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It is a genre cheekily referred to as "RuRo" or "Lust in the Dust" by those in the publishing industry, and, more than 10 years after being pioneered by author Rachel Treasure, sales of rural romance books show no signs of slowing down.
Tales of love and fortunes lost and found in rural regions and the outback continue to strike a chord amongst Aussie readers, keen to escape city life for the broad landscapes and slower pace between the pages.
Freelance editor and publishing consultant Louise Thurtell was one of the first publishers in Australia to recognise the potential of RuRo and subsequently established a pitch system for Allen & Unwin, a way for writers to email through parts of their manuscript.
"Growing up on a farm just outside Orange, I knew that a lot of people in the country didn't have access to publishers or agents, and publishing can be very intimidating, so I just wanted to find more stories by regional and rural writers," she said.
"I knew that there was a real thirst for stories about both outback and rural Australia."
The move unearthed several bestselling RuRo authors from our country towns.
'I took on Fleur McDonald from Esperance in WA through Friday Pitch, and her books continue to be bestsellers, as well as Karly Lane from Macksville, and Nicole Hurley-Moore in Castlemaine," she said.
"I think there's always been a legend about the inland and the outback, and with most of us living on the coast in Australia, people seem to be interested in a way of life that's completely different to theirs."
It is an interest that also extends beyond our shores, with Germany and America publishing some of our outback tales.
"I've heard a rumour that in Germany they're getting German writers to pen these outback sagas," she said.
"I don't know if that's true, but I think you need to have experienced what it's like to go through drought, to go through crop failures and so on, and most of the Australian rural romance writers have that country background."
The Dry by Jane Harper, a crime novel set in a farming community, has been a publishing phenomenon and is being made into a movie after selling more than 64,000 copies.
Harper's most recent novel, Force of Nature, sold just under 9,000 copies in its first week.
From barns to backyards, regionally-based Aussie authors are also championing their hometowns and way of life in fiction.
Much-loved writer Tim Winton has almost always written books set in country towns, whilst Sarah Bailey's mystery novel, The Dark Lake, is also based in a regional centre.
Anglesea author Mark Smith writes young-adult novels set around Victoria's surf coast, and believes it is important that kids who live in our smaller towns can see themselves represented in books.
"You know there are kids out there doing exactly the same thing that the main character in my novels is doing … they're riding bikes, they're bushwalking and riding horses, and I think they deserve to be represented in fiction," he said.
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Topics: books-literature, arts-and-entertainment, rural, australia