Published
December 1999
Making
it in "Romance"
Perseverance
pays off as Seaside writer breaks into market in a big way
By
Bill Graffius
Seaside Signal staff
"Oh,
Lord Wessington," she groaned, "I don't know." The moist
lips, the biting teeth, were wreaking havoc with her senses…"
The
"Romance" novel-it's a genre that represents 53% of all mass-market
fiction purchased in the U.S., generating more than $1 billion in annual
sales. After five years of hard work, Seaside writer Cheryl Holt has broken
into this juggernaut of publishing.
Holt
will be on hand at Tillamook Head Books, 150 U Street on Sunday, Dec.
19, from 2 - 4 p.m. for a special book signing appearance, autographing
her first novel, "THE WAY OF THE HEART."
It's
the story of a strong-willed, independent and intelligent woman living
in early 18th century England and facing an arranged marriage. Because
of its setting, it falls within a popular category of "Romance"
novels termed Regency-style historical.
The
term regency refers to that period of English history, Holt explains,
"When King George was crazy, but he was still alive, and the Prince
of Wales was the regent and running the country. The British aristocracy
was so wealthy and so decadent."
Holt
came to the business of writing along a somewhat circuitous route. She
graduated from South Dakota State University with a Bachelor of Arts in
Music Performance and French. Finding a limited job market she returned
to SDSU and obtained a degree in Education. After a short stint as a public
school teacher, she returned to the halls of academia again, this time
earning a degree in law at the University of Wyoming. Holt has clerked
for the attorney general's offices in Wyoming and Colorado and also served
as a deputy district attorney prosecutor in Denver.
The
high stress and hard work of the legal professional also didn't appeal
to her and when her husband, an electrician, was given an opportunity
to work in Hawaii, they jumped at the chance.
While
there, Holt worked as a lobbyist doing mental health advocacy work at
a United Way Agency.
After
three years and following the birth of their first child, son Sean, they
moved back to the mainland and Holt traveled through the Northwest as
her husband's job took them to different states. At Thanksgiving time
five years ago, however, Holt, her husband and young son, moved to Seaside
where they have "bought a house and settled," Holt says.
It
was about that time, she says with a laugh, that she "decided I wanted
to be a writer. I was so naïve about what it takes."
Holt
says originally, she wanted to write suspense novels, but discovered it
was an extremely difficult arena to break into. It required an agent and
agents willing to consider, let alone take on, a new unproven talent were
virtually impossible to find.
After
researching the various markets, she turned, instead, to the realm of
the romance novel because she discovered that publishers in that genre
still find many of their new writers through unsolicited manuscripts.
She
readily admits the statistics of the romance genre is a large part of
why she writes romance.
Despite
a perception that romance writing is less than serious, she points out
that it is actually "big business." The typical romance reader
is college educated, Holt says, their annual household income averages
over $50,000 and romance readers buy between 6-10 books per month.
According
to the Romance Writers of America, 1,963 romance titles were published in
1998, representing 19.9% of all books purchased. An estimated 41 million plus
people in the U.S. alone regularly read romance novels.
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