Exploring the life of Colleen Hoover, one of romance's most popular authors

Why 2 literary writers think you should read Colleen Hoover

The "It Ends With Us" author is one of the most successful contemporary writers in American literature; she's also one of the most derided. Elizabeth Kaye Cook and Melanie Jennings argue that the criticism is mostly unfounded and that literary types should embrace more commercial authors like Hoover.

Writers like Colleen Hoover and Emily Henry have propelled romance to become the most popular genre in publishing, generating over $1B annually.

How Harlequin became the most famous name in romance fiction

The publisher, which began as a modest family operation in 1949 in Winnipeg, took off when it noticed its bestselling titles were romance novels. That success intensified as it began selling its titles in grocery stores during the 1970s. This deep dive explores its meteoric rise and how that would set the stage for the genre for years to come.

Listen to some of romance's leading writers discuss the genre

In this interview from 2022, romance novelists Helen Hoang (author of the "Kiss Quotient" series) and Emily Henry ("Beach Read," "People We Meet on Vacation," and more) discuss both loving and subverting the conventions of the genre.

'Carrie' kick-started a wildly successful career

King has published more than 60 novels—along with dozens of novellas, hundreds of short stories, and several collections of nonfiction—and has sold over 400 million books. This 2024 interview finds him reflecting on his debut novel, and breakthrough hit, "Carrie," and the wild success that followed.

The economics of romance novels

Romance is the publishing industry's most popular genre, with over 44 million units sold in 2025 alone. This episode of "The Economics of Everyday Things" podcast explores how the once-maligned form became the most reliable kind of book in the industry.

Several bestsellers began as fan fiction

Ali Hazlewood's "The Love Hypothesis" began as "Star Wars" fan fiction. Cassandra Clare's "Mortal Instruments" series was about "Harry Potter" characters Draco Malfoy and Ginny Weasley. Anna Todd's "After" series was an example of "real life fiction," or fan fiction that is about real people rather than fictional ones (the books were originally based on the boy band One Direction).

Consumers are buying more books now than they were 20 years ago, thanks to a 2020 boom and a popular literary corner on TikTok.

A deep dive into the data behind the romance bookstore renaissance

As the literary genre expands, so does the network of romance-specific stores. Romancing the Data keeps track of the rise of romance bookstores across the globe. This article not only shows how quickly the trend is taking off but also explains how brick-and-mortar shops are simply catching up with audience demand.

Why the publishing industry is hot for romance

Romance books are currently trending in the publishing industry. That means romance authors are currently seeing greater commercial success than many writers in other genres. This podcast episode dives into what's behind the publishing industry trend from a business perspective. Listen to it here.

Flannery O’Connor is a major figure in American literature

In her lifetime, O’Connor wrote 31 short stories and two novels. She was awarded three O. Henry Awards, the most prestigious honor for a short story writer. In 1972, she was posthumously awarded the National Book Award for her “Collected Stories.”

A scholarly analysis of romance's enduring popularity

Diane Winston, a media scholar at the University of Southern California, argues that romance novels have remained popular because they've historically offered women shame-free ways to explore their identities and sexualities. She notes that's even more true today, with contemporary romance novels, from romantasy bestsellers to "Heated Rivalry," more willingly explore social dynamics.

Fabio's romance novel cover career, by the numbers

In the '70s, '80s, and '90s, the mononymous model Fabio could be found in grocery store aisles across the country, often holding a woman close to his bare chest. This list breaks down the numbers behind his rise to romance royalty, counting total appearances on covers (465), the number of times he was portrayed as a ghost (2), and all the way down to the estimated sales increase his appearance could offer a romance novel (50-60%).

Caroline Calloway: The influencer who botched two six-figure book deals

The daughter of a real estate mogul, Caroline Calloway was an Instagram influencer who leveraged her "Cambridge captions"—young adult novel-esque descriptions of college parties—into a six-figure book deal in 2014. After having failed to produce...

King has published more than 60 novels

Since 1974, the writer has published a staggering number of books, often releasing a title a year (and sometimes more than that). This comprehensive list from King's official website lists everything the man has ever done, including unpublished stories, long-forgotten television specials, and limited edition novels. It's a fascinating look into the artistic life of one of America's most successful writers.

Hockey romance novels have become an unexpected sensation

The combination was not an obvious hit, but books like "Hockey With Benefits," "Body Check," and "Puck and Prejudice" (a Jane Austen fan fiction) have grown popular thanks to a romance novel boom and an interest on TikTok. Now, HBO and Amazon are taking note with streaming adaptations. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

Diving into 'The Flame and the Flower,' the book that popularized 'bodice ripper' romance

The 1972 Kathleen E. Woodiwiss novel helped create the romance subgenre featuring historical settings and intense, steamy sex scenes. It was an under-the-radar sensation, quietly selling millions of copies while simultaneously courting controversy for its portrayals of rape. In this essay, Jeannette Cooperman revisits the book to see how it reads 50 years after its publication.

