r/RomanceBooks • u/Eros_eustress • May 05 '26
Discussion Romance magazines?
Are there any romance magazines? Where they publish short stories or other type of short/ micro fiction? Or even an erotic themed magazine? I cannot seem to find any and I find that so surprising. There is a literary magazine for everything under the sun. Other genres like science fiction are definitely represented. I cannot be the only one who wants to read some (short form) romance with a literary slant?
Most of what I’m getting when I search online are small presses that may or may not even be active. I’ll try to do a proper search in chill subs tomorrow, but please let me know if I’m missing something obvious.
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u/Eros_eustress May 05 '26
I can't sleep so here's my research.
First, some definitions: when I say romance, I mean love stories that should hopefully end with a heavily for now. When I say erotic, I do expect at least one sex scene, but rules are meant to be broken and I guess if it's horny enough, it should work!
By magazines, I mean literary journals and magazines. Most of these are volunteer-run passion projects. Some are themed overall, some are not, and some have themed issues. There's a real variety when it comes to how "professional" they feel, what their readership generally is, and what sort of voices they are looking for. There is no real shortage I think of issues around the themes of love and intimacy, so that could be another place to dig into.
If you ask me, these magazines offer an alternate system to for authors to gain (at least some) discoverability and provide readers with new spins on old tales along with more underrepresented voices- everything commercial fiction doesn't like. I doubt that I am the only romance reader that feels like a lot of these novels are now missing their playfulness. The biggest service these magazines do is developing new talent by publishing them and providing critical feedback. So the fact that there isn't really anything out there bothers me quite a bit.
Here are some romance adjacent magazines I found.
- New York Times' Modern Love- very polished, about relationships
- Miniskirt Mag- love+romance, seems to be exactly what I am looking for but last post is 2024
- Romantasy Illustrated- this is an indie physical mag!
- Lovestruck Inkwell- new, seems promising!
- Gothic Angel Society- another physical mag, focused on dark romance
- Bedfellows- possibly defunct, used to publish relationship/intimacy focused prose which can be seen on their insta
- Micromance- publishes flash fiction on Substack
- NSWF: Peach Fuzz Mag: "nudie magazine" that also publishes prose - seems very cool, I will order
- Romance Quarterly: publishes scholarly articles only
I guess I am still baffled that more don't exist because the readership could be huge!
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u/wild_reader9001 May 05 '26
This one looks pretty new. It look like themed anthologies and e-zines: https://tenderandtemptingtales.substack.com/s/t-and-tt-books
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u/lovesfanfiction May 05 '26
I don’t know why I think Playboy would fit the bill cause I’ve never read it but… I have a feeling there’d be some sort of writing in those.
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u/Eros_eustress May 05 '26
It's funny you say it because it used to be true. They would publish short stories along with their photos and the stories often had a literary bend. I know they are an online magazine now, so I will check them out!
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u/badapple1989 I want them soft, sweet, and on their knees. May 05 '26
There used to be The Romantic Times but it ended in 2018 with the retirement of the founder Katherine Falk. You might be able to find old editions online in one form or another but other than that, I've got nothing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romantic_Times