In the previous two posts, we discussed two major branding components of science fiction romance: genre labeling and content. Among those who participated in the discussion (and with the implicit approval of the silent majority of lurkers, tee hee), we reached a general consensus regarding continued use of “science fiction romance” as a marketing label. We addressed a few key points regarding story content, but largely this aspect is a work in progress—and that’s to be expected this early in the game.
Branding is about both the product as well as the audience for said product. In this post, I’m going to attempt to define the audience for SFR as well as lay out possibilities for finding them.
So...who are they?
SFR fans come from both the SF/F and romance realms--no secret there. We all have our individual preferences for this blend, whether they be SFR heavy on the romance or the science fictional elements (or both if a lengthy word count allows it). Many of us are willing to adjust our expectations for this hybrid genre, although it's downright fabulous when authors strike just the right balance, which, of course, can mean different things to different readers.
While it certainly won’t happen overnight, as far as attracting new readers to the genre we may be able to cast our net beyond the romance community. Here are a few categories of existing and potential science fiction romance fans:
* Those who enjoy paranormal romance
* Those who are tired of paranormal romance
* Readers who like action & adventure in their romance
* Fanfiction readers
* E-book aficionados/early adapters of dedicated devices (which include both romance and SF readers. Did you know that “Kindle readers purchase more books than most heavy book purchasers”? Did you also know that JA Konrath makes more money from his Kindle sales than from his print ones? Have you read this Kindle success story?)
* Fans of futuristic erotic romance
* Readers who seek out niche romance sub-genres
* SF readers who enjoy character-driven stories
Nothing is 100% for everyone. If we can siphon off x percentage of romance, paranormal, and SF readers, then that will count as a great success. Such an achievement doesn’t need to change the face of publishing to constitute a hit or failure. As an investor, if I can turn $10 into $50, I’m happy. There are those who would turn up their noses at this, and hold out for something that’s either $100 million or forget it. But it means they’re turning down a steady, but building revenue stream.
Build the Buzz, and they will come
We currently have tools at our disposal that can help build mass amounts of buzz. There’s buzz about the genre in general, and then there’s the buzz associated with breakout books. Lucky for us, in addition to print mediums such as RT Book Reviews and Loveletter, we currently have the power of teh Internets (blogs, Twitter, various forums such as Goodreads & Shelfari, as well as emerging digital ebook technology). However, we can also network with potential SFR readers in a time-tested tradition: by recommending reads to friends as well as folks we meet at bookstores and libraries.
Perhaps our best investment right now is time—devoting time to talking about our favorite stories. Authors will have certain promotional costs, of course, and free books/excerpts will continue to be effective loss leaders, but if you ask me, I’d rather authors use the money they’d spend on bookmarks/book videos/t-shirts to pay themselves to get online and engage other readers in discussions—not just as authors, but as readers. Name recognition alone has a wide reach.
In response to my earlier post Does Science Fiction Romance Need a Gene Roddenberry?, Linnea Sinclair stated that “The visual media has NOT been romance-deficient. But watchers are not always readers, apparently.”
Her observation certainly rings true. Still, I wonder if conventions have been underutilized as buzz-builders and reader recruitment arenas. It’s no accident that publishers of all sizes congregate at the major ones to showcase their wares. These might be the locales in which to target viewers who enjoy romance and SF blends in films and television and even fanfiction.
Perhaps another way to look at this is to find the fans of visual media SF and lock them in a room with a science fiction romance book encourage them to try FIREFLY/BATTLESTAR GALACTICA/STAR TREK in book form. It’s all in the pitch—a pitch that would be especially effective if it were delivered in the form of a panel (with giveaways, of course).
As many times as I’ve attended Comic-Con San Diego, I have yet to see a panel or booth devoted to science fiction romance or some variation thereof. Whose fault is that? Certainly not the attendees. If no one beats me to the punch, I will pledge to make that happen (like I really need an excuse to return, lol!).
Yes, this type of endeavor requires a financial investment but it seems to me it could be accomplished for the price of a single book video—maybe less. Plus, you’d get to hang out with Wolverine.
Joyfully yours,
Heather
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Branding Science Fiction Romance, Part III
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Heather, I've never been to Comic Con but I'm pretty sure that in the last two or three years all the regular SF Cons in my area have had panels on SFR, or at least panels on coss-genre or hybred-genre SF where the topic of SFR has come up.
I know I've personally suggested it to the programming chair at Millennicon more than once since I joined the ConCom.
Fan Fiction readers are more than likely to be fan fiction writers too but I think the most interesting thing about the Star Trek Voyager group I hang with is that nearly everything is written and read in English. The members are centered in the US and Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and Germany for the most part. I can name around eight Europeans that have written decent J/C fan fiction when English is not their native language, which amazes me. I believe there is a largely untapped audience for SFR in other countries, even non English speaking ones.
