Building a romance brand
Building a romance brand
There are currently, give or take, a bajillion books for sale on Amazon, with more being uploaded every day. I typed “contemporary romance” into Amazon’s search box and got 376,314 books with those keywords. OMG! How can I possibly compete?
I’ll go mad if I try to come up with something that’s never been done before. Especially as, I talk befor about including tropes that every other romance author is writing about! So… instead, I write what I enjoy, and gradually, over time, my readers have come to know what to expect from my books. That’s my brand. Most (but not all) of my stories are set in New Zealand, where I live. But that’s not necessarily my brand. My tagline is “hot and sultry contemporary romances,” because many of them are set in the sub-tropical Northland, and they’re steamy.
Is that my Unique Selling Point?
Well, I’m hardly the only New Zealander to write romance stories, so I’m certainly not unique! But all my books are deeply passionate, all my heroes are strong and likeable, and all my heroes are confident and lovable. Readers know they’re going to get stories that feature deeper themes (such as my Three Wise Men series, where the heroes meet single moms who have kids with problems). They know the characters always have a happily-ever-after. And they know the stories are likely to have some connection with New Zealand. All rolled together, that makes up my brand. I can write a book set in another country and my readers will follow me because they know the type of story they’re going to get. What I try not to do is switch heat levels. If readers like sweet books, they might be outraged to find sex in a story, and if they love steamy, they can find sweet books dull. So, once you’ve decided what genre of romance you want to write, and what heat level, try to stick to it.
The romance novel picked apart
ALL ROMANCE NOVELS MUST HAVE AN HEA.
That’s in capitals because it’s possibly the most important lesson in writing romance. This is one thing you cannot change. If your book doesn’t have a happy ending, you will disappoint your reader, and they will not buy more of your books. Don’t think you can be the one author who can write romance and make it ‘different’ by not letting the characters have their HEA. It won’t work. Don’t want to write a happy ending? Choose another genre, like women’s fiction. What length should my romance be? Romance books can be any length you like. I’ve successfully sold short stories (up to 10,000 words), novelettes (10–17k), novellas (17–40K ), short novels (40–60K ), and long novels, (60–100K ). (Oh, and epic fantasy at 160K , but that’s another story!) After saying that, it’s common to get complaints on reviews if a book is considered too short, but it’s rare for a reader to complain a book is too long. However, many successful romance writers have made an excellent living from writing novella-length books, either in series or as serials. (Readers say they hate serials, but they often sell well.) Harlequin novels can be as short as 50K . Both Harlequin and Entangled have guidelines for their various lines if you want a better idea of what length to write. My Samhain editor once told me their perfect length for a contemporary romance was 60,000 words. (Suspense and paranormal are often longer, because they tend to have more complicated sub-plots that need to be worked through.) I think 50–80K is a good length for a romance—plenty of room to develop conflict and character, but not too long to bore the reader.
