Jul 20, 2026 · 14 min · 10 segments
I've been sitting on this secret for months and I cannot WAIT for what's coming next. Go to rebeleverafter.binderybooks.com to become a Rebel and help us…
Ella DawsonHost
As a culture critic and a queer author, I believe that the books we write have the power to change minds and help readers envision a better world.
Romance in particular has always been a political genre that mirrors and molds societal norms.
On a human level, romance novels can show readers what it feels like to thrive with real love, community, and purpose.
I can't think of anything more powerful than who deserves a happily ever after and the many forms that happily ever after can take.
For a brief, shining moment in the late 2010s and early 2020s, traditional publishers invested in the queer, diverse, and groundbreaking books that brought a new generation of readers like me to romance.
Authors like Casey McQuiston, Jasmine Guillory, Helen Huang, and Rachel Reed showed people that romance has more to offer them than straight, white, monogamous love stories ending with a marriage proposal and an epilogue baby.
Many of those new readers were inspired to write their own romance novels, myself included.
I can trace a straight line between books like One Last Stop and Beach Read to my debut romance, But How Are You Really? But are publishers nurturing this new generation of diverse authors? Or did this industry see diversity as a fad that is no longer in style? The current progressiveness of publishing is hard to quantify, but the general vibes are bad.
When marginalized authors are given book deals, their books are often left dead on arrival without robust marketing investment.
Authors who don't receive the front list treatment are left to fend for themselves, promoting their books on their own with graphics they make on Canva and increasingly desperate email newsletters.
They battle social media algorithms that are pay to play and hostile to posts that have a whiff of progressive or adult content.
And both on the microphone and off, I've heard from some of my favorite authors that their contracts are not getting renewed.
As a culture critic and a queer author, I believe that the books we write have the power to change minds and help readers envision a better world.
Romance in particular has always been a political genre that mirrors and molds societal norms.
On a human level, romance novels can show readers what it feels like to thrive with real love, community, and purpose.
I can't think of anything more powerful than who deserves a happily ever after and the many forms that happily ever after can take.
For a brief, shining moment in the late 2010s and early 2020s, traditional publishers invested in the queer, diverse, and groundbreaking books that brought a new generation of readers like me to romance.
Authors like Casey McQuiston, Jasmine Guillory, Helen Huang, and Rachel Reed showed people that romance has more to offer them than straight, white, monogamous love stories ending with a marriage proposal and an epilogue baby.
Many of those new readers were inspired to write their own romance novels, myself included.
I can trace a straight line between books like One Last Stop and Beach Read to my debut romance, But How Are You Really? But are publishers nurturing this new generation of diverse authors? Or did this industry see diversity as a fad that is no longer in style? The current progressiveness of publishing is hard to quantify, but the general vibes are bad.
When marginalized authors are given book deals, their books are often left dead on arrival without robust marketing investment.
Authors who don't receive the front list treatment are left to fend for themselves, promoting their books on their own with graphics they make on Canva and increasingly desperate email newsletters.
They battle social media algorithms that are pay to play and hostile to posts that have a whiff of progressive or adult content.
And both on the microphone and off, I've heard from some of my favorite authors that their contracts are not getting renewed.
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