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This topic was being debated among romance readers when I first started reading ebook (approximately 10-12 years).
I think there's more awareness today. Maybe what was valuable to B&M bookstores then should be re-evaluated. It's hard to say how often they take a second look at their book shelving.
One of the advantages to electronic books, when tagged intelligently, is that books can be "shelved" in multiple locations. Those AA or LGBTQ readers who'd like an organized place to scan for books can go there. But the books can also be "shelved" in romance or mystery or science fiction, etc.
And for Lee, there are enough female romance readers want to read stories with male/male pairings, that one of the mainstream publishers has offered some of these (Avon - I don't know which of the Big 5 that falls under).
It's not a LOT of books, but they've seen enough traffic to offer them in their mainstream romance lines. The small pub/indies made a lot of money on these, when there was nowhere else to get them.
I'm not generally interested in the storylines, but I've seen them out there (usually came across them when searching for romances in Overdrive libraries).
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