Romances in Germany
In last week’s Die Zeit, arguably the most highly respected weekly paper in Germany, there was a review of Schwerelos, the latest chick lit novel by bestselling author Ildiko von Kuerthy. That in itself was amazing enough, as Die Zeit hardly ever reviews chick lit. The reviewer, Ursula Maerz, didn’t like the book, considering it an example of same old, same old. What immediately struck my attention about the review was the way she spoke about popular literature, in this case romance. She begins the review stating that even popular literature has got an artistic side to it. In the course of the review, she emphasizes twice that readers of popular literature are not entirely stupid (meaning that they will spot the weaknesses in Schwerelos).
The fact that it needs to be said (twice) that readers of romance are not entirely stupid pretty much sums up the status of said literature in Germany. We Germans tend to divide books very strictly into “serious” literature and popular literature, and the only genre in which entertaining books are described as having some artistic value is children’s lit. Several popular genres have attained some respectability – SF, thrillers, most recently fantasy, but romance is still considered entirely beyond the pale. Especially if you are an college graduate, admitting you read romance is a coming-out of sorts, and will give rise to raised eyebrows, incredulous looks and whispers. A common response is: “I would never have thought it of you!”
The general disdain with which romances are regarded here is partly dependent on the way they are marketed. German mainstream bookstores mostly stock chick lit and historical novels, with some contemporaries thrown in. Any historical romances tend to be stocked next to erotic novels for women. German writers mostly restrict themselves to chick lit, historical novels and whodunnits with a strong romance plot – subgenres considered at least a bit respectable. A wide range of romances are translated from English, but not all make it into proper paperback editions and thus into bookstores.
Series romance in Germany-and that is how many romance books are published here- exist entirely independent from bookstores. They are sold with magazines at the newsagent’s, they are only available for a limited period of time, and you can’t acquire them through normal bookstores, including Amazon.de. In addition, their format differs from all common paperback formats, which means they are instantly recognizable not only for the pulpy quality of their paper, but also for their size. No hiding what you’re reading on the bus, not even if you bend the title page. These editions are the true successors of the old dime novel.
Romance titles that are printed in such editions, and scorned accordingly by the establishment, include many Harlequin and Silhouette titles, with a number of older Signet and Zebra Regencies thrown in. Last I looked at the newsagent’s, I saw a translation of Carla Kelly’s Beau Crusoe – a book highly respected here at AAR. Some other titles I saw really amazed me, though. There was Julia Quinn’s On the Way to the Wedding, next to Lisa Kleypas’ Devil in Winter and Anne Gracie’s The Perfect Waltz – all books that are considered mainstream romances in the USA. Some of them even got tasteful covers. If, as a German, you want to read any of these novels in translation, you must face the dismissive glances of your fellow customers at the newsagent’s and buy a dime novel. Interestingly, a mainstream publishing house published the earlier Bridgerton novels, so continuing with reading the series may only be possible with some embarrassment. Small wonder so many German romance readers haunt Amazon for the English editions.
If you live outside the US, how are romances marketed in your country? Do you feel that some kind of social ostracism is incurred by the buying and reading of romances in your native language? Does this influence your reading habits? What standing do romances have in your country in general?
-Rike Horstmann
In Italy it’s pretty much the same as in Germany (with rare exceptions they’re only sold at newsagents and available for a very limited time; the translations are poor & abridged; they only have embarassing ‘clinch’ covers).
One of the worst things is that here we don’t get any contemporary romance UNLESS it’s released by Harlequin.
Luckily for me I’ve started buying romances in English less than 1 year afer I ‘discovered’ romance, but most Italian readers can’t read a novel in English, or don’t feel like making the effort.
Some out of print (Italian-translated) romances got sold on Ebay Italy for more than 75 euros… This, I think, represents very well the desperate state of romance in Italy xD
I think in France the romance market is a little better, if anything, they seem to be regularly available in bookstores and online.
This is all extremely interesting. I live in the UK and it’s pretty much the same as the US market (where I visit twice a year and always hit Borders and my favourite UBS). Also, it’s possible to get anything I want on amazon.co.uk or abebooks.com or even ebay. I sell my own read and unwanted romance genre books on amazon.co.uk and usually restrict my sales to “”domestic only”” because I sell them as low as possible and thus your only profit is on postage. However, after reading this, I am going to make any future listings available to domestic and Europe so that if German, Dutch or other readers can read them in English, they can buy them too. I know that Mills & Boon is making in-roads into the Indian market. This is not surprising to me as English is widely and fluently spoken and when you appreciate Bollywood, you can see that there is a ready market for them. Interestingly, I worked in Kiev in Ukraine a number of years ago and the girls in my office begged me for easy to read novels in English so they could improve their language skills. One trip home I came back with a load of old M&B, Harlequins, etc, and they disappeared in seconds and I had requests for as many as I could bring back from the UK.
I don’t have any reference for buying romances out of the US. But would like to share with you a great product – the Book Lover Book Cover. It wraps up those risque covers from my just-starting-to-read age children. It’s also great for commuting travel because it has a very small pocket for and ID. It adjusts for a variety of book sizes. It’s available at http://bookthingys.com.
