Sales of romance novels are rising in Britain

Passion is being partitioned. Online, and particularly on TikTok, romantic fiction is being carved into categories by its fans. Where once people merely read a category called “books” now they read categories called #friendstolovers, #enemiestolovers and #academicrivalstolovers. There is #spicytok and there is #smuttok; there is #forbiddenlove and there is the slightly creepy #forcedproximity. Feminism is not this movement’s strong suit. There is a category called #billionaireromance; there is no category named #earningsparity.

Progressive or not, the hashtags are shifting books. Thanks in part to TikTok memes, sales of romance and saga fiction in Britain have risen by 110% in three years, to £53m ($64m) a year—their highest figure in a decade, according to figures from Nielsen BookData. Publishers have started to take notice. For many years the industry had regarded romantic fiction with Darcy-like disdain but now its pulse is quickening. Bookshops no longer stash books with pink covers at the back of shops but put them on tables near the tills; publishers are learning to brave the word “heartwarming” without embarrassment.