Tauranga Arts Festival: Writing romance 101 with author Bronwen Evans

Author Bronwen Evans. Photo / Supplied

Their literary genre might seem old fashioned, but today's romance writers are business-savvy entrepreneurs raking in the cash. Sandra Simpson finds out more.

From her Hawke's Bay home Bronwen Evans has a literary reach – and income – that many New Zealand authors can only dream of. And she's doing it all in that most-derided of genres, romance.

"In my third year of writing full time, I went to a Society of Authors meeting and listened to them moaning about their publishers and their earnings. I'd just made six figures in the United States that year, something not uncommon for Kiwi romance writers."

A USA Today best-selling author and three-time winner of the RomCon Readers' Crown, Evans is coming to the Tauranga Arts Festival in October to teach a writing workshop and will touch on the business side of being a romance writer, as well as more-traditional topics.

Although her first book was through a traditional publisher, Evans now administers her own publishing via online outlets – 95 per cent of romance is sold to e-books – so her marketing degree and a background in business come in handy.

She remembers wondering how hard it could be to write a Mills & Boon romance as the idea of becoming an author took hold. "Quite hard, as it turned out."

Even so, her first manuscript was picked up by a bricks-and-mortar publisher and almost unheard of, she got a two-book deal.

Each year Evans publishes three to five books of varying lengths, admitting she's a slow writer – some authors crank out eight titles a year.

"Romance readers are ferocious readers so not only do you need to be able to tell a good story, but you need to be aware of how the romance market works. Building up a backlist as quickly as you can is critical to financial success. Readers aren't buying books to put on their shelves, they want 'done and the next one', escapism and fun."

And sex. The catch-all "romance" might conjure up images of an elderly Barbara Cartland lounging on a pink sofa in a pink gown but this massive market has spawned a plethora of sub-genres with Regency romances, already one of the most popular, boosted even further thanks to the Netflix series Bridgerton, which was based on books by American writer Julia Quinn.

"There's a whole lot of reasons why some books do well," says Bronwen, "and it can just be a lucky break like a producer without anything to read finding your book in a holiday rental.

"There's a second Bridgerton series out at the end of the year and that's when we'll see readers moving on to other authors."

Uncoincidentally, Evans, who writes several Regency romance series, will have a new book out at the same time Bridgerton screens. She also writes historical romances set in other periods and has a couple of contemporary romance series too.

"I write sensual romance, not erotica," she says, "and yes some of the characters will have sex, but only if it's important to the story.

"Romance is a genre about women written mainly by women so it's more modern and focused than it's ever been – women are writing what they want to read. Traditional publishers are no longer the gatekeepers of what gets into print."

• Writing Romance 101 with Bronwen Evans is on October 23, 10am to 3.30pm, at
Baycourt. Tickets $85, from Baycourt box office or ticketek.co.nz. See the full Tauranga Arts Festival programme at taurangafestival.co.nz.