An addition to Rike’s observations – I am Austrian, but the publishing market is very similar (all the paperbacks sold in Austria are German, after all, or next to all) – some romance writers are marketed as chick lit in German. Susan Elizabeth Phillips comes to mind, but there are others; even Nora Roberts gets covers that are more usual for women’s fiction or chick-lit! So for some writers, there is a back door to the market. Occasionally Romances get picked up by “”quality publishers”” who publish them as their “”upmarket entertainment lines”” (the term is mine, but it fits.) – All of Penelope Williamson’s books are thus published by Fischer, a very reputable house, which is the literary home of Thomas Mann and Kafka!
On the other hand, a lot of books get “”trashed”” the way Rike described. I always feel sorry for the poor writers who get published in these “”pulp fiction”” format. Not only are they not available anywhere but in some supermarkts or newsagents (and even many newsagents barely store them here!) but the translations are horrenduos and often distorting. They are also shortened most of the time.
The bad reputation of these publications are not exactly undeserved. When i was at university, we did analyse a few of the German written ones for a linguistics class, and they were so horrible you basically needed to be drunk to read them. If I remember correctly, they are produced under conditions more akin to assembly lines than actually written. There are very narror rules for everything (plot, names, etc) that make the usual “”romance rules”” look like complete freedom….
Anyway, I often wonder if writers or their agents are aware of these market peculiarites. For it has to be said, there are a few publishing houeses that are mostly “”entertainment”” (Heyne, Bastei, Goldmann to name a few) but at least they are proper books and can be ordered…. sorry to ramble on – can you tell I am fascinated by this topic? Sorry….
O Rike, in the Netherlands it is exactly the same as you describe it!
Only a few authors make it into mainstream publishing houses – mainly chick lit, eg Jill Mansell, and authors like Barbara Taylor Bradford and Danielle Steel. Since 2000 Nora Roberts’ books got published by two different publishers.
There is one publishing house that does market romance novels in a different way, as large-format paperbacks that are sold through stores and online, but I have the feeling they are connected to a large so-called book club, a pre-internet institution where you could order books. They have published books by Mary Jo Putney and Eloisa James a.o.
Jo Beverley, Loretta Chase, Julie Garwood, Teresa Medeiros and many others have to make do with the newsagent paperbacks.
Maybe the whole industry here is way, way behind. And in the meantime millions and millions of those ‘stupid’ paperbacks get sold every year.
I for one am not ashamed to buy them and read them in public. I know I’m reading good stuff.
That’s really interesting Rike. You would be hard pressed to read a book whose standard shape for print is completely different from other types of print. Still a hide-a-book cover could at least disguise the cover title and model(s) from inspection. Though if you liked them and read them and were not ashamed to admit it, like Dina says, I guess it wouldn’t matter what shape the novel took because you wouldn’t care. When I go to Germany I will definitely check them out. I bought a contemporary romance from England once, the language of diction was different than American novels. It surprised me at the time, but thinking about it afterward it really is kind of obvious that it would be. I think it had to do with hiking, I’ll have to dig it out from my collection. lol
I live in Brazil and it´s pretty much the same here: romance books aren´t considered “”literature”” and, with the exception of big (and I mean, very very big) bestselling authors like Nora Roberts, this kind of book isn´t even translated to Portuguese.
Series romance from Silhouette/Harlequin are published in Portuguese, in the same “”unique style”” used in German: the book format makes them instantly recognizable and most readers are afraid to get caught reading them in public.
I´m a college graduate and, I like to think, in possess of an above-average intelligence. I´ve been reading romances for over 20 years and I´m not afraid or ashamed of admitting to my friends that I read them, but I get “”the look”” (you know what I´m talking about) every time I do so. Why do most people think romance books are “”trash””? It´s a good thing I don´t care about their opinion…
That was Dussmann’s – I go there every time I visit Berlin! Isn’t it lovely?
Anyway, it’s quite typical that the books you purchased were chick lit, because that is about the only kind of romance in English that German bookstores regularly stock. Recently, there has been the addition of some paranormals, but only in a few bookstores.
There is a very nice book-exchange shop solely for English 2nd-hand books in Munich. They stock some romances, but refuse to buy or sell any series romances as a matter of principle.
Rike, this was really interesting. I wish now that I had paid more attention to books at newsagents when I was in Germany a year ago. I did wander into one of the best bookstores I’ve ever been in in Berlin. It was about four stories tall, and just enormous. Of course, most of the books were in German, and I couldn’t read them, I did find a fairly large section of books in English on one of the upper floors. Mainly what I purchased then were a couple chick lit books.
I must apologize for a mix-up on my behalf: It’s Lisa KLeypas some of whose earlier historical romances were printed with a mainstream publishing house. Julia Quinn’s earlier Bridgerton novels were published by the same publisher as To the Way to the Wedding, but under a different imprint, in this case one that is available through bookstores. So the fact remains that you could order older Bridgerton books at a bookstore or Amazon, whereas you must get newer ones from the newsagent’s.