Hands off my book porn! Literary snobs butt out fairy smut is a billion-dollargenre for a reason

I love porn — or so I’m told.I’m crazy about a popular literary genre known in polite company as ‘romantasy’ — or a blend of romance and fantasy.Think slutty female dragonslayers, studly time-traveling Vikings, all the smut you can handle — these spicy titles are taking over, enabled by politicians, celebrities and social media, where millions of fans gather to debate the latest offerings, and it’s making critics furious — while generating billions of dollars in sales.Back on Inauguration Day 2025, to cope with Trump’s 2024 presidential win, Democratic House candidate Denise Powell urged supporters of Women Who Run Nebraska PAC to “read some fairy smut.

I’m super into that right now.”“Wicked” superstar Cynthia Erivo proudly expressed her love for the mega-popular romantasy book, “Fourth Wing,” on an episode of The Comment Section podcast.“Let’s be honest — it’s good,” she said of the best-selling Rebecca Yarros series.And this smut boom doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.

Last year, the romantasy genre brought in almost a billion dollars in sales, a 7% increase from 2024, according to data analytics firm Circana.Like shushing librarians at a music festival, these self-styled intellectuals are screaming into the wind, telling anyone who will listen that we romantasy fans are debasing ourselves with what they refer to as “book porn.” They scoff at popular titles like “The Dragon’s Bride” and “Stalked by the Kraken.” They tell us these aren’t real reading.Sell that snobbery someplace else — I’ll be too busy shamelessly flipping through the pages of the latest titles recommended on BookTok, a very specific, sometimes controversial community on TikTok where influencers and users post reviews, recommendations, and reactions to things they’ve just read.BookTok has become a genuine force in publishing.

When a book takes off with this crowd, it tends to see a major sales boost — often cl...