“Why isn’t there a Marvel for love?” Erica Cerulo says. “A Bravo for love? An A24 for love?”
It’s an excellent query. Romance literature is a billion-dollar trade, with the style’s novels accounting for 25% of all books purchased. And but, so usually relegated to the standing of responsible pleasure. “There was a quote that we learn someplace that was like, romance books are the one books you may learn and other people suppose you are dumber for studying them,” Cerulo says.
But she and her finest pal, enterprise associate, and A Few Things podcast co-host Claire Mazur imagine they’ve an answer in 831 Stories, their new entertainment company that launched September 10 with the publishing of its first ebook, Big Fan by Alexandra Romanoff.
831 Stories doesn’t begin and cease with publishing. The firm goals to create a loyal, energetic fan neighborhood round their content material and develop the universe of every ebook via in-person occasions and multimedia, merch, and extra. Take Big Fan, for instance. After studying, you’ll be capable to stream the fictional single from the ebook on Spotify, learn an epilogue concerning the characters on-line, purchase the identical necklace the love curiosity offers the primary character within the third act, and attend occasions in Los Angeles and New York City with the writer.
“We wish to be hip, attractive Hallmark,” Mazur says. “We actually imagine that there’s room for an enormous mainstream romance ebook family model that individuals acknowledge but additionally broadens the viewers for love tales.”
A lofty purpose—however one Cerulo and Mazur appear poised to satisfy. After all, they’ve constructed a loyal fanbase earlier than via their standard artisanal retailer Of A Kind, which was ultimately purchased by Bed Bath & Beyond after which shut down after the guardian firm skilled its personal monetary troubles. By 2019, they have been taking a break and, as Mazur places it, “attempting to recuperate from startup life.” Then the pandemic occurred and each discovered themselves turning to romance novels and audiobooks to go the time.
One specifically captured their consideration: The Idea of You, the Robinne Lee novel that was not too long ago tailored right into a film starring Anne Hathaway. “We have been so enthusiastic about that predominant character and what it represented,” Mazur says. Here was a girl in her 40s who isn’t experiencing a mid-life disaster—she’s assured, fulfilled, and, yeah, enjoys intercourse with the youthful lead singer of the most well-liked boy band on this planet. More importantly, they noticed how books like The Idea of You have been inspiring girls, themselves included, to have extra open conversations about intercourse in individual and on mainstream social media accounts in a approach they’d by no means seen earlier than.
“We weren’t actually speaking about intercourse drive and needs that these books have been speaking about explicitly and overtly and with none caveat earlier than,” Mazur says. “The intercourse positivity that we grew up with as girls, now in our 40s, was Samantha Jones… It was actually thrilling to learn these things that was like, no, girls are attractive too.”
