J.E. Martin

TODAY'S ROMANCE BOOKS

In case you’re curious about why I read romance books, let’s define what a romance is.

It is NOT a “bodice ripper.”

According to published author Theresa Meyers’ article, “Aren’t You Ashamed to Write Those Bodice Rippers?” published in the January 2004 Romance Writers Report, “One of the biggest hurdles we leap is that of misinformation. There is a wealth of preconceptions about our genre, and in particular, a ‘shame factor.’ Many authors have had to deal with comments, questions, and labels that refer to romance as smut, porn, tripe, and the media favorite: bodice rippers.

“’I’m always dealing with this comment,’ reveals New York Times best seller and multi-published author Carly Phillips. She especially finds that people ask about it in regards to what her two young daughters think of her work. ‘My answer is always the same: I tell my girls I write love stories that promise people a happy ending. In truth, these books are about monogamous relationships, exclusive relationships, and they show how people work through their problems to reach the happy ending in life we all seek. These books are exactly what I want my children to emulate. I’m proud to write them and my family is proud of me.’”

So, what is a romance?

According to published author Dani Alcorn in her Romance Writing Workshop, “A romance can mean one of two things. It can mean a relationship between two (or more) characters in your manuscript, and it can also refer to an entire genre of fiction. This is an important distinction, because, while they share many common elements, romantic relationships are a common element of every genre of storytelling.

“When we discuss romance as a genre, there are some very specific expectations and constraints that readers have and that you need to know as an author if you are choosing to write and market your book as a romance.

“All romances that are published in the romance category share two (2) things in common:

     - First, there is a central love story that is the core element. Essentially, if you remove this love story, the book would fall apart. There would be no plot. There may be an external plot that is in addition to the central love story, but the love story is the driving force behind what’s happening in the manuscript and the reason for the manuscript to exist. The central love story is the main plot and is about two (or more) characters who are falling in love and/or struggling to make the relationship work.

     - The second thing that all romances share is that there is an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending. That is important because that is what distinguishes romance as a genre from other types of romantic fiction. The happily ever after (HEA for short) is guaranteed in a romance genre book. The characters are rewarded for their struggling with that HEA. This happens in all romance novels.

"You might ask, ‘What about Titanic? What about Shakespeare in Love? What about any other book where the characters didn’t actually end up together in the end?’ The answer is, those are not romances. They are romantic, but they are not romances. They share many features of a romance, but they belong shelved in a different section, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It just means that they are not marketable as romances, because they violate the central tenant of the romance genre, which is the happily ever after. Again, the thing that all romances have in common is a central love story and a happily ever after.

“There are tons of sub-genres of romance that can share characteristics of pretty much any genre you can name. It can be:
     - a contemporary romance
     - a science fiction romance
     - a paranormal romance
     - a historical romance
     - a romantic suspense, which is one of the fastest growing sub-genres of romance right now. To clarify this, the suspense does not have to do with the romance. There is never any doubt that you are going to get your happily ever after. The suspense refers to the rest of the plot. This could be a mystery or a psychological thriller or something like that, which is the closest tie to romantic suspense.

“So that you can get a sense of where it got started, what its history is, and where it’s going, here are the origins of romance.

“For the first romance novel, some people say it was Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson, which was published in 1740. This book does share many characteristics of early romance novels. But I think a true starting point for the genre are the works of Jane Austen’s six novels published between 1811 and 1817. Those, without a doubt, focus on a strong, female heroine who is embroiled in a romance and marriage. The novels are witty and satirical, and they fit the tone of most romance novels. So, that’s a good starting point.

“However, the genre didn’t kick off in earnest until the 20th Century, which represented the birth of the modern romance and what you would recognize as romance today. It began with an English publishing company called Mills & Boon, founded in 1908. Harlequin Romances, a North American publisher, saw Mills & Boon’s success, and, in the 1950s, it started re-publishing Mills & Boon’s titles in North America.

“Mills & Boon merged with Harlequin in the early 1970s, and that is when the heyday of modern romances kicked off. British Authors were primarily represented by Mills & Boon during the 1970s and 1980s, because for a very long time, Mills & Boon was the only acquisition house. So, even though they were being published in North America by Harlequin as Harlequin Romances, they were not representing American authors. Then, in the 1980s, they started representing a broader scope of authors.

“Early Romances were somewhat cringe-worthy by today’s standards because in those 1970s and ‘80s romances, there were lots of rape and lots of ‘alpholes’ who are sort of alpha heroes who are so overbearing and cruel who become more like assholes than heroes. This is where the genre picked up some of the stigma that it still has today, because the plots weren’t always great, and the covers were very overdone and lewd. A term that some people still use that is a derogatory term for all romance novels is ‘bodice rippers.’ That comes from many of those 70s and 80s books, especially the historical romances where there were literally bodices being ripped, especially if it involved rape. This was not the best period, in my opinion, for romance novels.

“In the 1990s and onward, things began to change. While there were only two publishing houses, they were restricted to contemporary, historical, and some medical. In the ‘90s, there were more sub-genres being published because more publishers were getting in the game. So Harlequin and Mills & Boon were not the only publishers in town. The stories became more varied.

“Today, romances of every genre exist. If you can dream it, you can write it. If the genre exists, there is a romance sub-category of it. But whether you choose to market it as that other genre or as a romance depends on whether or not the love story is the central focus or if another plot is. Essentially, is your romance the main plot or is your romance the subplot? That’s the difference.

“So, that’s the evolution of how things have changed from the beginning until today. Romance is a hugely popular genre. One in five people have read one in the past year, though few will admit to it, mainly, because of some of the stigma that is attached. However, today, with the broadening genres, romance is having a renaissance and represents a huge share of the book-buying market.”

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