I was at a romance conference and they asked me to be on a panel that HBO was filming and had a nice

audience to it of women sitting there with their bags and things and sitting next to me was this reporter and I'm not very big

he wasn't very big he's kind of flirting with me before the thing in this patronizing kind of

way of oh aren't you cute?

Kind of thing, this is mid-80s, I guess.

And the HBO asked him to tell about the romance world.

They ask him to tell about the romance world.

So this man starts telling everybody

how the romance novels are worthless as literature and they're just terrible,

they're horrible.

And I'm sitting there beside him and I'm looking at the audience and these women are to the point of

tears they're just here they've come to this conference all over the US and this

man's putting them down and so this man segues into he says and then there's money money you have to

understand that publishing has to do with money money you women need to understand that. So that's when I said

and I just I said you can put us down about what we write all you want to but you

don't put us down about the money.

Because we are 40% of the publishing industry.

If we women boycotted the publishing industry, it would collapse.

It is because of us that your so-called great

literature can be published and put out there because it doesn't make the money to

cover the shipping on it. And it was so wonderful to see these women in the audience perk up and smile and I said the people who have the power are these women here in this audience who throw those books in their grocery carts.

That was the voice of Jude Deborah.

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