Romance on the screen and on the page: Two Indicators
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Oct 23, 2024
Dive into the fascinating world of holiday rom-coms and discover how TV executives mastered the art of mass-producing seasonal love stories. Uncover the rise of romance novels from supermarket shelves to mainstream success, thanks to e-books and strategic networking among authors. Explore Hallmark's secret sauce for festive films, and learn how today's romance writers are breaking barriers with diverse narratives and innovative storytelling. It's a captivating intersection of love, business, and creativity!
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Not Enough Christmas
In the early 2000s, there wasn't much Christmas-themed content on TV.
Bill Abbott, then Hallmark Channel CEO, saw an untapped market for G-rated holiday romance.
insights INSIGHT
Wholesome and Frugal
Hallmark's Christmas movies found success by targeting an audience who wanted wholesome holiday romance.
Their low-budget approach in the early days, while requiring trade-offs, proved effective.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Two Takes Danica
Danica McKellar, known for "The Wonder Years", became a Christmas movie regular.
She highlights the efficiency of these productions, often needing only two takes.
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The story follows Catalina 'Cat' Capuleta, a twenty-eight-year-old ambitious singer from San Antonio, who joins the concert tour of superstar mariachi Patricio Galán. Their initial clashes due to Patricio's demanding and arrogant nature eventually give way to a passionate and intense romance. As they navigate their careers and personal pasts, they must confront their emotional baggage and the challenges of their high-profile lives. The novel is rich in Hispanic culture and music, offering a vibrant depiction of the mariachi world and Mexican customs.
Love in the Time of Self-Publishing
Christine M. Larson
In this book, Christine M. Larson traces the forty-year history of Romancelandia, a network of romance authors, readers, editors, and others. The book explores how American romance writers, once marginalized, became digital publishing’s most innovative and successful authors through solidarity and collective support. Larson discusses the significant increase in romance writers’ median income by 73%, contrasting with the decline in income for other authors. The book also addresses the historical exclusion of romance authors of color and LGBTQ+ writers from Romancelandia and the recent efforts towards inclusivity and cultural reckoning.
On today's show, we have two stories from The Indicator, Planet Money's daily podcast. They just launched Love Week, a weeklong series exploring the business and economic side of romance.
First, hosts Wailin Wong and Adrian Ma fire up the gas logs and pour a mug of cocoa to discuss the made-for-TV rom-com machine, and how television executives learned to mass produce seasonal romance.
Then, Wailin and host Darian Woods discuss another romance medium: the romance novel. Once relegated to supermarket aisles, these books are now mainstream. And authors, an often-maligned group within publishing, have found greater commercial success than many writers in other genres. We find out how romance novelists rode the e-book wave and networked with each other to achieve their happily-for-now status in the industry.
This episode is hosted by Erika Beras, Wailin Wong, Adrian Ma, and Darian Woods. These episodes of The Indicator were originally produced by Julia Ritchey and engineered by Kwesi Lee. They were fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Kate Concannon is The Indicator's Editor.