If it’s affecting book space in stores, something big is happening.”

People turning to romance novels in time of turmoil isn’t anything new. During World War II, publisher Mills & Boon successfully argued to retain their paper ration by saying their books were good for the morale of working women.

Mills & Boon was also McAlister’s introduction to the genre. She recalls stealing the novels from her grandmother’s bookshelf, then she had a break from them during her teen years before rediscovering them while working at a public service job in Canberra.

“I would go to Big W in the Canberra Centre on my lunch breaks and buy Mills & Boon; that’s how I got interested in them enough to study.”

When writing romance, McAlister said there are two rules that must be followed: It must have a central love story, involving two main characters; and it must end happily, with the couple together. However, there are two kinds of happy endings: the classic fairytale where there’s no doubt they were made for each other; and the happy for now – the couple are in love but there are hints trouble could be on the horizon. The latter is common in Young Adult fiction because not everyone wants to be with the person they were dating at 17 for the rest of their lives.

There are also sub-genres within romance fiction; one that has increased in popularity recently is erotic romance. McAlister says the main difference in erotic fiction is if you removed all the sex, the plot would fall apart; and while a more traditional romance novel will most likely contain scenes of a sexual nature, if they were removed, you would still be left with a love story that made sense.

‘Rule 34 of the internet’ states that if you can think of something, then there is porn about it; McAlister believes the same to be true about romance novels.

“I can’t promise that its good, but I can promise that it exists 99 per cent of the time,” she laughed.

One of the series doing the rounds at the moment is Ice Planet Barbarians, which follows the story of earth women being abducted and stranded on a planet with big blue aliens.

“Mock thriller romance, quite horny but weirdly quite wholesome. There’s a lot of town planning, and organising society, and the romances – but I’m really into the town planning” McAlister laughed.

The format of novels can also vary slightly from country to country. The US terminology states that a romance novel must have an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending. This precise wording was to include Gone with the Wind, which famously ends with the love interests going their separate ways, but Scarlett vowing to win Rhett back.

McAlister says there is no way the classic could be sold as a romance novel today as readers are furious when the couple doesn’t end up together. Even if the author ends on an optimistic note, the promise of the genre is the love interests will be together at the conclusion.

“No-one ever goes ‘oh wow, my horizons have been broadened’,” McAlister said of the genre.

Australia uses the same as the US, however, she said everyone understands that it means a happy ending. During her academic research, McAlister looked into a publishing collective in the Philippines that originally used the US terminology but had to change it to happy ending as too many books were ending with the love interests breaking up, the authors arguing it was a satisfying conclusion.

What is our romance queen’s favourite happy ending? It was a tough choice, but McAlister couldn’t look past the writings of Lucy Parker particularly Pretty Face, which had her from the opening line: “It was the last straw when she seduced the vicar.”

To find out more about Dr Jodi McAlister’s work, head to jodimcalister.com.au

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