The Bookseller - Features - Love without limits: editors and authors on the barriers to a diverse romance sector

A quick quiz: close your eyes and envisage what "typical" romance writers look like. Many might come up with an answer similar to Francesca Capaldi's: "white English women". And Capaldi happens to be a white romance author herself. Her In the Valleys series is published by Hera Books and she has felt, at times, that the sector can be challenging for authors outside that narrow demographic. The requirements can be even more narrow, she says: "An agent and a publisher wanted me to rewrite my Welsh novels and set them in Cornwall."

As with the entire industry, the romance sector is increasingly trying to represent people from marginalised groups, and authors and publishing insiders broadly agree that while the landscape is much better than in previous years, more still needs to be done. Author Bolu Babalola says: "These [underrepresented] authors have always existed, but I think now we are realising the importance of hearing those voices. If you think about how whiteness has been the default for so long-essentially forever, in terms of the media-it means that the work we are doing now is a drop in the ocean."