SF/Romance: Good or Bad?

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Snowball2695

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I was recently sitting at my desk just throwing things a the wall to see what stuck, and I ended up coming up with two things. One was a SF tale kind of similar to Firefly in some ways, and the other was a deep, comedic Romance. My brain, of course, started doing what what I can only assume is thinking, and I decided to try and combine the two.

This seems like a bad idea for some reason.
 

waylander

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SF/Romance and fantasy/romance crossover are doing pretty well with likes of Harlequin. Depends on how much romance you were planning on putting in.
 
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dolores haze

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It's all in the execution. Sci fi romance seems eminently publishable right now, particularly with e-pubs. Click my link to The Galaxy Express for more than you ever wanted to know about sci fi romance.
 

JanDarby

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Check out Linnea Sinclair. She writes some amazing sf romance, and I believe she's blogged about the challenges of selling books in that sub-genre.
 

Fallen

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For reading, I prefer it over any other genre.
 

Nightmelody

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I write SFR novellas pubbed with several e-pubs. Editors seem to be looking for SFR , there have been submission calls.

There is a supportive online SFR writing community--the Galaxy Express, linked above, is great and there's the SFR Brigade, which is also active on facebook.
 

Bisileyton

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Is the book a Sci fi book with a romance in it or a Romance in a scifi world?
 

triceretops

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Generally, I think that SFR has had a very good reception in the past five years or so. I love seeing more gals involved in SF themes and plots, and they can inject just the right passion into the storyline to draw more female readers. I think it's a great thing, and I've always had romance sub-plots in all of the SF books.

tri
 

Granada

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I love reading SF romance, especially when it has some real SF in it and not just romance in a SF setting. Linnea Sinclair, the Liaden books, Evangeline Anderson (romantica SF) come to mind.
 

eggs

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My current WIP is a scifi romance. I'm in final draft stages now and think it will come in around 80K, maybe a bit more. The difficulty I've found is in having enough space for the sci-fi world building and enough space for the romance. I think I'm at about 80% romance 20% scifi right now. The interesting thing for me in edits is the realization that if I swapped the solar transpo's for carriages and the City/Wasteland folks for 1860's London/1860's wilderness USA, I could quite easily re-write the whole thing as a historical romance. This is how I know I have a romance with sci-fi elements on my hands, rather than a sci-fi with romantic elements. The romance is the key.
 

Filigree

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I just had a m/m erotic romance space opera published, set loosely in a sf&f universe I've been working on for over 2 decades. The fantasy stuff wasn't going anywhere. I advanced the timeline into a futuristic setting and expanded one little worldbuilding notation into a 99K mms.

All my previous worldbuilding details fit right in, including the sprawling city I'd made for my very first novel in 1987. The romance was an experiment, but it worked so well I'm contracted to write the sequel now.

I'd rather read sf&f with strong romances, rather than romances with some sf&f flavor. I very nearly ignored the new spec fiction romances because of my own experiences with the awful 'new romances' of the 1980s. I've been reading sf&f for nearly 40 years, so when romance authors show how unfamiliar they are with classic sf&f tropes, it tends to throw me out of their story.
 

gingerwoman

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I was recently sitting at my desk just throwing things a the wall to see what stuck, and I ended up coming up with two things. One was a SF tale kind of similar to Firefly in some ways, and the other was a deep, comedic Romance. My brain, of course, started doing what what I can only assume is thinking, and I decided to try and combine the two.

This seems like a bad idea for some reason.
Not at all. There are plenty of publishers, especially digital first publishers interested in Sci Fi Romance. You have to know though what is Sci Fi Romance and what is just Sci Fi with Romantic Elements. There would be more places to sell it too if it is a Sci Fi Romance.
 

dchisholm125

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Why is that a bad thing?! I think if the characters are wholesome enough and the writing offers a great sci-fi setting, why not combine the two if you can? It will appeal to more people if there is a struggling love connection in the story!
 

DarkSongofErrin

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Go for it! As above, all depends on the execution.
SF and Romance is something I personally think can go quite well together.
 

rwm4768

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Nothing wrong with science fiction romance. When it comes time to market it, you can just call it a science fiction novel with romance elements.
 

Yukinara

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I like SF and romance, but not the kind like the second Star Wars movie, like why the hell they can't fall in love? That sudden code about Jedi has to be celibacy, I don't get it. There is an explanation somewhere, but it sounds utterly stupid to me.
 

mshean

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Oh man, sci-fi romance can be great if it's handled correctly. Now being a longtime sci-fi fan, it rankles when I read sf/r stories are basically just bodice-rippers with spacesuits. That being said, science fiction is such a vast and flexible genre that as long as there's good worldbuilding and good characters behind it, a romantic focus wouldn't be a problem. I think it really just requires a parallel plotline that is solid and interesting that will make the romance organic and believable. Frankly I'd love to see more organic romance in sci-fi in general.

Yukinara: I hear what you're saying with the Jedi code, but on the other hand, that could be some seriously Thorn Birds romantic tragedy there. You know, that could be handled far better than the movies ever did EVER.
 
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