A detailed analysis of romance novel covers through history

A lot has changed in the romance genre over time, a fact that's clearest in the way that the books are marketed to consumers. This interactive data visualization surveyed decades of romance book jackets, finding that raunchy, realistic paintings of scantily clad models have largely been replaced by vibrantly colored illustrations, often with the characters drawn as cartoons.

Unpacking the rapid rise of romantasy, the genre that blends fantasy and romance

The subgenre—primarily aimed at female readers and sometimes bordering on erotica—has become a sensation, due in no small part to its popularity on social media platforms like TikTok. Writers like Sarah J. Maas and Rebecca Yarros harken back to early Gothic works, which similarly sought to combine the supernatural and the erotic.

In 1969, a group of reporters wrote an intentionally bad and salacious novel under a pen name to prove that sex sells more than quality. It sold 20,000 copies within a few months and spent 13 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list.

The 21st-century novel is increasingly autofictional

Although autofiction, a literary genre blending autobiography and fiction, has been around for millennia, it has become a popular mode in the 21st century. This extensive study of the genre—which analyzes works by Megan Boyle, Tao Lin, and others—argues that the form has become more prevalent because it mirrors the defining technology of the times: social media.

25 things you might not know about ‘Harry Potter,’ from John Green

John Green runs through 25 lesser-known facts about “Harry Potter”—like how JK Rowling was the first person to become a billionaire solely by being an author.

Find your new favorite novelists with this literature map, which allows you to see the writers that readers most closely associate with each other.

James Frey's 'A Million Little Pieces' was marketed as memoir but revealed as fiction

The addiction book became a huge success after being added to Oprah Winfrey's book club. After it was revealed to be fiction in 2005, Oprah invited Frey on her show and criticized him for deceiving her and his readers.

Sophia Amoruso reflected on the girlboss movement 10 years later

It has been more than a decade since 2014, the year Sophia Amoruso published her book "#Girlboss," which became a New York Times bestseller. Since then, Amoruso has more or less journeyed through the seven circles of the corporate underworld, and the "girlboss" has been declared dead. This podcast episode lets listeners hear her thoughts on the legacy of the girlboss phenomenon 10 years after she started it.

The novel broke new ground by offering realistic stories

In this brief interview, Terry Castle, an English professor at Stanford, explains the origins of the early British novel. Castle details how the novel was produced for a newly literate middle class interested in recognizable characters and stories “about life as they knew it” rather than Greek and Roman myths or medieval romances. She also explains why a newly enfranchised female demographic was attracted to the fiction of writers like Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf.

A post-game interview with Sophia Amoruso directly after her 2016 Forbes cover

This article from 2016 is a time capsule of sorts. It includes an interview with the person who coined the term “girlboss,” Nasty Gal founder Sophia Amoruso, that took place just after she appeared on the cover of Forbes magazine. We now know that her company would go on to file for bankruptcy the next year.

Explore a list of the best novels of all time, including works by Jane Austen, Cormac McCarthy, and many others.

A guide to the romance genre's major tropes

This guide breaks down romance's most prominent tropes, or narrative patterns, used by romance writers and adored by their fans. After you learn about "friends to lovers," "marriage of convenience," and "forced proximity," you'll start to see your favorite romance reads in an entirely new light.

A beginner's guide to Toni Morrison

The legendary American writer died in 2019, but her fiction is still as relevant as ever. This primer walks aspiring Morrison fans through her body of work, outlining the ideal starting point for several different kinds of readers. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

Fan fiction has slowly become a part of mainstream publishing

In 2025, the SenLinYu fantasy novel "Alchemised," which began as "Harry Potter" fan fiction, became a bestseller after being traditionally published; its movie rights were sold for over $3M. The mainstreaming of the genre is due to a combination of factors, including publishing's interest in the hard metrics that fan fiction websites provide.

O’Connor was shaped by her time with Sally and Robert Fitzgerald

After Iowa, O’Connor moved to Connecticut to stay in the garage apartment of Sally and Robert Fitzgerald—the legendary translator of Homer, Sophocles, and other classics—while working on her first novel, “Wise Blood.” Like O’Connor, the Fitzgeralds were devout Catholics, and the three attended mass every morning.

