• Over 6,000 romance novels are published each year.
• Romance novels account for over 55% of all mass market paperbacks published in the United States, for a total of nearly $1.4 billion in sales annually.
• Over 10% of these are romances set during the Regency period in England, Scotland, or Wales (1810-1830).
• The Regency period accounts for more romance novels than any other period in history.
• A historian once noted that if every lord and lady written about in Regency novels were to be placed in England, the nation would have sunk under the weight.
• Jane Austen wrote the first Regency romance (although, as she wrote them during the Regency, they were contemporary novels in her time).
• The other best-known Regency romance writer is Georgette Heyer, whose books are on the shelves now more than 20 years after her death. This is an amazing record for the romance genre in general, where a paperback love story has a six-week shelf life.

Facts about Romance Readers

• An estimated 64.6 million people in North America read romance novels.
• Approximately 50% of romance readers are married.
• Over 67% of romance readers attended or graduated from college.
• Over 50% of romance readers read between one and five romances a year; 2% read between 51-100 romances a year.