The Ripped Bodice, established on March 4, 2016, is a

bookstore Bookselling is the commercial trading of books, which is the retail and distribution end of the publishing process. People who engage in bookselling are called booksellers, bookdealers, book people, bookmen, or bookwomen. History The found ...

Culver City, California Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. It is mostly surrounded by Los Angeles, but also shares a border with the unincorporated area of Ladera Heights, Californi ...

in the United States, which sells only

romance novel A romance or romantic novel is a genre fiction novel that primarily focuses on the relationship and Romance (love), romantic love between two people, typically with an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending. Authors who have contributed ...

s. It was the first romance book store opened in the

Northern Hemisphere The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined by humans as being in the same celestial sphere, celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the Solar ...

Description

The store was established in 2016 by Bea and Leah Koch. The sisters started a

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and Alternative Finance, alternative finance, to fund projects "withou ...

campaign on

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

, eventually raising the $90,000 needed to open The Ripped Bodice. Books sold in The Ripped Bodice span a variety of sub-genres within romance and

erotica Erotica is art, literature or photography that deals substantively with subject matter that is erotic, sexually stimulating or sexually arousing. Some critics regard pornography as a type of erotica, but many consider it to be different. Erot ...

including

historical History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...

contemporary Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from about 1945 to the present. In the social sciences, contemporary history is also continuous with, and related t ...

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...

, sci-fi, LGBTQ, and

multilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...

. The books are arranged according to these topics, rather than being organized by title or author's last name. The Ripped Bodice hosts events in their physical store, including author signings, romantic comedy nights, book clubs and general literary events. They also arrange online book discussions. Their annual book club event, The Great Big Romance Read, has nationwide participation and has financially benefited books chosen to be discussed because of the widespread nature of the event. In September 2018, the Koch sisters signed a contract with

Sony Pictures Television Sony Pictures Television Inc. (abbreviated as SPT) is an American television production company, production and broadcast syndication, distribution studio. Based at the Sony Pictures Studios complex in Culver City, California, it is a division o ...

to develop romance television projects.

Diversity in Romance

Starting the year the store opened in 2016, the Koch sisters began releasing an annual report titled The State of Racial Diversity in Romance Publishing. This annual review displays the percentages of authors of color (AOCs) being published by the top romance publishing companies including

Harlequin Harlequin (, , ; , ) is the best-known of the comic servant characters (Zanni) from the Italian commedia dell'arte, associated with the city of Bergamo. The role is traditionally believed to have been introduced by the Italian actor-manager Zan ...

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

, Avon Romance, Entangled, and Crimson Romance. Repeatedly, the study has revealed a disconnect between the small percentage of AOCs published, and the percentage of The Ripped Bodice's best-selling titles written by AOCs. Over the four years the study has been conducted, the percentage of published works by authors of color has increased by less than one percent.

Romance Awards

In February 2020, the Ripped Bodice announced the first winners of their newly established awards for romance. The contest is titled The Ripped Bodice's Awards for Excellence in Romance Fiction and acknowledges the chosen best romance titles for 2019. Twelve books were honored, chosen by experts associated with the genre, and the winners each received $1,000. The winners included ''Xeni'' by Rebekah Weatherspoon, ''Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure'' by Courtney Milan, '' Get a Life, Chloe Brown'' by Talia Hibbert, ''A Prince on Paper;'' ''One Ghosted, Twice Shy''; and ''An Unconditional Freedom'' by Alyssa Cole, ''American Love Story'' by Adriana Herrera, ''Trashed'' by Mia Hopkins, and ''The Austen Playbook'' by Lucy Parker. The 2020 winners were ''Go Deep'' by Rilzy Adams, ''Harbor'' by Rebekah Weatherspoon, ''Spoiler Alert'' by Olivia Dade, ''Take a Hint, Dani Brown'' by Talia Hibbert, ''The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows'' by Olivia Waite, ''The Duke Who Didn’t'' by Courtney Milan, ''The Rakess'' by Scarlett Peckham, ''The Roommate'' by Rosie Danan, '' The Worst Best Man'' by Mia Sosa, ''You Had Me at Hola'' by

Alexis Daria Alexis Daria is an American writer of romance novels. Her most well known book is ''You Had Me at Hola''. Her 2018 debut novel ''Take the Lead'' received a RITA Award for "Best First Book". The cover of ''You Had Me at Hola'' was designed by illu ...

, ''You Should See Me in a Crown'' by Leah Johnson, and ''Written in the Stars'' by Alexandria Bellefleur.

References

External links

The Ripped Bodice Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ripped Bodice Independent bookstores of the United States Bookstores established in the 21st century Bookstores in Los Angeles * Companies based in Culver City, California Retail companies established in 2016 American companies established in 2016 2016 establishments in California