NEW YORK — Feb. 11, 2026 — Yearn today announced the launch of its new platform dedicated to romantasy, one of the fastest-growing and most commercially successful genre crossovers in publishing. Built to support both readers and authors, Yearn offers a genre-specific environment centered on intentional discovery, curation, and community. The company's app is available in the App Store as of February 14, 2026.
“Romantasy's growth story is distinct,” said Grace Zimmerman, co-founder and CEO of Yearn. “Long before the genre reached mainstream scale, it was built by self-published and indie authors, many of them women, who cultivated direct, loyal relationships with readers. As large platforms expanded their romantasy offerings, distribution accelerated, but discovery has increasingly become algorithm-driven and competitive.”
Yearn was founded to modernize content distribution by prioritizing discovery and restoring the essential connection between authors and their readers.
“We started from a very simple place: we were romantasy readers first,” Zimmerman said. “We wanted to build something that helped readers discover stories they'd genuinely fall in love with. As we dug deeper, it became clear there was also an opportunity to better serve the authors behind those stories by giving them incremental discovery, visibility, and a direct connection to the community that already supports them.”
Yearn focuses on intentional discovery and genre-specific curation. Rather than competing on volume, the platform is designed to help readers surface emerging voices and to offer authors additional, non-exclusive exposure beyond dominant marketplaces.
“Romantasy thrives when readers feel emotionally connected and authors retain creative agency,” said Honey Chawla, co-founder and CTO of Yearn. “Yearn supports both by fostering a space built specifically for the genre; one that prioritizes community-driven engagement and thoughtful discovery. We're excited and proud to leverage technology to bring people and communities together, especially in this massively overlooked space.”
About Yearn
Founded to serve both romantasy readers and the authors who power the genre, Yearn is a subscription platform dedicated to romantasy audiobooks and ebooks. Built around intentional discovery and community, Yearn offers a focused alternative to algorithm-driven marketplaces. Yearn launched February 14, 2026.
