The Goodreads Choice Awards 2023
Working Title: Romantasy is here to stay and I'm HERE FOR IT
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If you’ve been on Bookstagram, BookTok, or Bookstack anytime in the past decade, you’re likely familiar with Goodreads, a “social cataloging” website acquired by Amazon in 2013. You probably have an account. I created mine in 2011, and during my years as an assistant librarian, it was an invaluable tool.
Is Goodreads perfect? Nope, not even close…
…but I’m not addressing that here. There are a million articles assailing its Web 1.0 interface, piss-poor moderation, and lack of diversity among featured authors. In July, the Washington Post reported former employees admitted “Amazon seemed happy to “mine Goodreads for its user generated data” while allowing the site to languish.
This is problematic, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore Goodreads. I’d argue that anyone interested in knowing what sells in the commercial market should keep an eye on the annual Goodreads Choice Awards. This year, I was thrilled with their choice to add a new category for 2023: ROMANTASY.
Is Rebecca Yarros going to win with Fourth Wing by a landslide? Absolutely. No surprises there.
But this development shows romantasy as a genre has won public acclaim, which is great news for anyone writing fantasy, romance, or the space where the two intersect. Here are my take-aways from Goodreads decision to recognize romantasy alongside genres that have been a mainstay in publishing for decades if not centuries.
Traditional publishing houses are starting to invest in romantasy.
In 2023, major imprints including Orbit, Tor, and Macmillian began publishing or distributing romantasy, and it is paying off. A quick look at the first round of twenty nominees reveals Tor’s new imprint Bramble, which launched this autumn, has three titles on the list after picking up self-publishing phenom Jennifer Armentrout. Red Tower, another new imprint distributed by Macmillan, has two titles on the list including the presumed winner. Hachette Book Group, parent company of Orbit and Little, Brown, and Co, have three titles, and Harper Voyager has one. If you have a completed, polished romantasy manuscript and you are interested in landing a traditional publishing deal, JANUARY 2024 IS THE TIME TO QUERY.
Romantasy is still dominated by self-publishing.
For those of you not interested in the traditional path, you can still succeed by taking the self-publishing or small press route. Of the twenty first-round titles, five are self-published titles, four are published through small romance presses, and several were originally self-published and then picked up by Bramble/Tor.
To have self-published authors featured in a world-wide reader’s choice awards program is nothing short of astonishing.
It also shows the power of social media, especially TikTok.
Romantasy illustrates that catering to a female-centric audience is profitable.
Is 2023 the year of women? As far as popular culture goes, I’d say YES. (Politically—not going there). Music had Beyonce’s Renaissance World Tour and Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. The movies had Barbie. TV had Queen Charlotte, and we’re breathlessly waiting for the third season of Bridgerton. Books had Fourth Wing and its sequel Iron Flame.
Anyone that has read Gail Carriger’s The Heroine’s Journey won’t be surprised to learn that fiction with strong romance beats has been a money maker for as long as there’s been a publishing industry. (Jane Austen anyone?) In 2016, Data Guys reported that of all the e-books sold in the United States, 50% of them were linked to romance. A 2021 Bookriot article states that romance makes 1.44 billion dollars in sales per year.
Read that again. HALF OF ALL E-BOOKS SOLD are romance and they’re taking in half a billion bucks!
That is an incredible market share! If anyone tells you that you can’t make money writing about kissing, show them the data.
Unfortunately, our culture and its gate-keepers have a terrible habit of devaluing romance due to the misogyny that still has a hold over society. Don’t believe me? Quickly leave this article and do a quick search on romance in academia, and then do a second search on the hero’s journey. If you prefer, head over to Time’s 100 Must-Read Books of 2023. Count how many romance/romantasy titles were included, and then compare those sales numbers to any of the books on the Goodreads Choice Awards list. (If you don’t want to do the work, the answer is zero.)
If the gatekeepers can’t respect the genre, they should at least respect the how romantasy is fueling the economy. Speaking of being a good consumer, I have a few new titles to add to my TBR.
Who are you voting for in this year’s awards? Comment below!
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