Romance, in short, is the book genre with a focus on love relationships with a happy ending. It is also a billion industry and is considered the world's largest literary genre, in terms of the number of readers. In the United States alone, romance accounts for a quarter of the total book market.

Authors refuse to participate

Every year, the industry organization Romance writers of America, RWA, awards the genre's major prize, the Rita Prize. But not this year. After a major scandal has shaken both the genre and RWA, this year's edition of the Rita Prize will be canceled. A lot of it is that several writers now refuse to participate.

- Very many authors are withdrawing their books from assessment to the Rita Prize, and finally it was decided that the prize may be set this year, says cultural journalist Julia Skott, who works with the podcast Romanceepodden, among other things.

On Thursday, RWA chairman Damon Suede also announced that he was leaving his post.

"Racial lubrication"

The starting point for the infected conflict was that author Courtney Milan, who works within the organization RWA, on Twitter claimed that another author's book was "racially lubricating", because of how Chinese women were portrayed in the book.

The book's author, and some others, did not share Milan's views. The accused writer filed a complaint with RWA's Board of Directors which, just before Christmas, the complaint was heard. The board chose to throw Courtney Milan out of the association and suspend her from life-long trust assignments.

After massive criticism from various quarters, the board reversed and took Courtney Milan back, but then the stone was already rolling, according to Julia Scott.

- At that point, I think the dam had broken. Many people started talking about concrete things that RWA had done wrong. For example, complaints that were sent to the board had not come up, or the board had not cared about them.

Criticized for lack of diversity

Much of the criticism of the RWA and the Rita Prize is about the lack of diversity, that it is largely only white writers who are nominated and win.

- Last year it became apparent when a writer named Alyssa Cole came up with a book about black people during the American Civil War. It sold tremendously well, received great reviews and many people loved it. If you had only looked at the nominations for the Rita Prize, you would not know that the book was there, says Julia Scott.

According to Julia Scott, romance has gone from being a conservative genre, both when it comes to content and sender, but in recent years, consciousness has as well as representation and diversity.

The future is uncertain

Whether the Rita award can rise again is unclear, says Julia Scott.

- It remains to be seen if it can be saved. At least one new organization has been formed that tries to start over and wants to be a better representative of the writers.