Post by K'Sennia Visitor on Jul 5, 2018 8:55:31 GMT
I don't read a lot of romance, but I've hung out with a ton of romance authors and this is what I've gleamed from them are the most important elements of a good, sellable romance novel.
1. It must have a happy ending. Either a happy-for-now, or a happy forever, but it cannot end with the couple breaking up or one of them dying. If someone dies at the end then you have written a love story and not a romance. A romance must always have a happy ending with the couple together, in love, with plans for at least the immediate future.
2. The amount of sex in it doesn't matter. You can write a sweet romance that has no sex at all, you can write hot kissing scenes but with all sex going on behind closed doors, or you can write full, erotic sensual scenes of intercourse with nothing hidden. The amount of sex is the heat level, and while it's definitely enjoyable for most romance readers, the sex is the frosting. Not the cake. The romance is what holds the story together.
3. The difference between erotica, erotic romance, and spicy romance with lots of sex is determined by what holds the story together. If the core of the story is a romance and you could remove the sex and still have a good story that makes sense, then it's a romance. If the romance is core, but so is the sex, and if you took out the sex the romance would fall apart, then it's erotic romance. For erotica, the focus is on the sexual relationship. If you took out the sex you'd have no story at all. Erotica can have romance in it, too, but you could easily remove it and the story would hold up without it -then you know you have written erotica.
Some people think that the length of the story determines whether it's erotica or romance since there are a ton of erotic shorts out there, however, there are also romantic shorts and erotic novels. So length is not a good way to determine what kind of story you have written. Explicitness also is not a good measurement because spicy romances and erotic romances can be plenty explicit. And everyone has their own thermometer on what explicit is and isn't anyway.
4. No cheating. Romance readers do not like their heroes/heroines to cheat on their significant others. At least not after they have met the one they are destined to be with. Some romance writers break this rule and get away with it, but from what I've heard, romance readers generally despise cheaters, and will outraged reviews when it's included.
5. Choose your theme, whether it's billionaires or bad boys or werewolf shifters. If you're searching for commercial success choose a hero type that is currently very popular and make sure to allude to whatever it is that makes straight women fantasize about being with these guys. I'm talking about straight romance here because it's the most popular. But the same goes for gay and lesbian romance, too. Read up on the tropes and what makes these character types so popular and stick with them.
Here is a list of popular romance novel tropes in case you are unfamiliar. The most commercially successful romance authors study these tropes, then they go onto amazon and search the best seller lists to see which ones are currently most popular and then they write those ones. Now, if your favorite tropes aren't in the top 10 right now that's okay. Trends always go up and down. You will write best what you're most enthusiastic about, so choose the tropes that excite you the most. Chances are with the right covers, hooky blurbs, and plenty of advertising you will still do quite well for yourself.
