Yes, Virginia — excuse me, Lorraine Adams — historical romance IS a successful section of the bookstore, just like any other sub-genre. It is not the equivalent of Paris Hilton when comparing acting careers. You are not allowed to act like it is the Playboy section of the magazine racks.

This is basically what Ms. Adams did when criticizing The Jewel of Medina in the New York Times’s Sunday Book Review:

Spellberg’s characterization of “The Jewel of Medina” as soft porn doesn’t hold up, since the language describing A’isha and Muhammad’s conjugal relations is always euphemistic and most often juvenile. The novel is, in fact, an example of that subspecies of genre fiction, “historical romance.” Yet even judged by that standard, Jones’s prose is lamentable.

‘By that standard?’ By that standard? By what standard, exactly? A bestselling, award-winning standard? A sub-genre that includes Karen Marie Moning, Lisa Jackson, Julia Quinn, Julie Garwood, Brenda Joyce, Christina Dodd, Jude Deveraux and Robin Carr? Oh, wait, that’s right! They’re not ‘real authors’ because they write romance. *FISTBANG OF RAGE*

Ms. Adams? The ways you are an uninformed twit — LET ME SHOW YOU THEM.

Actually, I don’t have time. SBTB pretty much wrote what I would’ve said.

Note: Thanks to Smart Bitches, Trashy Books for the scoop on Lorraine Adam’s lack of education in the genre side of publishing.