Simon & Schuster enjoys 'strong turn-out' at Romance House Party

Simon & Schuster (S&S) enjoyed a "strong turn-out" at its first consumer-facing Romance House Party on Friday 5th July held at the Nottingham Playhouse, according to Sabah Khan, publicity director.

More than 100 people, including creators, members of the public and industry professionals, attended the event which spotlit Under Your Spell by Laura Wood and Date With Destiny by Lucy Vine.

Speaking at a Q&A event with Wood and editorial director Molly Crawford, Vine said: "[Romance] is the most joyful thing and I hate that it’s a genre that is looked down on and dismissed, because it’s life isn’t it? Love is such a huge, important thing and we shouldn’t be sneery at it. We are privileged if we have it in our lives."

Events included friendship bracelet and bookmark-making and painting workshops. The latter was run by @jaimeleighreads and supported by W H Smith, which also ran an on-site bookshop stocking romance titles.

Creator and 2024 British Book Award judge, Coco Hagi, ran two book clubs on Under Your Spell and Date With Destiny. Tarot card reading sessions were also on offer.

Speaking to The Bookseller, Khan said: "We wanted to make sure we weren’t being too London-centric… it’s not fair to assume people can afford to come to London. We’ve had a lot of really good feedback today that Nottingham is a really good place because it’s well connected." Khan added: "We had people here queuing an hour early at 9:30am."

Georgia Henry, director of The Pitch Agency, told The Bookseller: "It’s the first time we’ve done anything which has creators, readers and authors all in one room and the energy was really nice. I think we’ll expand it from here." 

Genevieve Barratt, deputy head of marketing, S&S, added: "The biggest feedback we had from last year’s Romance Creator House was that readers wanted to come, so it has been a joy to make that a reality, working in partnership with Pitch to bring our inaugural Romance House Party to life.

"We’ve loved bringing together some of the best BookTok creators, as well as readers and authors, and seeing friendships born online blossom in an offline space."