Is there a huge market for M/M Sweet Romance

I don't know, but one way to get a ballpark idea would be to look for the best-selling books in that subgenre on Amazon and see what their overall ranking is.

Yeah, I don't know about huge, but there's a market.

I don't think it's as big as for steamy m/m, but it's there. And I think the YA suggestion is a good one, too.

I listened to a webcast last year where 3 M/M publishers were asking for sweet romance. Esp. YA sweet romance that can be shelved in school libraries.

I love gay love stories that are written well and without all the stereotypes.

Yes, there is a market for it.

I'm not sure there is a "huge" market, but I know there are people looking for it.

It's definitely a growing market, and one worth pursuing. A lot of M/M readers are tired of wall-to-wall sex in every single romance (not that they hate erotica, they just want to mix it up a bit).

There are several different markets for it. If you mean specifically something very like erotic romance M/M without sex yes there is, but it is smaller than for erotic.

I wouldn't say "huge", but then in absolute terms the market for M/M in general isn't huge either. But certainly several publishers who take M/M will take a variety of heat levels.

I would say the market for M/M ebooks is pretty close to huge (given ongoing neglect by print and large press publishers) but also extremely well supplied.

The market for sweet is better catered to by print and large (esp in fantasy and literary subgenres) and also pretty well supplied by ebook writers. It's a genre I read and I could name 10-12 very active authors in that niche just off the top of my head.

I essentially have a M/M/F sweet fantasy romance/high fantasy quest novel that's going on sub to some Big Five SFF imprints in a few months. It has little actual sex (which is weird for me.) Looks at mms: one M/F kiss leading to fade-to-black sex in a covered wagon. One after-sex M/F bantering scene. Three M/M kisses. One M/M/M scene not involving the protag, who witnesses it at a distance. That's it - and a whole lot of sexual tension as three people iron out what kind of life they can share.

My agent and I are slating it toward large SFF imprints because the potential payoff is so much larger, and the market more forgiving of less overt sexual themes.

There are a couple of erotic romance houses that might have taken it, but we want to aim really high, first. This is also the start of a potential series, so it's something I might end up self-publishing if we get no SFF interest.

Filigree said:

...and the market more forgiving of less overt sexual themes.

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Considering the number of reviews I see these days that say "OMG, I love when books don't have so much sex," I don't think this market is exactly unforgiving about it. I released a book in November that has two sex scenes (in 73,000 words), and it's selling extremely well, plus getting loads of reviews specifically commenting on how refreshing it is to see less sex.

Of course there's an erotic market. Of course there are M/M readers who love lots of sex in their books. But there is definitely a demand for books with less -- and even no -- sex. I've rarely seen anyone getting pissy about the lack of sex in a book unless it's specifically billed as an erotic romance.

I've gotten favourable reviews where the "it's not perfect" comments were about the lack of sex. So, people who apparently liked the book but would have liked it more with more sex scenes.

But I've also gotten reviews saying they liked the slow burn or the focus on relationships rather than sex, so, really, there's no pleasing everyone. I just try to write what makes sense for the characters and the story.

As a reader? I don't want a full fade-to-black, generally, but I also don't want endless pages of sex that's just there to be 'hot'. The sex should serve the story and the relationships, for my taste.

Lori, I certainly didn't phrase that well. (Typing on phone at work.)

What I meant was: from personal experience I have seen room for sweet, or at least less graphic, M/M romance in both the erom publishing and mainstream SFF fields. SFF readers and pubs so far seem to prefer less graphic fare, but that will probably change over the next few years.

I think it is not so much "room for" as already very widely available. Sweet M/M is very available, non-erotic M/M SF is a large niche with a 50 year long tradition.

Yep. We've had AW list posts on the very subject within the last year.