Industry Statistics / Reader Statistics / Romance Statistics (PDF)

Author Statistics
--compiled from RWA member information

• Romance Writers of America has 9,500 members from around the world -- primarily the United States and Canada.

• 1,600 RWA members are published in book-length romance. Almost every author in the United States who is writing romance fiction is a member of our association.

• On average, a published romance author writes 1 1/2 romance manuscripts per year. On average, one romance per author is released per year.

Payment:

• In general, romance fiction is bought from an author by a publisher (sometimes through an agent) via a contract. The contract almost always involves a cash advance, and then a royalty pay-out.

• Romance authors have worked as attorneys, teachers, scientists, accountants and any number of other professions before resigning to write romance fiction. Many authors still maintain a “day job” in another field while writing romance.