The members of Romance Writers of America are as diverse as the romance genre itself. Among our members are doctors, engineers, attorneys, military officers, airline pilots, scientists, mathematicians, musicians, business women, scholars, teachers, college professors and stay-at-home mothers. Some write full time and others balance careers in other fields while writing and pursuing a career in romance fiction.

A Few Facts

• Romance Writers of America has over 10,000 members worldwide (primarily the United States and Canada).
• Over 1,800 RWA members are published in book-length romance fiction.
• On average, a published romance author writes 1 1/2 romance manuscripts per year. On average, one to two romance novels per author is released per year.
• In general, romance fiction is bought from an author by a publisher (sometimes through an agent) by way of a contract. The contract almost always involves a cash advance, and then a royalty pay-out.
• Authors can make anywhere from $3,000 to several million dollars for their first book. Like the authors, contracts and royalty rates vary greatly.

We invite you to get to know some of our published authors by visiting their Web sites in the Author Web site section.