NOT YOUR USUAL SUSPECTS

A group blog featuring an international array of killer mystery, suspense, and romantic suspense writers. With premises and story lines different from your run-of-the-mill whodunits, we tend to write outside the box. We blog several times a week on all topics relating to romantic suspense and mystery, our writing, and our readers. We welcome all comments and often have guest bloggers. All our authors can be contacted separately, too, using their own social media links.

We find our genre delightfully, dangerously, and deliciously exciting - join us here, if you do too!

NOTE: the blog is currently dormant but please enjoy the posts we're keeping online.


Julie Moffet . Cathy Perkins . Jean Harrington . Daryl Anderson . Nico Rosso . Maureen A Miller . Sandy Parks . Lisa Q Mathews . Sharon Calvin . Lynne Connolly . Janis Patterson . Vanessa Keir . Tonya Kappes . Julie Rowe . Joni M Fisher . Leslie Langtry

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Literature or a Good Book

As readers and writers of romance and genre fiction I’m betting that more than once you’ve been told these books are not worthy. Not literature.
To all those who look down their noses and say that, I stick out my tongue and issue a loud Phlassssst!  Known to some as a raspberry.
I have a lot more to say on this subject but none of it is very ladylike or nice. But I will say no more. 
Should any of you need proof what we read and write is the bestest, here is a bit from a December article The Guardian published about the percentage of books that were finished. It was conducted by Kobo (love my Kobo readers) in Britain and Europe but I’m sure the stats are similar for North American readers.  
BTW, in the past months there have been other articles proclaiming similar information.
From the article.  

The people of Britain were most likely to finish a romance novel, with 62% completion, followed by crime and thrillers (61%) and fantasy (60%). Italians were also most engaged by romance (74% completion), while the French preferred mysteries, with 70% completion.
Kobo’s UK Bestseller List
1.One Cold Night – Katia Lief
2. Gone Again – Doug Johnstone
3. Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn
4. The Fault in Our Stars – John Green
5. My Sister’s Keeper – Bill Benners
6. The Husband’s Secret – Liane Moriarty
7. The Cuckoo’s Calling – Robert Galbraith
8. Her Last Letter – Nancy C. Johnson
9. Twelve Years a Slave – Solomon Northup
10. Bloody Valentine – James Patterson
Kobo’s most completed books of 2014
1. Rotten to the Core - Casey Kelleher
2. The Tycoon’s Vacation – Melody Anne
3. The Traitor – Kimberley Chambers
4. Concealed in Death – JD Robb
5. Wrongful Death - Lynda La Plante
6. All Revved Up - Sylvia Day
7. Present Danger - Stella Rimington
8. The Empty Cradle - Rosie Goodwin
9. The Witness - Nora Roberts
10. The Promise (Fallen Star Series, Book 4) – Jessica Sorensen
Bam! Take that you literary readers.  

For the full article here’s the link.

9 comments:

Maureen A. Miller said...

I've always been a rebel when it comes to people telling me, "what I should read."

All hail e-reading devices which allow us to go on planes without having the nosy neighbor in the middle seat dipping their head to see the front cover of the paperback we're reading. Followed by the sanctimonious elevation of the eyebrow. As you say, "Phlasssst!"

CathyP said...

I had to laugh - my brother keeps asking when I'm going to write a REAL book.
Huh, thought that's what I was doing :)

I've also heard most people never finish (or start) the best-sellers that "everybody" is reading. Bigger :)

Anne Marie Becker said...

Interesting stats! I know I'm much, much more likely to read a romance or thriller than one of the books my book club chooses. LOL

Clare London said...

LOL my son told me recently that he'd read how one of the most-hyped, most-sold books of 2014 was actually the most-dumped one as well, whether in returns or just abandoning in charity shops :).

Rita said...

Maureen I had someone reading over my shoulder and finally asked if they wanted me to turn to the sex scenes.
Cathy this is a question that comes mostly from relatives. I had one who asked it quite frequently in emails. I didn’t answer. Finally my snarky self told her when I stopped getting paid real money for what I write.
The bottom line is I can’t change anyone’s mind about what they buy and attempt to read. No more than they can change mine. But I do get pleasure knowing they are…. they are…. Oh! Bother. I won’t say what I think they are.

Toni Anderson said...

Those stats were no surprise to me, Rita :) It's interesting seeing this new data though. Why is romance still so tarred with distain, I wonder? Not that I care. I read and write it because I love it :)

Rita said...

Pompous publications tell the sheep of the reading world what to read. IMO too many people in this world don’t think for themselves and allow the literary oligarchy to tell them what is good and what isn’t. The Emperor’s clothes kinda thing ensues. In my very unscientific findings the literary only readers get through an average of two books a year. The average romance reader cruises through two a week. I love my romance readers. I love a book where the characters grow and there is a HEA or at least the possibility on one. Literary readers can have a book where the characters start out whining about life and the only change by the end of the book is they are whining louder.

Marcelle Dubé said...

Rita, all I know for sure is that of all the writers I have EVER known, romance writers have the most fun...

Rita said...

THAT is the truth Marcelle

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