Together with Hinge, the romantic fiction publisher hosted a one-day convention for the romance fiction community.Together with Hinge, the romantic fiction publisher hosted a one-day convention for the romance fiction community.
On Saturday morning, “Love Club” by Lorde was playing over the speakers at Industry City in Brooklyn, where 300 readers, writers, and romance fantasy aficionados were gathered. It was a fitting song for the occasion.
With Hinge as a presenting partner, the contemporary romance publisher 831 Stories, launched in 2024 by Claire Mazur and Erica Cerulo, was hosting its first annual RomCon, a celebration of love, dating and romance. The day’s agenda was packed with panels covering topics like “Romance in Real Life” and “Pleasure, Power, and the Politics of Romance,” and the space was scattered with vendors like the beloved romantasy bookstore the Ripped Bodice; the Etsy artist Amanda Krovic, making heart-shaped, engraved bookmarks; a Warby Parker book cart; and, of course, an 831 shop where attendees could buy books and merch.
The day’s protagonists were the writers: beloved authors and genre experts like Nikki Payne, Tressie McMillan Cottom, Casey McQuiston, Brooke Averick, and Sarah MacLean led the day’s conversations.
“Back when I was reading romance fantasy growing up, we were like this secret society of readers. There was this embarrassment and quietness,” says MacLean, a bestselling author known for her historical romance novels. “And now there’s this expansive, beautiful community of devoted readers. It’s really remarkable.” MacLean believes the internet has played a big role in helping romance readers find each other. “There was a time that we were afraid to read our books on the subway and out ourselves. We were nervous about being perceived as romance readers because of the way society looks at these texts, at women’s texts, at love in general.” By contrast, today, MacLean says, “When you meet romance readers in the world, there’s this shared excitement. When I tell someone I’m a romance novelist, the reaction I get today is so curious and open.”
MacLean is being humble. Her 22nd book comes out in February, and her fans are fanatics. Her panel at RomCon covered romance tropes, where she spoke alongside fellow authors Brooke Averick, Page Powars, and Nicola Yoon. She spoke about her “rules” of writing romance novels (she doesn’t like the “friends-to-lovers” thing, believing instead that two love interests should start out violently opposed) and referenced some of her favorites (Nobody’s Baby But Mine by Susan Elizabeth Phillips was one).
In between panels—which felt more like a cross between a college seminar, the meeting of a secret club, and a highly engaged group chat (“I knew, statistically, that there would be scholars in this audience,” said the moderator and writer Tyler McCall, the host of 831’s podcast, Radio 831, after one lively discussion)—were opportunities to shop, grab coffee, and convene on plush white couches. “We really focused on making sure everyone there felt taken care of,” Mazur tells me. “Conventions are always chaotic naturally, so we wanted that energy to feel joyful and not stressful.” Another intention set for RomCon was to remind readers that love and dating can really still be fun, despite modern narratives to the contrary. “Erica and I spent a lot of time discussing romance novels and their impact on people’s real lives, where romance apps are filling the gaps,” says Mazur. “So when we talked with Hinge about working together on RomCon, we agreed we wanted people to feel optimistic again about dating. And if they walk away feeling that love and pleasure are meaningful and fun, then we did what we set out to do.” Mazur adds that Spotify—which added audiobooks to its platform in 2022—has also done its part to stoke the romance-fiction flames. “Spotify specifically is bringing more readers to the market than anyone,” she tells me.
“There’s an idea that women writing romance novels can’t possibly be serious, and that’s precisely because it’s women doing it, and they’re doing it for other women,” Cottom, a writer, New York Times columnist, and professor, tells me. “I learned as much about the history of class from Regency romance novels as I would have learned from Jane Austen. Women wanting to marry the earl, women wanting to marry a billionaire—these tropes are about real estate, about economic security. So the idea that romance fiction lives in a separate world is just not true.” And then there is the genre’s relationship to feminism: “If you take women’s humanity seriously,” Cottom says, “then you also have to take seriously our fantasies for the world we want to live in.”
The grand finale of RomCon was an affirmation of female fantasy. After the final panel conversation, Tess Tregellas and Sara Spadacene, who will share the MC role when Magic Mike Live is mounted in New York early next year, took the stage to ask the audience who their fantasy love interest might be. A guy who texts back and also has a job? At that moment, a man in the audience with a buzz cut stood. Someone who cooks you dinner at the end of a long workday? Another chiseled dude stood up. And then it became clear: a Magic Mike show was about to ensue. In no time, a cohort of brawny guys entered the room, dancing to “Pony” by Ginuwine. They thrust and tore off their shirts as the audience screamed. In this particular love club, some fantasies really do come true.
Below, scenes from 831 Stories’ inaugural RomCon.
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Photo: Jackie Abbott 1/17
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Photo: Jackie Abbott 3/17
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Photo: Jackie Abbott 6/17
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Photo: Jackie Abbott 9/17
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Photo: Jackie Abbott 12/17
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Photo: Jackie Abbott 15/17
