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To read?

I remember going to a writers' conference and one of the guest speakers, a super top-selling, one of THE top selling, category romance authors, came out and said she didn't read much romance! She felt if she did, it would somehow influence her writing. As in, she would inadvertently steal someone else's plot.

Well, we in the auditorium were shocked!

Because the first thing the advice for writers is, is to read, read, read. And here is this super-successful Mills and Boon author (and M&B are always telling us to read their books) well, she is telling us she didn't read much romance. Cripes! I hope she read her own books when she'd written them, or maybe she didn't. Good lord, maybe she didn't even like them! I hate to think.

One of the reasons an author should read is to check out the market. It makes sense as an author to know what a publisher is after, and what they're doing, but also to look at trends in fiction. Although by the time something is a trend, I think I heard or read, you've most likely missed the boat.

Anyway, rest assured that I am a romance writer and I am a romance reader. Like a lot of us I go through stages when I don't read romance, and stages where I will re-read my all time favourites, such as Fiona Brand or Abby Gaines, but a happy ending is the best. Romance as a genre guarantees that!

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