Yesterday I talked about the importance of knowing your manuscript's genre before querying either an agent or publisher. Today I'm going to begin a three-part series of genre definitions.
We'll start with the genre in which I've sold both short stories and now a book for NAL Heat, a division of Penguin: Romance. Tomorrow we'll do mysteries and, Wednesday, we'll look at paranormals/science fiction.
Romance: The important thing to remember about romance is that its focus is on the relationship between two lovers. The second most important thing is that traditional romance readers expect a HEA (happily ever after) at the end.
The level of spiciness in romances ranges widely from the innocence of an inspirational to the overt language of the erotic romance.
Romance has spun off multiple sub-genres, but I'm only going to talk about one or two of them as examples. Historical romance is a romance that takes place sometime in the past (purists say the novel must take place before 1900 to be a true historical). Historicals require that the writer do enough research to create an accurate setting for the time period in the novel. Fans of the genre will spot mistakes instantly.
Romantic suspense is a novel that mixes a romantic relationship with a woman-in-jeopardy theme. Each romantic suspense author decides on the mix of romance to woman-in-jeopardy plot her novel will have. Some are 50/50; others may be 70/30 in one direction or the other. The important thing is that there are two parallel plots that weave through the novel; both are resolved at the end.
There are a couple of romance sub-genres that have either already spun off into their own genre or that are on the edge of becoming their own genre. I'll mention two of them:
Chick Lit is usually thought to have been inspired by Candace Bushnell's newspaper column entitled "Sex and the City." Those columns later led to the television show of the same name that began in 1998 and ran for six seasons on HBO.
Although most of the attention was given to the externals: compulsive shopping or an obsession with shoes, chick lit author Shanna Swendson says the three essential components are: "An interesting, sympathetic heroine with a growth arc; female relationships; and a wry or sarcastic voice." See my blog of March 19, 2006 for more details.
Erotic romance has gotten huge amounts of attention in the last eighteen months. There is a lot of confusion about this new sub-genre. Many people describe it as "porn" or as "a lot of sex scenes," but--remember--the title of the sub-genre is erotic romance. This is the story of a relationship in which the sex scenes deepen the intimacy between the partners. It also has a HEA because, again, it is a romance. See my blog of February 25, 2006 if you want to read the difference between erotic romance and erotica or erotic romance and porn.
Feel free to email me at mayareynoldswriter@sbcglobal.net if you have any questions.
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