Inside the romance book stores thriving as cost of living ices out small business across Australia
Bricks-and-mortar bookshops focused purely on romance and erotica books are bucking the trend and thriving in the unlikeliest spots. Meet the women behind them.
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Even by her own admission, Jess Weber’s newly opened bookstore was a bit of a risk. The only genre on offer is “spicy” romance and its location is in the pocket-size suburb of Edinburgh, on the outskirts of Adelaide, which at last count had a population of just 376.
But in January, when Weber opened the doors to The First Chapter Book Store, there were queues snaking out of the store and around the building – romance novel aficionados, not just from South Australia but from around the country, looking for their next read.
In the past six months, the bricks-and-mortar bookstore, which started as an online shop in 2021, has been busy for the former aged and disability support worker.
“It was very scary opening the [physical] store because most of my customers were interstate. But since moving in, the market in South Australia for romance books is astonishing. I am constantly busy,” she says.
“On opening day, I cried. We tried to count the amount of people who came in and it would have been between 400-1000 people which was insane. We had lines for four to five hours outside the door and it was such an amazing turnout and testimony to what the romance society is like in South Australia.”
Stocking a wide range of subgenres including sports romance, small town romance and dark fantasy, Weber saw a sharp rise in women wanting to read steamy novels with romantic storylines and was determined to help break the perceptions of this once hush-hush genre.
“People think of romance books as your Mills & Boon books with the shirtless man on the cover, and breaking down the stigma of that is opening up to a whole range of authors and genres and tropes,” the mum of three says.
“In life, we’re all looking for love and there’s a voice inside that calls for a connection with someone, and reading romance makes you fall in love with characters and stories. It brings up the butterflies you get when you first fall in love, and reading different genres and tropes opens you up to more feelings which is beautiful.”
Weber grew up reading and hopes to pass that love on to her children Rylee, 8, Norah, 6, and 10-month-old Henry.
“Now their second home is the bookshop and they’re starting to get into reading, and there’s a little reading nook outside of the shop so they have a chair and a bookcase, and they can bring their books in and they just love it,” Weber says.
READ: Meet the authors: 11 of the state’s top romance writers
Jess’ success is hardly isolated.
Nestled in the unlikely spot of Murray Bridge in regional South Australia, Brittany Schulz opened Fiction & Friction two years ago and the business has gone from strength to strength.
“It just started as a hobby but I noticed a gap in the market where I couldn’t find indie books I wanted to buy,” Schulz, 29, says. “And I just really wanted to get these books out to people that wouldn’t have read them otherwise.”
For Schulz, it all started when her daughter was born. Battling postnatal depression, she turned to books as an escape and stumbled upon romance novels. She was instantly hooked.
She was soon sharing “spicy book” recommendations in bite-size videos on TikTok. To her surprise, many were being watched up to half a million times by women all over the world wanting to know what romance novel they should be reading next.
Fast forward to today and her picture-perfect bookstore is thriving. She stocks over 100 indie romance authors both in-store and online, attracting romance lovers from around the country and she even hosted her first event at Adelaide Convention Centre in September.
“I didn’t think it was ever going to be this big,” she says. “When I went into this, it was a hobby introducing people to some indie books. Now I’m selling thousands of books and people keep wanting more so it’s been really surreal and amazing.
“People will see my videos on TikTok and a lot of people say to me, ‘Oh, we just assume that you’re in Melbourne or Sydney because they’re the ones who get all the good stuff.’ And then they find out not only am I in South Australia, but I’m in regional South Australia. They’re like, ‘Why are you there?’ I get that question so often and I’m like, ‘Well, I live here.’”
In a time when the cost-of-living crisis is choking out businesses across the country, it’s a remarkable feat that independent bookstores, especially those focused purely on romance, aren’t just surviving but are thriving.
It comes hand-in-hand with the explosion of romance novel recommendations on social media, specifically on TikTok and Instagram. Like a virtual book club, users share reviews of their latest reads, with videos with the hashtags #BookTok, #Bookstagram and #Spicybookclub being watched just over 230 billion times worldwide.
One of these book influencers is Talia, who is better known as @arliareads to her 12,000 followers across TikTok and Instagram. She shares her favourite “spicy” novels and quotes within those books in videos that are watched up to a quarter of a million times.
“I didn’t have anyone to speak to about books in my real life so I started reaching out to people already creating book content,” she says. “It seemed so fun that I eventually decided I wanted to do it myself.”
And behind it all are the authors. At last count, romance novels are the most lucrative of any genre, pulling in a whopping $1.44bn globally in 2023 alone. And in Australia, the writers enjoy slight anonymity, adored by romance readers but unknown to those outside an ever-growing fanbase – meet 11 of SA’s top romance writers here.
Adelaide-based indie author Montana Fyre’s writing is “sinfully” dark and spicy, known for its swoon-worthy anti-heroes and feisty heroines. The 30 year old from Evanston Southbegan writing in high school and has since become an Amazon top 50 best-selling dark romance author.
“I’ve always loved writing, and early on in my relationship with my husband, which was like 11 years ago, I started this book and at the time I never intended for it to ever be published,” Fyre says.
“And then I finished the book just after our wedding, and I was like, ‘You know what? I think I might publish this next year’... it kind of took off from there.”
She has now gained a large online following, with over 18,000 followers on Instagram and a dedicated group of almost 300 fans on Facebook affectionately named Montana’s Fyreflies.
Now writing full time, the former government worker credits her ability to write romance to her “fairytale love story” with husband, Sam, who does the graphic design for her books.
“It’s really exciting having people getting so excited about the characters that have lived in my head for so long now that they’re finally out in the world, and being so passionate about them,” Fyre says.
“We went to a book signing in Vegas last year, and I had somebody come to my table, and they were so excited to meet me, they were in tears. And that just really blew my mind that somebody on the other side of the world could be excited to meet me and talk to me about my books.”
So, what is it about spicy books that has women hooked?
Adelaide-based psychologist Madeline Rowell says unlike typical pornography and erotica, romance books include respect, consent and emotional fulfilment alongside the spice.
“Historically, open expression of women’s sexuality has been tainted and discouraged; romance novels encourage the opposite – a healthy, normalised activity, shared between two consenting adults is depicted, and the heroine or protagonist is respected and sexually satisfied at each encounter,” Rowell says.
Or as Schulz simply puts it, “There is definitely something empowering about romance novels, and what modern-day woman doesn’t want to feel empowered.”
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