I need help with genre, please

[Celeste Carrara]

My novel started out in my head as a paranormal romance. I've always thought of it as such but started questioning it once it was finished and now I'm really questioning it. It went out to 2 different paranormal romance publishers who both rejected it stating it wasn't a good fit for them. I know It does not follow the standards for the paranormal romance genre. It has elements of a few different genres so can anyone help me with choosing one?

The main characters are vampires, the setting is present day NYC, there is romance, explicit sex scenes (about 8), violence (kidnapping, murder, torture), the MC is female and the story's POV is in first person past. The story focuses on the MC and her life as the daughter of the king of vampires. Her struggles with her father and his expectations, protecting him from their enemies, and her yearning for a normal life, relationships with men and her friends and then she finds her soul mate who doesn't want to be with her. It does have a HEA and it's 75,000 words.

So, as you can see it doesn't have all the specific qualifications for a paranormal romance. Can it still be called paranormal romance? Is it urban fantasy? Erotic romance? I'm confused on how to sell it.

Thanks for any input!

[Granada]

Sorry, I do not have any better advice, but it sounds exactly like paranormal romance to me. Maybe with all the dark aspects it does not have enough romance throughout to attract publishers?

[Celeste Carrara]

Thanks for the input! Maybe you're right. Maybe some aspects of it are too dark for the genre.

I questioned the PR genre because most PR is not in 1st person POV and they all seem to have an alpha hero. In my novel the female is more the alpha lol.

[saphirablue84]

Sounds similar to Laurall K. Hamilton's work to me. So I'll take a shot at calling it a Horror Romance. Without reading it, I'm not really sure. But that's what my gut wants to call it.

[Chasing the Horizon]

"Not a good fit for us" is a standard form rejection from agents and publishers. It just means they didn't like the book, not that you're querying the wrong genre.

[LJD]

Originally Posted by Chasing the Horizon

"Not a good fit for us" is a standard form rejection from agents and publishers. It just means they didn't like the book, not that you're querying the wrong genre.

Yeah.

It sounds like paranormal romance. The POV and type of hero may be a little different from what is normally seen in the genre (in all types of romance, alpha males and third person are fairly common, though I have certainly read first person romances) but that doesn't change the genre here.

[Celeste Carrara]

Originally Posted by saphirablue84

Sounds similar to Laurall K. Hamilton's work to me. So I'll take a shot at calling it a Horror Romance. Without reading it, I'm not really sure. But that's what my gut wants to call it.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Chasing the Horizon

"Not a good fit for us" is a standard form rejection from agents and publishers. It just means they didn't like the book, not that you're querying the wrong genre.

Yeah, I know. But I questioned the genre before I started sending it out and hearing back from anyone.

Originally Posted by LJD

Yeah.

It sounds like paranormal romance. The POV and type of hero may be a little different from what is normally seen in the genre (in all types of romance, alpha males and third person are fairly common, though I have certainly read first person romances) but that doesn't change the genre here.

Thank you!

Thanks again everyone for helping me out.