Choosing a romance sub-genre

 


BookBub divides romance into several sub-genres. Contemporary has the most subscribers, followed by Romantic Suspense, Historical Romance (and American Historical Romance), New Adult Romance, Erotic Romance, Paranormal Romance, Dark Romance and Erotica, and Time Travel Romance. There are many more sub-genres, but these are most of the main ones.
So, which one(s) do you want to write? The answer, of course, should be to write the ones that you read, because you will have ingested the “feel” of the genre along the way, and writing in those genres will come naturally to you.

Be carefull

If you’re not already a reader of romance, beware trying to write it because it seems like an easy way to make a quick buck. To the untrained eye, romance novels appear to have a formula, but there’s more to creating a masterpiece than painting by numbers. Romance readers are savvy—they will quickly discover if your heart isn’t in it.
Contemporary might seem like the best bet because it’s the biggest sub-genre, but it also has more competition, so don’t pick it just because of its popularity. I wouldn’t recommend writing what seems fashionable, because trends disappear as quickly as they arrive.
Some topics are always popular, such as sexy contemporaries, Regency romances, and shifter paranormals. My advice is to write what you love, and this will shine through. My main tip here is to pick one and, for a while, anyway, stick to it. Lots of writers (including me) write in more than one sub-genre, but it’s much harder to release multiple books quickly and to promote more than one. When you’re starting out, I recommend you choose one genre and concentrate on that. The more time you spend on your main brand, the quicker your business will grow.

Romance novels

Romance novels are about the romantic journey between two (or sometimes more!) partners. That romantic journey can—but doesn’t always—involve the sexual journey too. So how do you decide whether to go sweet or steamy? And what will earn you the most money? The first place to start is, obviously, to read and find out what heat level you like, and what you’re comfortable with. Somewhat to my surprise, I’ve gotten steamier as the years have gone by. In the beginning, I’ll be honest and say I was quite shocked by some of the books I read, but I enjoyed them so much that I gradually wrote hotter, and now I even occasionally write erotica. The main tip is not to write steamy if it makes you uncomfortable—stick to sweet romance, for a while at least. There’s nothing worse than a badly written sex scene! Heat level is determined by what words you use (do you prefer euphemisms or direct language?) and how adventurous your characters are (do you love to push the envelope sexually or are you happy concentrating on the emotion in a love scene?). Read as many different authors as you can, and eventually you’ll find your own heat level. Recently, I’ve heard talk that readers are bored with Erotic Romance, and now the market is turning “sweeter.” I’m not so sure myself, and anyway, there are readers out there for whatever you write. Stick to your heat level, keep on publishing, marketing, and advertising, and the readers will eventually find you.