"Now we also publish books"

They publish books and keep up an online read-along group on the social medias. Two very different branches of the same romantic tree from the Egmont book publishing group LOVEBOOKS.

Two weeks ago, The Lindhardt & Ringhof owned sub-group published their second novel, named Lola and the Boy Next Door. That is only a few months after their first ever published novel, named Anna and the French Kiss. Both books are parts of the Stephanie Perkins trilogy, where the third novel will be published in October.

Lovebooks learned that the second novel was far easier to publish than the first one.

"Now our readers are familiar with the author – and us – and they anticipated the second novel. It's a clear benefit that we are established as book publishers. Now we don't have to advertise as much, since the fan base is already aware of us," says Christina Yhman Kaarsberg, editor at Lovebooks.

2,000 followers from all over Denmark

The three editors at Lovebooks are very happy. Not only for the books they have published, but also for the milestone they have reached on Instagram, where their online read-alongs take place.

Lovebooks hit 2,000 followers on Instagram, where the followers show pictures of and write about the romantic novels, quotes and pages they are reading. They love to share their love novel experiences with pictures – and they often include cushions, toasted bread and knitted hearts.

"Since we've published two books, the followers fell more safe when recommending books to each other online. We know they text each other from all over Denmark, and we are very happy about the geographical diversity, since that encourages everyone to be a part of our read-along group," editor at Lovebooks Rikke Møller says.

"They get to decide the book cover"

It does not all come down to cute pictures and romantic quotes online for Lovebooks, as they interacting with the readers in many ways. One of them is involving the readers in the very production and publishing of the books.

"We have a direct contact with the readers, and they tell us, what they would like to read. That is a great and unique opportunity for us as publishers, as we can reach the audience even better," says Christina Yhman Kaarsberg.

The Danish readers even get the opportunity of choosing the cover for upcoming books.

"We let the readers debate which cover we should go with out of three possible ones we present to them. In the end we pick the one they like the most, and then we publish the book with that cover," says Christina Yhman Kaarsberg.

In the near future LOVEBOOKS plan to step up on digital-only books, as many of their readers like the convenience of reading digitally.