Romantic Rendezvous

The Australian Romance Readers Association (ARRA) is hosting a series of Romantic Rendezvous during March in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth as part of their ongoing commitment to getting writers and readers of romance together. The Melbourne event takes place at the Mantra Bell City, Preston on Saturday 30 March.

The guest speakers will be international bestselling authors Celeste Bradley (American) and Keri Arthur Australian), who will attend all four events. They will be supported in each centre by a wide range of Australian writers, including winners of ARRA's reader-determined annual awards and the RUBY (the Romance Writers of Australia's awards), as well as nominees for the RITA awards, the Romance Writers of America's annual awards and the Oscars of the romance world.

Romance novels are written mostly by women about women for women. This is because, as a genre, romance encompasses all the life-changing events people undergo, the highs and lows, from birth through marriage, divorce and death, as well as breakups, career highlights and disappointments, domestic abuse and other violence against women and a myriad of other life events.

The difference between romance and other genres is its focus on relationships and an upbeat, empowering ending. Reading a romance novel after a bad day or while going through a dark period uplifts, empowers and inspires readers to keep going.

Romance is the third biggest selling genre in print in Australia with annual sales of 1.4 million copies. However, it is in the ebook market that romance really comes into its own and it is believed ebook sales make romance the second or most likely bestselling genre overall. Figures are difficult to come by as they are not measured the way print books are. However, Harlequin Australia sold 300,000 ebooks in 2017 and the large number of independent (self-published) authors in the genre publish almost exclusively in ebook.

MELBOURNE
Saturday 30 March 2019, Mantra Bell City, Preston
10.00 am - 12.30 pm and 1.30 - 4.00 pm
The room will be closed for a lunch break from 12.30 pm to 1.30 pm