How Romancy works

Romancy was built to facilitate the human connection between the authors writing our favourite stories, and the people who can’t stop reading them.

We believe that building something that fosters the future of this genre, and the people powering it, means tools that help us put our own taste in the driver’s seat. That’s what we’re building at romancy.

We also know that transparency is important. We want readers to know how our technology works, and make the best decision that works for them. So we wrote this to express that.

Below you will find:

Our commitments to you & this genre as we grow
A description of the features we have today that use AI, so you can make an informed decision based on your values.

Our Commitment to you and this genre:

Human. Always:

We’re supporting the work of human authors, and want to create a magical experience for human readers. This is our core mission at romancy. If we have it our way, this genre will continue to grow, making room for even more human authors & readers. Not less.

We also want to build a real team of humans as we grow, working with human artists, human designers, and.. you’re getting the idea here…

We are not on a solo mission.

Authors feel the upside:

We want authors to have their work discovered by people who truly align with their taste, not left to become a marketing expert battling the algorithms and changing landscapes of social media, hoping to go viral so they can have their hard work noticed and appreciated.

We know there are so many romance readers out there waiting to discover their next favourite author, and that’s what our technology is powering.

We do not scrape books or steal work. Ever.

We are in the business of lifting authors up, not tearing them down.

Sustainability:

Our technology is built to consume as little power as possible. This is important to us.

For example, the feature in our platform that relies on AI, Vibe Check (more context on that feature below), has been built with consumption in mind from the beginning:

1 Million Vibe Checks will be the equivalent of powering 1 single home air conditioner for 20 days.

Doing this intentionally & thoughtfully is important to us. We’re still early, but we’re already exploring partnerships with sustainability & off-setting organizations that we can partner with as we grow, to continue to support this. If you know of any organizations that we should consider partnering with, please send them our way so we can put them on our roadmap:

romancysustainability@romancy.co

Romancy features that use AI, and how they work:

The Vibe Check & Review

Assisted Reader Summaries

The Vibe Check works by providing a personalized summary of the book you’re considering reading by pulling from our database / the books saved on your shelf, as well as what you thought about them. These are short summaries that are aimed at helping you decide if the book is right for you.

These summaries are not generated using stolen or scraped work. Ever.

Your reviews and your reading history are both completely private, and used to help facilitate better recommendations and vibe checks. We do not retain or store vibe checks once they are made. We do not use customer data to train AI. See above to understand more about energy consumption of the vibe check, and how we’re building this sustainably.

The Vibe Check is completely optional, and will not generate automatically. Meaning you can opt out from using it entirely.

Recommendation Algorithm

Finding your next read

Romancy is building a recommendation algorithm to help you find your next read. Think of it as an algorithm similar to social media, but instead of focusing on making the content ‘addictive’ to keep you scrolling, it’s simply built so that you can find your next read, put your phone down, and get back to the good part… reading your book.

Our algorithm isn’t meant to capture your attention, it’s meant to help you discover authors and books that align with your taste.

Machine learning makes it possible for us to build this algorithm. We’re still in the process of building out the reader experience when it comes to recommendations, so all feedback is welcome.

If you’d like the option to turn recommendations off, and use romancy simply as a tracking platform, let us know. We’re open to hearing all your thoughts and feedback as we build:

feedback@romancy.co

Building responsibly is important to us.

And that means, building to protect & connect the humans who have made this genre what it is today and what it ultimately will become in the future.

News changes everyday, and we’re staying informed about how we’re building and the impact it’s having on the planet, society, and the industry we’re serving.

The product you see today might not be the product we operate forever. We are going to continue to evolve and change as the technology and policies around us do as well, to ensure we’re always creating a magical experience for our readers and authors, but not at the expense of doing the right thing.

If you have feedback, we want to hear it. Please reach out with any thoughts or questions to: