Can you bend the "romantica" rules if you're writing for a more specific audience?

Firedragon said:

But do you twist your writing to the audience?

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I believe one of the reasons that I managed to get the second full length novel I'd ever completed accepted by three respected publishers was that I spent a lot of time learning about genre and audience before I wrote it.

Personally I didn't want to spend a lot of time writing something that probably would never see the light of day.
I have a Masters Degree in English Literature, but I had the feeling if I tried to focus on trying to write a literary novel I'd be in for a lot of frustration. A much higher percentage of books sold are romance novels than literary novels, the market and audience is much larger.

I find no hardship in this. I don't really have to "twist my writing to fit the audience" because I can always think of multiple ways for any story to go so I'm currently choosing the paths more appropriate to this genre. At the same time Wicked Wonderland is quite a unique tale, I don't know of any other books about bisexual half-fae flying around the world in Santa's sleigh. But it still conforms to menage romance rules of having a romantic arc between the three characters and a happy ending.



(edited to say I did not mean that literary fiction does not also have it's own conventions, and specific audience. If someone writes a literary book and wants to see it professionally published,no doubt they too will be asked by editors to make changes that might make the book more appealing to its intended audience.)

Firedragon said:

I have nothing against that, I would also like to make a couple of bucks on it.

But do you twist your writing to the audience?

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I really don't get this twist thing, because for me I see multiple paths when telling a story, it's not like there is only one way a story could possibly be told.
I don't have to "change" anything in some bad way to fit publishers, because as I'm telling the story I'm writing it with the conventions of romance in mind, and believe me they are far from rigid, because there are so many sub-genres of romance, there is a world of creativity and fun there to choose from without breaking the most basic rule of romance- a happy ending.

But I think it's refreshing that Dreamspinner offers a separate "love story" category with Bittersweet which sounds perfect for the OP.

(By the way, I am like Emily a New Zealander writing for an American publisher, mind you I also had a very fine English publisher offer me a contract on my twisted to the audience and genre novel. lol)

Cathy C said:

Sometimes, I'll write a story or book that winds up not having a home because it doesn't really "fit" any publisher's line. But there are times when a story is strong enough, unique enough, that the publisher will MAKE a line for it. This was the case with Kate Douglas' Wolf Tales. When she was subbing it, Kensington didn't have an erotic imprint. There was nowhere to put it. But the editor felt strongly enough about the book that they started a new line, Aphrodesia, to house it and started finding other books to fit in the same line.

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I doubt Kensington would have started the line if they thought there was no market for it though. I imagine the editor saw both an excellent book, and a very marketable book, that would interest a lot of readers. I'm sure they also did some research to see how erotic lines were selling at other presses.

It was 2005 when Wolf Tales was first published. There weren't many other erotic lines, other than EC.

Oh ok and the British Black Lace. Well it was pretty innovative and forward thinking of Kensington then. I think New Concepts and Loose Id and Liquid Silver were around then no? But those aren't print lines of course.

I think my understanding of romantica correct. It is a blend of both romance and erotica elements. A love story with erotic love scenes.

I'm working on a novella that was going to erotic short story of 10K words but I am now at 25K words and my story is leading me to having a HEA for the characters.

Would that be a romantica novella?

Cranky1 said:

I think my understanding of romantica correct. It is a blend of both romance and erotica elements. A love story with erotic love scenes.

I'm working on a novella that was going to erotic short story of 10K words but I am now at 25K words and my story is leading me to having a HEA for the characters.

Would that be a romantica novella?

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Well as other people have said, no, the term is erotic romance. The thread title should really be changed. The publisher Ellora's Cave have trade marked the term "romantica" for their books alone, and the name of the genre elsewhere is erotic romance.
And no, a happy ever after alone doesn't really make an erotic romance, you need a romance arc, all the elements of a romance but with an emphasis on the sexual relationship, culminating in a HEA.

Indeed, that would be erotic romance.

Aha. Thanks for clarifying. I have been trying to understand how to categorize my story. I would go into detail but this section is unprotected. I would like people's feedback on how to 'end' my novella.

Cranky1 said:

Aha. Thanks for clarifying. I have been trying to understand how to categorize my story. I would go into detail but this section is unprotected. I would like people's feedback on how to 'end' my novella.

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Got the password for the protected portion of the erotica boards? You could certainly start a thread there for brainstorming.

If you don't have the password, send a PM to any of the moderators--that's me, veinglory, and ELMontague--asking for it and saying you're 21 or older.

Maryn, who'll keep an eye out for your question

huu said:

Thanks, everyone.

I have another question: If I'm publishing to someplace like Ellora's Cave, and they request a synopsis in their submission, but my story is only about 11k words, how would I write this? Would these types of publishers just want a simple 4 paragraphs?

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Short answer - I think so. The synopsis length would correspond to the story length and complexity. For two of my short stories, the average synopsis length was 600 words.

Maryn said:

Got the password for the protected portion of the erotica boards? You could certainly start a thread there for brainstorming.

If you don't have the password, send a PM to any of the moderators--that's me, veinglory, and ELMontague--asking for it and saying you're 21 or older.

Maryn, who'll keep an eye out for your question

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Thank you! I got the password and have posted my thoughts in the forum. I was just writing out what I was thinking so I might go back and create a second post drilling down on my questions.

Kimber said:

If your ultimate goal is traditional publication, I'd recommend researching publishers and finding out what they accept. Most are open to queries on what they want. If you plan to self publish, you can do whatever blows your hair back. In the end, if it feels forced or phony for you to write a HEA/HFN, it will probably come through to the reader and may not be popular anyway. I think you have to enjoy what you're writing before anyone else will.

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Good points here. What if your genre is not romance but, for example, erotic SF (love it) or something else where HEA is not necessary? There are many markets. Pick one, but then, do write for those readers!

I am finishing an erotic SF. The tragic ending cannot be helped, too damn bad. I guess it fails as romance. But, as SF, well maybe. By the way, Kimber, I checked out your book, "Star Catcher". Very Cool! And your "Four-dimensional travel via a magnetic vortex", I swear I did not steal that from you. But, I have this emotional twist on it, well hopefully you will see it some day.

I love this site. Write more!!!!

Happy endings have more market potential it seems. You can see that by reading the submission guidelines of a variety of publishers.

This whole ending thing is a problem. It's the characters' fault, they did it. I couldn't stop them.

There is a denouement in the story which is supposed to be HFN, maybe only a tinge of sadness will remain. We shall see.

Ah well, love lives forever, but sex is damn good for now.

Possibly the more fantasy, sci fi related publishers that I know less about will be OK with it. I have more in depth knowledge of what the romance and erotica publishers want.