• According to research by the bookstore chain Barnes and Noble, romance customers can typically spend up to $100 per month for books and will read as many as 40 books per month.
  
• More than 90 percent of all mass market book sales are popular fiction.
  
• Romance accounts for 48.6 percent of the mass market (paperback) book sales in the United States, with sales topping $885 million in 1992.
  
• Authors rarely get rich writing books -- they receive only a small percentage of the cover price of a book -- usually 4 to 6 percent percent, according to Texas author LaRee Bryant.
  
• The average romance reader is 39 years old and works outside the home. (Forbes Magazine)
  
• The average annual household income for a romance reader is $40,000. 45 percent of romance readers are college educated.
  
• Women who read romance novels make love with their partners 74 percent more often than women who don't. (Psychology Today)

1. I am thinking they think the men in romance novels are sissy. The heroes are so poetic in expressing their love to the ladies.
2. They might think it's an insult to them. Women's impossible fantasies (about dashing heroes only and nothing else LOL) are fulfilled in these books they might feel insecure reading them and being compared to the heroes.
3. For those men who wanted docile female, they might be turned off by those feisty, strong-headed and very determined heroines in the books.
4. They might get bored with all the tiny details described in the book. (see my entry entitled Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. Even in writing style???).
5. They might be laughing at the heroes in romance novels for being nags. In real life, we heard so much about how men talk in short sentences only. But in the romance novels, men can talk as much as women too.

Which brings to mind these absurd thought. What if someone would create romance novels for men? Of course, in these stories, it is their fantasies that will be fulfilled. Like, having obedient heroines, who wouldn't nag them if they just leave their clothes lying around the house; who wouldn't mind them drinking milk directly from the cartoon; would share their passion watching sports and can quote stats and plays; one who loves throwing out the garbage and don't depend on men to do this; a woman who can spend only ten minutes getting ready for a date; a woman who doesn't sulk; a heroine who says what she means without beating around the bush and a lot more reasons that men want. (Hey, I only concluded these are the things men want from the numerous jokes in the emails, in internet as well as from books, movies and television shows.)

Hhhmmmm, I think it would be interesting to see how the plot will unfold. So, anyone up for that task?