1 March 2021
In 2016, we had been open for one intense and educational year as the only romance-focused bookstore in the country. After one year of building a community of romance-loving customers, it became abundantly clear to us that readers were looking for more racial diversity in their romance novels. But when we told publishers this, they were quick to tell us two things: "diverse" books didn't sell well, and, at the same time, the problem wasn't as big as we were making it out to be and they were "going to do better."