Reality is impacting the romance world yet again. On the heels of the royal wedding, which spawned several related romances, the focus has now shifted to Navy SEALS.

The Washington Post has picked up on the buzz surrounding the elite troops, which began after their daring raid on the Pakistan compound where Osama bin Laden had been hiding out.

Reporter Annys Shinn writes: “…people can’t get enough of the SEALs. There are some who want to know what it’s like to be one, and others who want to know what it takes to become one. Then, there are those who want to know what it might be like to, well, “be” with one.”

The talk first started on Twitter with comments from editors, agents and writers.

Deborah Nemeth, editor for Carina Press, Harlequin’s digital-first imprint, tweeted, “I wouldn’t mind some SEAL hero submissions. I predict a massive upsurge in Navy SEAL romance heroes.”

Avon’s May Chen seconded that, tweeting, “Navy SEALS make the best heroes–in real life and in romance novels.”

As Shinn reports, it can take 18 months for a manuscript to get onto store shelves while ebooks take a few months.

So the question is: will this surge of interest in SEALS last until the books can make it to market?

Self-publishing sensation Amanda Hocking continues to blaze her own trail.

She’s just sold her previously self-epublished Trylle trilogy to a traditional publisher. St. Martin’s Press will publish the best-selling trilogy as both ebooks and treebooks.

On her blog, Hocking says the story will not change but that the books will be more polished. In the past, Hocking’s books have sold for 99 cents. The prices are likely to rise but Hocking expects them to remain lower than most ebooks. She’ll contines to self-publish the trilogy for the next few months at their current prices. 

Hocking, 26, first made headlines for selling more than a million copies as a self-epublished author. Three of her self-epublished young adult paranormals appeared on the USA Today top 50 bestseller list.

In March,  she signed a four-book deal with St. Martin’s Press for a new series called “Watersong.” Bidding is said to have reached over $2 million for world English rights.

We should have seen this coming. Amazon plans to publish its own line of romance books.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the imprint will be called Montlake Romance and will publish both ebooks, tree-books and audio books.

Reporter Jeffrey Trachtenberg reports the online giant will eventually publish other genres as well, including thrillers, mystery and science fiction.

Montlake Romance is expected to launch in the fall with “The Other Guy’s Bride,” an original new work from New York Times bestselling author Connie Brockway.

“Romance is one of our biggest and fastest growing categories, particularly among Kindle customers, so we can’t wait to make ‘The Other Guy’s Bride’ and other compelling titles available to romance fans around the world,” Amazon Publishing Vice President Jeff Belle said in an Amazon press release. 

Montlake is named for a Seattle neighborhood. It will publish a broad range of titles in romance sub-genres, including romantic suspense, contemporary and historic romance novels, as well as fantasy and paranormal.

Montlake is the fourth imprint from Amazon Publishing. The others are AmazonEncore, AmazonCrossing and Powered by Amazon.

Publishers Weekly reports agents are keeping an eye on this latest development, no doubt to determine whether the online retailer will be a viable a place for their books.

Given Amazon’s amazing reach and its already incredible record selling ebooks – especially self-published ebooks not associated with traditional publishers – Montlake Romance looks like a winner to me.