February. Thanks to Hallmark, and our love of all things romantics, Valentines Day is a big celebration. We send thoughtfully selected cards and gifts, we spend for lavish dinners and romantic dates, and we launch new romantic movies and books, and all things romance.
That makes February a wonderful month for romance authors. Valentine’s Day offers us outstanding opportunities to schedule tie ins, promotions, launches and more.
It’s also a perfect time to ask – how are romance books faring overall? What better time to review trends in romance books and what they mean to us as romance authors than a month dedicated to romance?
That is just what two impeccable resources did this month. K-Lytics published their February trends report and Reedsy hosted ex-Harlequin editor, Ann Leslie Tuttle who knows her stuff. Here are six important lessons I took from these experts on 2019 trends in romance writing.
Trend One: Genre
Romance is still the leading genre on Amazon and all other outlets and sales continue to climb. That is good news for all of us. Competition for our titles remains strong, requiring more effort in SEO, title selection and discovery efforts, but the opportunity is there.
Trends can be set by a single novel’s success. Just look at “Fifty Shades of Gray” if you don’t believe me. Or its predecessor, “Twilight,” that rocked the paranormal world. So, take all of this with a grain of salt and understand that regardless of trends a great book can succeed.
TIP: Romance readers are looking for escape, an uplifting story with a happy ending, no matter the category, trope or humanity of the characters.
Trend Two: Category
Category remains one of the most important choices you as an author make. Choosing what categories to place your work in will impact it’s ranking, showings, competition, and more. It will influence title, blurb and cover decisions. Category is King!
Romantic suspense is up 46% for example, and mail –order bride stories are up a whopping 78%, ranking high for sales with continued low competition. Trends show demand continues for small-town romance as well as Amish or Christian fiction. Not your bag? RomComs are having a resurgence as are books in the Young Adult category.
I am not suggesting that you write to market, unless you want to, but being aware of where there is demand can assist when you are considering settings. Speaking of settings, know any good castles? Royalty romances are selling well too.
TIP: If you can create a story that contains two strong categories, Royalty and Young Adult for example, or Small town and Christian, you can double your chances of selling strong.
BONUS TIP: Small town can be replaced with any setting that creates that same sense of community, where people care about one another and there a strong sense of belonging.
[click_to_tweet tweet=”Choosing what categories to place your work in will impact it’s ranking, showings, competition, and more. It will influence title, blurb and cover decisions. Category is King! See 6 Current Trends for Romance Writers @madisonmichel_” quote=”Category remains one of the most important choices you as an author make. Choosing what categories to place your work in will impact it’s ranking, showings, competition, and more. It will influence title, blurb and cover decisions. Category is King!”]
Trend Three: Trope
As an older writer, I was hanging on every word when Ann discussed reunion romances or second change at love tropes, but when asked the specific question, Ann said that older protagonists are not selling that well. But second chance romances, family sagas and reunions do allow for some older characters for those of you curious about that.
Other tropes that are hot right now include pretend engagement, friends or enemies to lovers and stories involving medical personnel or occurring in hospitals. This should be great news for all you doctors and nurses who write in your spare time.
TIP: Try to avoid alpha males and company romance right now. They are struggling stories in the era of the #metoo movement. Love triangles are also on the decline. It seems, according to Ann, that readers are unhappy when the rejected suitor ends up alone. Who knew?
Trend Four: Character
For me character is the heart of the story, so I hung on Ann’s every word here. Always make characters empathetic, give them a back story to explain anything flaws we initially might not find sympathetic. Characters should be nuances with flaws and room to grow through love. They need to be approachable. Remember that the story will progress because of the emotional conflict – usually issues of fear, loss or trust.
TIP: Stories are always about the emotional growth of characters and the belief in the promise of love.
BONUS TIP: Watch out for secondary characters whose stories overshadow your protagonists. Authors often fall into this pit when creating the setup for a sequel.
[click_to_tweet tweet=”Watch out for secondary characters whose stories overshadow your protagonists. Authors often fall into this pit when creating the setup for a sequel. Learn 6 Current Trends for Romance Authors ” quote=”Watch out for secondary characters whose stories overshadow your protagonists. Authors often fall into this pit when creating the setup for a sequel.”]
Trend Five: Opportunity
Obviously, the categories that are growing will present opportunities for authors, but so do other – less obvious or smaller categories where demand exceeds supply. These include stories around diverse characters or by more diverse writers. Also, the LGBTQ reader is looking for more novels about them, so there is a niche there just waiting to be filled.
TIP: Most romances are written by women, so a male author, and a male perspective is welcome in this category too.
Trend Six: Money and Pricing
A good cover, a clever premise and initial character meeting, and smart promotion will sell books. A great story will find its way to the top. Kindle Unlimited is a strong seller for many romance authors, going wide works for others. Traditional and Indie publishers are both having success with romance, so which you choose is still a matter of personal preference. Still, authors overall are making less money than they did several years ago, and romance authors are no exception. The use of 99¢ books and free books as lead magnets for a series also drive down the average price for romance books – usually 99¢ to $2.99.
TIP: I will cover this in more detail in my next post, “6 Financial Trends for Romance Writers” including ways that romance authors are finding financial success.
What to Read Next:
Stephen King said in On Writing said “I want to suggest that to write to the best of your abilities, it behooves you to construct your own toolbox…common tools go on top. The commonest of all, the bread and butter of writing, is vocabulary.” Today I suggest two books to help you expand your writing vocabulary.
Want help making your vocabulary sizzle? Words that Sell by Richard Bayan is written for advertisers and copywriters but it is brimming with words designed to evoke a response – a buying response perhaps – but still an emotional response. You can find wonderful ways to expand your toolbox with words and phrases like” “virtually limitless opportunities” for self-improvement or “smooth performance” for reliable. It is unlike any thesaursus you might own. You just need to experience it for yourself.
Master Lists for Writers by Bryan Donovan delivers exactly what the title promises. With over 250 pages listing words by categories like dialogue, plot and of course, description, Donovan provides “25 Reasons for Moving to a New Town” all the way to “50 Past Traumas” helping you with plot, dialogue, character, settings even character names. With almost 300 5-star reviews it provides the back-up you need to your handy thesaurus and dictionary. Add it to your toolbox. You won’t be sorry.
Gems of the Week:
Two FREE opportunities are available for a limited time only. Grab these both, while you can.
First, Reedsy recently released a free online course on writing romance. Kate Studer, also a former editor at Harlequin, worked with Reedsy on this course and it promises to deliver in just five minutes a day! For more information or to enroll, click here.
2/ Ultimate Productivity Bundles just released a new eBook this week, and it’s full of productivity tips from productivity experts. The author asked a group of knowledgeable gurus how they handle a variety of productivity sucking circumstances and logged their answers in this fast-paced eBook chock full of great tips you can apply today. Grab your free copy of Make More Margin and free up 1-2 hours per week.
If You Want to Know More:
Want to listen to the entire Reedsy “What Makes a Perfect Romance?” presentation? Find it here.
If you love to sift through the actual numbers, you can read the complete K-Lytics February, 2019 Trends report here.
Kirsten Oliphant and her Create If Writing Podcast “Niche it Down a Notch” talks about why you should research, write and market to your niche.