Joyce Carol Oates praised King's working-class characters

Joyce Carol Oates is a writer who, like Stephen King, has a massive body of work that moves between styles and genres. Unlike King, she was never derided by critics as being overly commercial. Introducing King at Princeton University in 1997 and 2016, she made the case for King as a serious American writer in the Gothic tradition of Edgar Allan Poe.

Toni Morrison's novels were popular postmodern texts

Toni Morrison’s novels broke new ground in American fiction by using bold structures and colloquial voices to reckon with the country’s past, developing her approach through classic early novels like “The Bluest Eye” and “Beloved,” all the way to later works like “Home.” Morrison once said, “The meaning of a novel is in its structure.”

A selection of author Flannery O'Connor's witty letters

Flannery O'Connor wrote darkly humorous novels while cultivating a richly devout Catholic faith. One of the most renowned American authors of the 20th century, she also wrote many letters in a very charming and witty style. Read a selection of her best epistles here.

Why romantasy is so popular on social media

Much of romantasy's success is thanks to social media, especially TikTok, where posts tagged as #BookTok or #Romantasy often propel titles to mainstream popularity. This deep dive into the trend interviews fans and marketers to explain why the genre's steamy content does so well online.

In 1996, Stephen King dominated the publishing industry, occupying 6 of the 15 spots on the New York Times bestseller list with his 'Green Mile' books.

Jane Austen by the numbers

This feature from the Guardian takes a unique approach to Austen's literature, breaking her life, work, and fandom down into data. The slide deck includes comparative analyses of character employment, net worth, and age. Below is a breakdown of Austen's unexpected posthumous rise to fame.

Breaking down 'clinch covers,' a defining characteristic of '80s romance novels

As romance novels became more popular in the 1980s, publishers leaned into the books' steamier content by advertising it on their covers. Eventually, one specific kind of portrait emerged: the clinch cover, which featured a muscly man, usually shirtless, holding a woman against his chest. This episode from 99% Invisible explores the history of the trend and why it's largely disappeared from modern romance novels.

Innovative novelist Don DeLillo wrote an erotic hockey novel under a pseudonym

The acclaimed writer—known for books like "White Noise" and "Underworld"—published "Amazons" in 1980 under the pen name Cleo Birdwell. The story claimed to be a memoir, written by a woman who secretly joined an NHL team. The ruse went beyond the text, too, with a female model posing as Birdwell for promotional events.

Watch a Yale professor’s take on O’Connor’s ‘Wise Blood’

O’Connor’s first novel is about Hazel Motes, a World War II veteran who returns home and sets out to form an anti-religious congregation. It’s a striking debut and one that Yale professor Amy Hungerford taught in her course “The American Novel Since 1945.”

Contemporary horror novelists on their favorite scary stories

Ten of horror's best writers name the books that still give them nightmares. From established classics, like Stephen King's "IT" and Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House," to unexpected picks like Katherine Dunn's "Geek Love," this collection of scary stories is a perfect reading list for Halloween.

Poet Robert Lowell encouraged O'Connor to turn away from commercial appeal

When O'Connor secured a publisher for "Wise Blood," her publisher envisioned it as a broad, commercial comedy, something Lowell—the accomplished poet whom she met after graduate school at Yaddo, an artist colony in upstate New York—suggested she avoid, encouraging her to lean into her more esoteric and darker interests. This interview with O'Connor biographer Brad Gooch elaborates on that advice.

How Martha Stewart became the first self-made billionaire woman

Through her cooking shows, cookware, and media empire, Martha Stewart ascended to billionaire status in 1999, becoming America's first woman to achieve that number on her own. Despite a conviction in 2004 and time spent in prison, Stewart rebounded and continues to develop product lines and media, with an estimated net worth of $200M. Read more about her story here.

Read about why America is obsessed with the stories of financial scammers.

Jane Austen remains a literary force 250 years later

Both her books and adaptations of them for film continue to sell, with 2025 seeing the highest book sales since 2009. Critics claim her deep, witty exploration of relationships and social norms are the basis of her enduring relevance.

Fiction winners see the most financial gain

The Pulitzer Prize brings prestige but inconsistent financial benefits. For nonfiction writers, receiving the award does increase sales, but only modestly. The big winners are the fiction writers, some of whom have seen sales double after a win.

Read a primer on Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced founder of biotech startup Theranos who was sentenced to prison for defrauding investors.

'Harry Potter' became one of the most successful franchises in history

What began as a story written in cafés by an unknown author grew into a global phenomenon—spanning seven books, eight films, theme parks, and video games—reshaping modern popular culture.

Dystopian books have grown especially popular with younger audiences

In the late 2000s, Suzanne Collins’s dystopian "The Hunger Games," a young adult book series where impoverished children are pitted against one another for entertainment, spent over five years on The New York Times bestseller list.