Howefitz Blog

I wouldn’t classify myself as OCD. I’ve never been diagnosed or anything. But I do have a compulsion to, anywhere I go, check out the book and magazine racks. I don’t generally buy anything, I just look at how books are arranged. What are the bestsellers? What genres are adjacent to each other? I suppose it’s the wannabe writer in me doing market research. (Apparently, vampires are HOT right now…)

During my last perusal of a book department in a major retailer, I was quickly scanning the romance novels, trying to get to the meager science fiction section (sci-fi seems to always be meager in the mountains, despite many a great sci-fi tale being set here…), when a pattern quickly emerged. I can easily say that over half of the steamy romance covers featured some form of pregnancy, whether on the cover illustration or in the title.

What’s up with that?

I’ve always thought of romance novels as housewife porn that’s legal to be sold at the supermarket. Maybe because it’s prose?

But what’s the fascination with pregnancy being prominent to the story? Is this some kind of weird fetish thing? Or does it call on something deeper? Do women prefer to keep their escapism closer to their own lives? While men (and by men, I mean me) prefer their escapism to be about characters that have powers beyond those of mortal men and have adventures in alien and fantasy landscapes, do women prefer characters that they may have something in common with?

Just consider this one man’s futile attempt to pry open the unfathomable depths of the broad female psyche.

As for trying to figure out Harlequin‘s marketing strategies? I gave that up when I discovered Harlequin Nascar…

Incidentally, my wife can’t help with this. She’d rather read Lord of the Rings or something by Jane Austin. Which is one more reason why I love her…

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**Just a reminder, my donate button on the right side of the blog is going to Kat and her People to People delegation to Australia. Give what you can when you can to help her on this life-changing journey!**

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