The Ripped Bodice, established 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, bookpeople, bookmen, or bookwomen. The founding of librari ...

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. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most d ...

in the United States, which sells only

romance novel A romance novel or romantic novel generally refers to a type of genre fiction novel which places its primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people, and usually has an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." Pre ...

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 as being in the same celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the solar system as Earth's Nort ...

About

The store was established in 2016 by Bea and Leah Koch. The sisters began 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. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

campaign on

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

, 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 literature or art 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. Erotic art may use a ...

including

historical History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

contemporary Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it is o ...

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. Nota ...

, 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. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...

. The books are arranged according to these topics, rather than organizing 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 and distribution studio. Based at the Sony Pictures Studios complex in Culver City, it is a division of Sony Entertainment's unit Sony Pictures Entertainm ...

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 (; it, Arlecchino ; lmo, Arlechin, Bergamasque dialect, Bergamasque pronunciation ) is the best-known of the ''zanni'' or comic servant characters from the Italian language, Italian ''commedia dell'arte'', associated with the city o ...

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, 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 b ...

, 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 associate with the genre, and the winners each receive $1,000. The winners included ''Xeni'' by Rebekah Weatherspoon, ''Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure'' by

Courtney Milan Courtney Milan, a pseudonym for Heidi Bond, is a bestselling American author of historical romance, historical and contemporary romance novels. After releasing her first few books under a traditional publishing contract, Milan has self-published ...

, ''

Get a Life, Chloe Brown ''Get a Life, Chloe Brown'' is a 2019 romance novel written by Talia Hibbert and published by Avon Romance. It is Hibbert's first traditionally published book from and is the first book of a trilogy following the Brown sisters. The novel was foll ...

'' by Talia Hibbert, ''A Prince on Paper;'' ''One Ghosted, Twice Shy''; and ''An Unconditional Freedom'' by

Alyssa Cole Alyssa Cole (born August 12, 1982) is an American author of Historical romance, historical, science fiction, and contemporary romance novels. Her stories include diverse casts of characters with a variety of professions, from Civil War spies to m ...

, ''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, ''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
Bookstores established in the 21st century Bookstores in California Companies based in Culver City, California Retail companies established in 2016 American companies established in 2016 2016 establishments in California {{US-company-stub