What are the conventions of the romance genre?

Part of it is the style–lusher, purpler than mainstream erotica–that’s ported straight over from romance. But there are also Rules:

• Once the hero and the heroine meet, they must be faithful to one another. It doesn’t matter if they haven’t actually developed a relationship yet–from the moment of that first meeting, their privates are off-limits to all others.
• There must be either a happily ever after (HEA) or a happy for now (HFN) ending. (Happily ever after = It’s true love, they’ll be together for always. Happy for now = they’re settled happily into the relationship and have no plans or reasons to leave, though they might not end up staying together forever.)
• The hero should be either a manly, dominant-yet-gentle alpha male, or the slightly less macho but still gently dominant beta male.

What kinds of stories are popular?

Urban fantasy and paranormal romance are huge. Right now vampires are a little past their peak and werewolves are the hot new thing, with other kinds of shifters right behind. Fairies, elves, angels, demons, and other magical beasties are eternally popular. In general, stories set in the modern day sell better than historicals, fantasies, and science fiction.

Kink sells extremely well, especially BDSM. You really really really want an alpha male in charge–femdom is a respectable niche, but not a large one. And did I mention the alpha male? Because you want him. In your book. or in your pants. Wherever. Everyone wants him. He is infinitely wantable. You want him right now, as you read this. Feel that emotion? That’s you, wanting the alpha male.

If you don’t want alpha males, you’re kinda screwed. Because erotic romance? Is all about alpha males.

What kinds of stories are right out?

Publishers don’t want to see underage sex, bestiality (shapeshifters excluded, though the lovers might have to be in humanoid form before they get down and dirty), or rape as titillation. Most also don’t want to see scat, waterplay, or incest. Consent issues (”forced seduction”) are acceptable at some houses and unacceptable at others.

Once upon a time some houses didn’t want to see gay or lesbian sex, but that has changed with the massive and rampant popularity of m/m fiction. I don’t know how genderqueer would be accepted; no publisher I know of is saying “no intersexed/transsexual characters,” but then, I haven’t heard of any genderqueer characters, either. Considering how into Manly McBrickerson and His Mighty Manly Penis the genre is, readers just might not be interested enough for houses to take a chance on it.

Orrr there could be a sea change in tastes. You never know. There’s a very small but growing contingent of readers who are tired of alpha males and willing to move past vanilla kink and idealized sex.

Who publishes erotic romance?

Oh lawd, there’s quite a list. Most of the publishers are e-presses, but many of them also put out print books, which show up in the romance section of real bookstores. Some of the top houses are:

Ellora’s Cave (THE erotic romance press)
Samhain Press
Torquere
Changeling Press

How hard is it to get published?

Not hard at all compared with traditional publishing. Standards are a bit lower,* volume is a bit higher, books are shorter–10K to 50K is standard, compared to 80K to 200K for typical fantasy novels. Waits are shorter, so rather than spending a year to get an agent, a year to shop the manuscript around, and a year to get the accepted manuscript into print, you can send the story straight to publishers, get an answer back in one to three months, and see your work in print three to six months** after it’s accepted. All publishers accept unagented submissions; in fact, agents usually won’t touch the erotic romance market because the sums of money are too small to bother with.

Between taking less time to write a completed work, less time to acceptance, less time to publication, lower standards, and a much less risk-averse publishing culture, it’s far faster and easier to get published in erotic romance. That doesn’t mean it’s a cakewalk… but acceptance rates in traditional publishing are under 1%, and even the pickiest erotic romance press accepts a higher percentage than that.

* Scream all you want, that won’t change the fact that the floor is set lower for erotic romance. Some erotic romance is written to standards that would surpass those of any genre you care to name; but the bottom-of-the-barrel stuff… well.

** or so.

Related pages:

1. Erotic Romance Resources General Sites EREC – Erotic Romance E-Publisher Comparison An industry...
2. What Is Erotic Romance? Once upon a time there was a genre called Romance;...

But the hearts of some women were troubled. “Lo,” said they, “we do live in the 21st century, yet our stories of that which passes between a man and a woman involve exceeding numbers of waves, and doves, and other things which are not meet to have in a bed. Let us write out the whole scene, without the fading to black, that we may fully experience the relationship between true loves.”

And the hearts of some of the women were troubled no more, for the tempest had moved to their pants. And there it did stay, and they were much pleased with it.

But the hearts of other women were now troubled. “Lo,” said they, “this genre is called Romance, that is the tale of the relationship between a man and a woman. It is not meet to have stickiness and squelchings; such things are not spiritual, and it brings great shame upon they who read them.”

But the readers paid no heed, for they had gotten to The Good Bits.

“LO,” said the troubled ones more loudly, “IT IS A SHAME UPON THE NAME OF ROMANCE THAT SUCH SQUELCHINGS AND ROLLINGS AND TOUSLINGS SHOULD BE PART OF THE TALES.”

But the readers still paid no heed, for the rollings and touslings were shameful indeed, and the lovers were so loath to part that they were nigh to falling off the kitchen table upon which they performed their shameless acts; and the villain was in the room below and would hear the thump, and come up to investigate, and be as horrified by the deed as were the troubled women, though to rather more interesting effect. And the readers were loath to put their books down.

“SUCH BOOKS DO NOT DESERVE THE NAME OF ROMANCE,” said the troubled women, “FOR VERILY, THEY ARE PORN.”

“Good idea!” said a reader, and rushed off to found her own online press, which would specialize in such shameless works. And lo, did the works come to be known as “erotic romance.”

“Erotic romance is not romance at all!” cried the troubled women, who were becoming known as the old guard. “It is titillation for the sake of titillation, mere sex between a woman and a–HEY, THAT’S NOT A WOMAN!”

And it was not. For the writers of erotic romance had said unto one another, “Verily, if one man is hot, two are hotter, and really we don’t need the heroine at all.”

“And,” said another writer, “loving and supportive relationships are all very well and good, but personally, I find nothing more supportive than a leather harness suspended from the ceiling.”

“But what will the hero do with his wings?” said one writer.

The other writers turned to her. “Wings?”

“My hero is an angel,” the writer said, scuffing her foot shamefacedly. “It’s just something silly, a little fancy, I just kind of like–”

“–vampires?” said one writer.

“Werewolves?” said another.

“Shapeshifting dragons and the fairy knights who love them?” said a third.

And the writers all agreed that the requirement that the lovers be human was outdated and due for an overhaul.

And lo, did the readers read the books, and find them good. Very good. Very, very good. Especially that one about the leopard shapeshifters who had public gay sex for the purpose of determining who would be the pride’s next… something or other, did it really matter?

And lo, did the notion of “crack” enter the newborn genre. And no one paid enough attention to declare it either good or bad, for they were all too busy reading BDSM about alien vampire cat shifters in steampunk London.

The hearts and minds of the old guard were troubled exceedingly, but no one paid them any mind, either, for all they shouted was, “No one wants to read about gay men having sex!” And lo, did the falsehood of this amuse them all, the young and the old, who gathered to read erotic romance and enjoy tales of love that contained neither waves nor doves unless the lovers were feeding the birds on the beach.

And that is the tale of how erotic romance came to be.

No, really, what’s erotic romance?

Related pages:

1. No, Really, What’s Erotic Romance? Erotic romance is erotica written to women’s tastes using the...
2. Erotic Romance Resources General Sites EREC – Erotic Romance E-Publisher Comparison An industry...