Romantasy is ‘revitalising’ the publishing industry

Sexy tales of women-centred fantasy fiction have exploded in popularity and sales. Two feminist marketing scholars unpack the genre’s winning formula

In certain corners of the internet recently, people have been debating why “women can’t stop reading fairy porn”.

These discussions centre around the fantasy romance genre, also known as romantasy, which has exploded in both popularity and sales.

Onyx Storm, Rebecca Yarros’s third book in The Empyrean series, was the fastest-selling adult novel in 20 years when published in early 2025, according to the New York Times. It sold more than 2.7 million copies in its first week.

Read the full story on Times2.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.