Apr 14 2009
Romance Writing: Is it a business or creative endeavour?
Over 35% of fiction sold in North America is romance and about 50 in paperback.
The figures above (quoted in the last post) show not only that much of the books sold are romance but that this market is made of a wide range of sub-genres.
The sub-genres are always growing especially with many that fall under Chick Lit and that of paranormal and speculative romances.
How do you keep up with the continuous changes? To thrive in the world of writing you need to be clued in. The stark reality is that the publishing industry is somewhat a business and you need to understand who your readership is to discover what they want to read.
Your best bet is to check out the submission guidelines of the major players. Also read books published in the romance lines. This is the greatest type of research because it gives you insight into the use of plots, writing style, characterization, setting etc. Once you have completed your research you can then focus on the creative elements of writing.
Next time: Check out a list of publishers.
Figures above are from the RWA website: http://www.romanceaustralia.com/romance.html
