You Write What?

I recently ran into a old friend I hadn't seen in a few years at a local festival. She was with two other women I didn't know. When she introduced me, she included the fact that I'm a writer. One of the women asked what I wrote. Not giving it a second thought, I said I'd had 2 historical romance novels published but was currently working on a contemporary romance series. The two women looked at each other and laughed. One said, "oh those smutty 50 Shades of Gray type books." The other said, "I guess it is hard to get a real book published so romance novels are a good fall back plan."

I smiled and said nothing. I should have said this:

•  Romance novels are the most economically successful book type in the fiction genre.
• They outsell mystery, science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels every year.
• Per the Romance Writers of America, the romance genre and its sub-genres have over 30 million dedicated readers.
• Romance novels regularly appear on the bestseller lists.
• In 2013 (the latest year statistics are available) romance novels had an estimated total sales of $1.08 billion. (Source: BookStats).  Yes, that is billion.

I guess being brought up with the rule to always be polite does have its drawbacks.  My mom also always says, "you can't fight ignorance. It's a losing battle."