Surely it was only natural for books such as Casey McQuiston's 'Red, White & Royal Blue,' Lana Harper's 'Payback's a Witch' and Cat Sebastian's sparkling same-sex historical romance novels to eventually find their way onto bestseller lists. Our recent paper, based on interviews with romance editors and authors, shows that America's biggest book publishers originally viewed LGBTQ+ romance as a niche market, tweaking their approach only after witnessing the huge success of independently published LGBTQ+ e-books. Book publishing, like most of the entertainment industry, has traditionally operated under what Harvard Business School professor Anita Elberse calls the blockbuster strategy: Publishers invest huge sums into acquiring and promoting surefire bestsellers, such as Prince Harry's 'Spare,' which earned a US$20 million advance. It's simply more efficient for publishers to pursue a 'one-to-many' business model ' that is, to sell one book to a mass audience ' than a...
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