Much has happened in the Romance Industry over the past years as society has changed. Some of our old terms and meanings have been updated and replaced. But, some things about romance never, ever change.
A ‘romance’ is defined by the presence of two basic elements: a love-story that is central to the story, and an emotionally-satisfying and optimistic ending.
Most novels, whatever the genre, have some sort of romantic encounter/relationship in them somewhere, as do most films. Pair-bonding is such an integral part of human life and without it, the human race would become extinct. Perhaps that’s why over half the mass market paperbacks sold every year are romances of one sort or another.
The following explanations may help in understanding the genre.
1. A process novel, like ‘whodunits’ – the ending is fairly certain, how one gets there provides the interest.
2. A story about characters who come-of-age emotionally.
3. A type of book no different to any other genre – in that there are excellent, good and bad novels produced.
Statistics
United Kingdom:
United States:
- Romance fiction generated $1.1 billion in sales in 2013.
- Almost 21.5 million romance novels were purchased in 2017.
- 90% of all romance novels purchased are e-books.
- A readership survey conduct by RWA (Romance Writers of America) indicates that 50% of readers are married, 8% widowed, 4% divorced and 1% separated. Also, 75% are under the age of 54. And 22% of romance readers are men. 23% of readers reported having a high school diploma, while 42% have a bachelor’s degree or higher.
Can’t tell Regency from Steampunk? Sigh from sizzle?
Romantic fiction is now widely available in multiple publishing formats regardless of sub-genre, but these are three key ones:
Series (‘category’) romance – shorter (<85K) books issued under a common imprint/series name that are usually numbered sequentially and released at regular intervals with a pre-determined number of releases. Most commonly published in mass-market paperback, but also in graphic novel formats in the Asian marketplaces. These tend to be sold ‘where women are’ and so are common in the big super-stores. Series romance also thrives on mail-order subscription programs and online sales.
Single-title (mainstream) – longer romances released individually and not as part of a numbered series. Single-title romances may be released in hard-cover, trade paperback, or mass-market paperback sizes. Novels with ‘romantic elements’ (longer romances with a strong romantic sub-plot rather than with the love story as a central element) are included in this format.
Novella – generally <40K (although different publishers/distributors vary their wordcount) romantic novellas are tightly focussed on the central romantic relationship and their length generally precludes secondary storylines.
Romance vs romantic vs love story
A ‘romance’ is a book where the romance itself is the main plot and the romance resolves happily or optimistically.
A ‘romantic’ novel has romance as an integral part of the plot but other areas of focus as well.
A ‘love story’ revolves around a romantic relationship but need not end happily.
Sweet vs Sexy vs Erotic Romance vs Erotica
A ‘sweet’ romance doesn’t usually contain explicit sex scenes. Referred to alternately as ‘tender’ and ‘wholesome’ this range of books spans the spectrum from the very chaste, faith-based ‘inspirational’ stories to those stories which reflect contemporary attitudes toward sex but which stop at the bedroom door…just.
A sexy romance may be highly sensual and descriptive but is not intensely explicit. The sexual activity in these stories supports the characters’ emotional journey.
As the name suggests, Erotic Romance comprises explicit, highly descriptive and erotic stories within most of the romance sub-genres. The development of the romance toward a stable relationship/commitment between characters should still be central to the plot but the sexual relationship is much more fundamental to that end.
Erotica is a stand-alone genre and stories may or may not contain romantic elements.
Romance Sub-genres (alphabetical)
There are many types of romances. Sub-genres include the following, but new types are evolving all the time, and some books combine two or more sub-genres. These are in alphabetical order:
Contemporary (post 1950s)
ChickLit (includes other types of relationships other than romantic, eg friends, family, colleagues)
Erotic romance
Fantasy and futuristic (SF/F)
Historical (eg: Regency, Ancient, WW2)
Inspirational (Faith-based)
Intrigue (danger, main character in jeopardy)
LGBTQI
Medical
New Adult (19-25 years)
Paranormal (vampires, shape-shifters, angels, faeries etc)
Romantic comedy
Romantic suspense (whodunit)
Steampunk
Sagas (epic historical novels)
Time travel/Time-slips
Thriller
Young Adult (13 – 18 years)
10 Myths about Romance
by Anne Gracie
There’s a real cultural cringe in Australia when it comes to talking romance books and romance writers. It’s amazing, really, how everyone knows so much about romance books when so few people will admit to having read a romance.
And there’s all sorts of urban myths flying around about romance books, the people who write them, and the people who read them. So, since we are an organization of romance writers, we’ll examine a few of these myths.
Myth #1* The famous “Mills and Boon Formula”
Myth #3* They’re soft porn for women
Myth #4* They’re full of cardboard characters, clichés and bad writing
Myth #5* Romance books are junk fiction that have no value to the world.
Myth #6 Romance writers are a bunch of housewives, knocking off books in their spare time
Myth #7* Romance is for uneducated, sexually repressed voyeurs
Myth #8 – Romance novels give girls and women unrealistic expectations of life
Myth #9* It’s money for jam — and an instant fortune
Myth #10 Anyone can write a romance, it’s dead easy
Romance Myth 1
The famous “Mills and Boon Formula”
There’s no such thing. Harlequin Mills and Boon (HM&B) writers who have been writing for 40 – 50 years will tell you they’ve never seen a formula, nor have they ever been told what to write.
There is not and never has been “a formula”.
So how did this myth arise? Simply because Harlequin Mills and Boon (HM&B) was one of the first publishers to issue publisher’s guidelines. Nowadays, most publishers do. But when M&B first did it, some writers were shocked, and cried “formula” and “shame.”
Apply a little logic to The Formula: HM&B publishes more than 50 new titles each month. If there was a kiss on page 28 of every book, do you think readers would keep buying, month after month, year after year?
Some people have responded to this logic with the suggestion that the plots are computer generated and given to authors to “fill in the gaps.” It’s utter nonsense. Believe it or not, most authors would find it much harder to write a book based on someone else’s plot than to make up their own story. We are story-tellers, and that’s why we write for a living.
So why the guidelines? HM&B publishes a huge variety of stories — all with a relationship between a man and a woman at the heart of them, but all very different. You can find; pure romance ( sexy or not), crime romance, medical romance, romantic suspense, romantic comedy, historical romance, chick lit and many more varieties of romantic fiction. Each variety, or line, has a different “flavour”, length, market etc. and aspiring authors need to know where their story might fit in, so they know where to send their manuscripts — London, New York or Toronto, which all publish different lines. Hence the guidelines.
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Romance Myth 2
They’re all the same
Romance is genre fiction and like other genres, has its conventions. Yes, romances must have a happy ending. Does this make it boring and predictable? Not in the hands of a skilled writer.
We read crime novels, knowing the murderer will be discovered in the end. Sometimes we even know who the murderer is. Does this make the novel boring and predictable? No. Otherwise the books would not keep selling.
Romance is about how two people overcome obstacles to make a relationship work. In murder mysteries a detective overcomes difficulties to unveil a murderer. In both genres, the focus is on the journey — not the end result. Crime novels are whodunnits, romances are how-happened-it.
They are the same in that each story has a relationship between a man and a woman at its heart, and a satisfying ending , but it’s like chocolate — we all know what chocolate tastes like, but there are also many different kinds of chocolate and many ways to present and eat it. And people return time and time again to their favourite.
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Romance Myth 3
They’re porn for women
I don’t know how many times I’ve heard critics of romance read out salacious passages from a sexy M&B. I dare say I could pick out passages from almost any novel and mock it out of context. Cheap laughs.
Yes, lots of romances are very sexy. Lots aren’t. But whether or not there is or isn’t sex, the focus of a romance is not the sex but the relationship. The books are romances — it’s the story, not the sex.
In any case, how many of us would say that sex played no part in our relationships? If sex belongs anywhere, it’s in a romance. But there is no requirement on any romance author to write sex scenes — the genre is broad enough to cater to all preferences.
There is a growing international market for erotica and some of our members are building successful careers in this area. Romance is a large umbrella.
But some of Australia’s — and Mills and Boon’s — most beloved and most popular romance authors have no sex scenes in their stories at all, and their books fly off the shelves. It’s not all about sex.
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Romance Myth 4
They’re full of cardboard characters, clichés and bad writing
Some are; the good ones aren’t. But you have to go back to the purpose of romance fiction — entertainment. Romance, like TV and movies and thrillers and crime novels and science fiction and fantasy, is entertainment fiction. Not literary fiction.
Yes, some writers use archetypal characters and stories which are variations on a theme. That’s common in entertainment. Movie-goers have clear expectations of a James Bond movie; if Bond and the baddie both went off for counselling to discuss the reasons for their violent behaviour, it might be fascinating, but movie-goers would demand their money back. In the same way, many romance readers want a repeat of the experience, the next variation on that author’s beloved theme. It’s fun, light-hearted, escapist entertainment with wide popular appeal. And it’s feel-good.
Not all romance writers use archetypes; many create unique, unforgettable characters. They write stories which stay with us and haunt our imagination, and readers keep them and reread them over and over — such books are known as “keepers”.
In every genre, there are novels that are clichéd and poorly written, and some books that are wonderfully written with unforgettable characters and prose that sings. Romance is no different. It’s a huge genre, with an enormous range and variety. Don’t judge a whole genre by a few books.
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Romance Myth 5
Romance books are junk fiction that have no value to the world.
The concept of “value” is a debatable one. Value to whom and for what purpose?
To quote Robertson Davies, ‘It is dangerous to condemn stories as junk which satisfy the deep hunger of millions of people. These books are not literary art, but a great deal of what is acclaimed as literary art in our time offers no comfort or fulfillment to anybody.’ (* 2)
Take this letter, for instance, that I received from a reader overseas. Her name has been removed.
Dear Anne
I have just finished your novella The Virtuous Widow and I had to write to say how much I loved it. I don’t usually read historical romances, but I got a collection called Regency Brides with another collection and decided to keep it.
I have a lot of time to read now. Up until May 10th this year I was a 24 hour carer for my dad but he died on that day. Just last week I was told that I have a degenerative spinal disease (my spine is crumbling) and I will be in a wheelchair in the future. My husband is disabled and we have 2 sons aged 5 and 8. Because they need me, I usually tend to my own pain control at night time when I do most of my reading. I really couldn’t put your book down until I had finished it. It took my mind off everything that has happened, and took me back to Ellie and Amy’s home.
I intend to look for some other books of yours at my local library as this story really whetted my appetite. Up until I started this, I hadn’t been able to settle to read, but this story got me going again
Thank you.
Most romance writers I know have received letters like this: touching, heartfelt letters from readers, thanking them for helping them get through the tough times; people who have sat beside hospital or hospice beds through the night, people managing pain, facing unremitting pressure in their lives, and turning to a little escapist, feel-good fiction to help them cope.
No value to the world? I think not.
*2 from For Your Eyes Alone; the Letters of Robertson Davies, edited by Judith Skelton Grant, Viking Press.
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Romance Myth 6
Romance writers are a bunch of housewives, knocking off books in their spare time
So often romance writers are portrayed as a bunch of housewives, yet most Australian romance writers, published regularly in paperback or hardback fiction, earn their living by their writing.
Before they became professional writers, most Australian romance writers had other careers. Here’s a list of jobs we’ve held: biochemist, chartered accountant, cook, editor, farmer, lawyer, librarian, marine biologist, physiotherapist, sales manager, scientist, secretary, university statistics lecturer, teacher – the list goes on.
They didn’t quit working — they changed career.
It’s ludicrous to call professional writers who work from home “housewives.” Yes, some of us do housework, and some are mothers with small children at home, but you don’t call a doctor combining motherhood and medicine a housewife. A freelance journalist doesn’t call him/herself a housewife. A lawyer on maternity leave is still a lawyer, an architect with a home office isn’t called a housewife or a househusband.
We are not housewives. We are professional writers of commercial fiction.
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Romance Myth 7
Romance is for uneducated, sexually repressed voyeurs
Yes. Just as crime novels are for repressed murderers and violent types with with a taste for necrophilia. And science fiction is for sad geeks who dress badly and have no grip on reality. And thrillers are for people who live dull, restricted lives. And people who read Literature are pretentious snobs.
In other words, it’s rubbish. All sorts of people read romance, and most romance readers are also prolific readers of a variety of fiction.
