Bea and Leah Koch, two sisters who co-own The Ripped Bodice, the only brick and mortar bookstore in the U.S. to sell exclusively romance titles, who were named 2017 RWA Steffie Walker Booksellers of the Year by the Romance Writers of America and recently struck an overall deal with Sony Pictures. I loved what Bea and Leah had to say about being activist booksellers, retraining romance readers, and becoming advocates for representation and change in publishing.

Bea and Leah Koch, owners of The Ripped Bodice, Show Notes

Women and Children First (bookstore in Illinois)

The Ripped Bodice Kickstarter

Preeti Chhibber (of Scholastic)

Word bookstore’s Romance Book Club

Greenlight (bookstore in Brooklyn)

Ashley C. Ford (author and editor running the Green Light romance book club)

The Ripped Bodice State of Racial Diversity in Romance Publishing Report (2016 and 2017) (The New York Times artiicle detailing the report’s findings, “In Love With Romance Novels, But Not Their Lack of Diversity”)

Vivian Stevens (editor of romance novels)

Beverly Jenkins (romance author)

RWA (Romance Writers Association)

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books (listen to Associate Director of Event Programming for LATFoB, Maret Orliss, here)