Despite economic downturns everywhere you look, the sale of romance novels is booming. Not that it ever was in the doldrums. Romance novels have always been a publishing mainstay. In fact, if you’re an aspiring novelist, romance novels are one of the few publication industries that still openly (and genuinely) solicit work by unknowns.
Why are romance novels such big business? I think it has to do a lot with the guaranteed happy ending and the promise of a character-driven story with a few plot twists. In these times of economic uncertainty, people want to at least visit the world where you can always count on things working out.
If you think romance novels are all sappy love stories or the famous “bodice rippers” set in the Regency period of Britain with saucy ladies and roguish men, well, you’re right but you’re incomplete. Some romance novels are those things. There’s a whole sub-genre that is actively publishing right now called “Regency romances” and, yes, bodices will be ripped.
But romance novels are way bigger and more diverse. There is a whole subset of e-novels (online romance for the computer-literate saucy wench) and genres that involve the paranormal, fantasy, more explicit story lines, and so on.
Now some put down romance novels are formulaic. Romance novels are written to specific formulas, that is, there are requirements in terms of word count, character types, actions, and so on. Some of the formulas get pretty specific. In other word, the architecture of these novels is more or less pre-fab but the writer “dresses” it with characters and settings of her choice.
That may seem like a put-down, but how much of writing isn’t formulaic? Screeplays are formulaic (just read Sid Field’s book on screenwriting–the bible for would-be screenwriters–where it tells you on what page the “twist” must occur). Medical journal articles are formulaic (abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion, conclusion). Even supense novels are formulaic. High literature, maybe not so much, but how many people in this recession are saving their pennies to buy a copy of Ulysses by James Joyce?
Romance writers would do well to visit the website of the major publishers; Harlequin is probably the best known publisher but not the only one. Most publishers say that writers for this genre should be well acquainted with it (that is, you better read a romance novel or two or three before you try to write one). You also need to truly enjoy that kind of story–a kind of character-driven story with a lush and faraway backdrop that has a central love story.
If you’re eager to break into novel writing, it’s a tough industry with this one bright spot. I’ve never written a romance novel but it has occurred to me recently to give it a try. Stories are compact, the formula gives you a leg up in terms of being successful (just hit the points in the formula and have some good characters), and the industry seems eager to nuruture the next crop of new novelists.
