Libraries and Romance

I recently attended two conferences this month. The first conference was in Redmond Oregon at the Eagle Crest Resort. What a beautiful place and with the fall leaves turning colors, shades of gold, brown, green and reds with the occasional burst of deep burgandy popping through. I was part of a panel that spoke about romance to a group of librarians. What could be better than talking about the romance genre to people who love romance books?! The librarians were so interested in the Christian romance genre. They asked tons of questions and were very enthusiastic. I had a great time and even managed to write on my free time. The second conference was in the Seattle area, a very pretty city, by the way. The venue for this event was a bit different. It was to introduce the romance genre to librarians in the King County library system, the second largest system in the country. There were about thirty romance authors representing all the different subgenres of romance. We each had a table where the librarians would come and sit for ten minutes and talk romance with the authors, then they'd shift to the next table. This was a fun and exciting way to explore the romance genre for the librarians. Many were very surprised by the genre and many were avid romance readers. Going to the library is a wonderful way to test drive an author before investing in their books and once you find an author you like, the library will usually be able to find that authors backlist for your reading pleasure. And did you know that for every five requests of a book title the library will buy the book to have on stock. So if you can't find a book at the library, ask your librarian if they can get it for you and tell your friends.