“Readers of literary fiction expect to be challenged and like to be entertained; readers of popular fiction expect to be entertained and like to be challenged. They’re often the same readers in a different mood.” Daphne Clair
Romance Writers of America (www.rwanational.org) have socio-economic and other statistics on who reads romance. The people who read romance come from all levels of society and all educational backgrounds. As do the writers.
Why is it so strange for people to want to read books that celebrate love? Why is it that books about murder are often more highly regarded than books about love. Few of us would suggest that love is not important to us.
Why do most people remember their first kiss? Their first love? Why do so many people celebrate Valentines day? Wedding anniversaries? Why do golden wedding anniversaries bring a wistful smile to even the most cynical of souls?
As romance author Elizabeth Lowell said, ‘Only in romance is an enduring, constructive bond – love – between a man and a woman celebrated.’ (*3)
* 3 from Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women. Krentz, J.A (ed) 1992. University of Pennsylvania Press.
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Romance Myth 8
Romance novels give girls and women unrealistic expectations of life
This is an old chestnut that returns again and again in a different guise. In past centuries it was claimed that women should not be taught to read because they had small brains and the poor dears couldn’t cope with all the extra learning. In the Victorian era men were warned not to let their womenfolk read novels because novels brought about a spiritual and moral decline in the feeble female constitution.
Romance novels give girls and women unrealistic expectations of life? What rubbish. Most readers, male or female, have learned to distinguish real life from the fantasy in books by the age of about ten. Do science fiction novels make people believe the aliens are coming? Do crime novels cause people to murder? Do fantasy novels make us believe we can fly or perform magic?
In fact, many romance novels can help educate people about real life issues. Some of the grittier, more “real life” romances often portray people coping with the sorts of difficulties that many women cope with — illness, divorce, death, career crises, elderly parents, problems with children , and so on. No easy solutions are presented — do you think readers would stand for that? Authors who write these romances often get letters from readers who were touched by the story and felt the truth of it, who wanted to share their own experiences and who felt comforted and less isolated by reading the book.
We know the difference between fantasy and real life.
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Romance Myth 9
It’s money for jam — and an instant fortune
This is a really powerful myth. Romance writers are rarely presented with a whopping lump sum, as urban myth suggests .
Most people prefer not to discuss their income with strangers, and most romance writers don’t discuss their earnings. The truth is it’s nobody’s business but our own.
In any case, it’s not only a desire for privacy that prevents us from disclosing how much money a book earns (a very common question) — it’s that it’s an unanswerable question. Each book we write earns a different amount. It depends on the market, the cover, the title, word of mouth, publicity etc. And it’s often years before we have any idea what a book has earned us.
Romance writers get royalties — a very small percentage of a book’s cover price. Our earnings depend on sales. To expect to make an instant fortune is like expecting to earn like Bryce Courtney, just because you sold a book to the same publisher. Few romance writers can give up their day job straight away. Contrary to urban myth, most advances are quite small. But the books continue to earn royalties over time — like a snowball growing as it rolls.
Yes, you can make a living writing romance — if you sell to a big enough publisher and if your books do well. Like any other writer, it depends on talent, hard work, the market and luck. Australia’s top romance writers earn a good living — but they’ve all written many books over a number of years, have built up a huge following and continue to publish regularly and please their readership. It’s a business. Romance writers, like any other writers, get dumped if their books don’t sell.
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Romance Myth 10
Anyone can write a romance, it’s dead easy
It’s harder than most people think. Even Mills and Boon, that urban myth claims is so easy to ‘crack’, receive something like 20,000 unsolicited manuscripts each year from all over the world. They contract perhaps 30 new writers. They’re just one of the publishers.
Australian romance writers have to send their work overseas — to New York, London and Toronto. We have to compete with the rest of the world to get published. And we have succeeded. We have broken into the very tough USA and UK markets. Every month some Aussie romance writer hits a bestseller list in the USA.
Writing romance is a tough international business. But each year, more of us succeed. Despite the odds, in 2007 9 new Australian romance writers were contacted to major international publishers. And we, at Romance Writers of Australia, are very proud of them.
We support our Aussie romance writers. Do you?
© Anne Gracie. Anne Gracie is a multi published romance author and former president of Romance Writers of Australia
http://www.annegracie.com