So You Want to Write Romance?

It used to be that when you thought of a romance novel, you thought of the stacks of Harlequin, or Silhouette series romance novels on your mother's shelves, or maybe you thought of the Regency romances which were so popular in the 80's. Whatever your idea of a romance novel is, you can bet that if it hasn't changed it will after reading this article.

These days in the beginning of the 21^st century romance books have taken on a whole new look. For one thing while category and single title romances are still big sellers at the bookstore, there is now a whole new type of romance book to read, that being the e-book or electronic book. With the advent of electronic publishers, there has also come a willingness to try new things. Topics that had never been broached before in romance books are now regular topics, topics such as BDSM, ménage, and gay relationships are common. It is not that fiction with these topics didn't exist before, but they were never really associated with the romance industry. However as times have changed, so too have women (or maybe we just finally got over our fears of saying what we really wanted), and what might have been considered taboo in a romance book of the past no longer is.

Another trend is that it is not just women who are writing romance these days, but men too. That's right, men, and they aren't using female pseudonyms either! While men are still in the minority when it comes to romance writing, I see that trend changing as time goes on and other men who want to write romance follow in the footsteps of other successful male romance authors.

So, not only are romance novels addressing topics that may have been considered taboo in the past, they are also crossing genres. Even in mainstream romance it is not uncommon now to see books labeled futuristic, science fiction, fantasy or paranormal romance. To blur the lines even further some authors have taken it another step by actually combining futuristic and science fiction or science fiction and paranormal genres, and wonder of wonders, the publishers are letting them.