I've noticed that the majority of LDS suspense novels have a strong romantic subplot. If there isn't much romance in my book, will this hurt my chances in the LDS market? Do readers demand romance?
Traditionally, the LDS fiction customer is female. LDS women who prefer romance novels have increasingly turned to LDS romance as a replacement for national romance which is becoming more sensual. LDS publishers have tried to satisfy this demand for clean romance.
LDS readers who prefer other genres have not really moved to LDS fiction simply because very little exists in other genres. As LDS publishers move into other genres with quality, well-written stories, they will attract other readers. While romance may be leading the pack right now, I think it's just a matter of time before the demand for other genres, including stories without much romance, catch up.
5 comments:
I'd heard that romance wasn't selling too much any more and publishers were moving away from it. Is that true?
It's complete baloney, at least on the national market. The last stats I heard put romance somewhere around 45%+ percent of all book sale, nationwide.
Like any other genre, there are going to be ups and downs in romance sales, but as long as there are women who want to be in love, there will be a market for romance.
Romance will always sell well. Always.
It may shift and move and redefine itself, but it will always exist in some form. The thing about romance is that we can combine romance with so many other genres - suspense, paranormal, sci fi, fantasy, etc. New subgenres do emerge, like chick lit, that then go off and evolve into something else.
Currently, romances enjoy $1.2 billion in sales each year, are 54.9% of all popular mass market fiction sold, and 33.9% of all fiction sold. Think of all the genres out there and all the different types of fiction, and then look at those percentages. It's astounding how well romances do.
So no, I don't think any publisher would be foolish enough to move away from romances. :)
The thing about romance in a book is this -- in life, human attraction is present all the time. Whether you catch a glimpse of the guy in the next car and think he's cute, or actually date him and fall in love, it's happening around us daily. To write a book that has absolutely no romance in it at all would be to write a book that doesn't mirror all of life's dimensions. I don't consider myself to be a romance writer, but each of my books does contain some element of romance, because life contains romance.
Post a Comment