I also find it interesting when you mention using videos because I know fan video makers. Even my own daughter uses software like Poser and the things from Daz Studio to make pictures of both Trek and original characters. There is so much opportunity out there, and ways to reach around the world.
Elorie
I used FIREFLY as a template for my SFR. Yes, there is technology we don't have now, but it's not in your face, chrome and flashy lights and teleportation. No aliens or purple-sky worlds. Heck, I don't even have a proper space ship : ) But I think it would be a fine introduction to SFR for a curious reader : ) Like FIREFLY, my story focuses on the characters more than the tech. I've been accused of using SF too lightly, but I must disagree. It's there, but it's not hard SF.
Yeah, Star Trek Voyager. My daughter is going as Captain Janeway with a Lightsaber to Fall Festival this year. That's Halloween to the rest of yas. She says someone has to deal with all those Darth Vaders at the party. Am I bringing her up right or what?
My daughter became a fan in re-runs, you know, and I suspect a lot of other girls will grow up or into loving it, just like the Original Series.
Heather, I think you nailed the paranormal crossover.
Some of my favorite stories are futuristics by Crystal Jordan in her anthology "Carnal Desires". It features shape shifters on several different planets. Awesome world building. And the author's audience is both paranormal readers and sci fi romance readers.
Regardless of the overall opinion of Erotic Romance, in ebooks, it's a thriving and lucrative genre. Sci Fi romance has made significant headway there but not enough IMHO. Denise Rossetti, Loribelle Hunt, Kim Knox, Mima and others have offered erotic sci fi and it's been extremely successful.
Paranormal romance also began in ebooks...in the erotic genre.
Perhaps erotic sci fi will pave a path as well.
I hope so, because I LOVE to read it.
There are several issues out of the control of readers and, to a great extent, authors. I'm actually going to address some things raised in the previous two blogs here, so apologies if someone reading this one first has a WTF moment. ;-)
Shelving. I'm shelved in the romance aisles in Borders and Books A Million, in the science fiction aisles in Barnes & Noble. I have NO control. Bantam has some but doesn't feel it's problematic enough. The final say is the book store corporate HQ and I am where corporate decides to put me.
Susan Grant is shelved in romance. Catherine Asaro in science fiction, along with Julie E Czerneda (and her TRADE PACT series is definitely RSF/SFR). So yes, as has been raised, there's no one consistent place to find futuristics/SFR/RSF.
Does anyone note that the mystery genre has subgenres? Cozies. Police Procedurals. Amateur Sleuth. Whatever. Yet they all fit nicely on the mystery shelves, and no one says boo if a cozy is shelved next to a procedural. Mystery readers are used to pawing through the shelves to find the cozy they want, or the amateur sleuth they want. I'm sure there are police procedural readers who wouldn't be caught dead reading a cozy. But everyone accepts that the genre has multiple flavors. This, IMHO, is the model we need for SFR. I just haven't a clue in a bucket how to achieve it.
What I do think would help--and this goes along with the blog presence and such Heather mentions, is if SFR/RSF/Futuristic authors maintained links on their sites to other SFR/RSF/Fut authors. I have a chart on my links page where I try to list exactly what I'm talking about. That way if a reader discovers one of us--s/he also has links to find the rest of us.
Now, I try to label based on the traditional understanding of fut/SFR/RSF--which is determined by the romance to SF percentage. If an author I've listed as one feels s/he doesn't belong in that category, I had no problem changing the category or adding a category. Adding is often better as you really want as many readers as possible to give your site a peek. And honestly, sometimes an author's Book A is more fut and Book B is more SFR.
Word of mouth is really the key though. And not every reader is Internet savvy. (My husband inhales political mysteries but would never think of going to an author's website). If you go to a bookstore, face out your favorite fut/SFR/RSF author. That gives us exposure we otherwise (yes) would have to pay money for. Give books as holiday presents. RT mag recently did a pretty good "if you like to read ___" then try [SFR/RSF/Fut author]. I think that they noted readers of Suzanne Brockmann's military romances would like my books and--since I'm a huge Brockmann fan--I not only am flattered but agree. Hunky special ops guys on this planet are just about the same as hunky special ops guys in space.
Okay, gotta get back to work. ~Linnea
Have published an e-book combining erotica and science fiction. It's the first of five providing Vayna's story, who is born a slave and slowly progresses towards the freedom she ardently desires. The book's URL is www.eloquentbooks.com/Vayna of the Steppes.html The publisher can be reached at marketingmanager@eloquentbooks.com Thank-you
SF conventions would be a great way to reach potential readers IMO. As a former fanfic writer of Classic STAR TREK fiction, I was a regular at the largest fan-run TREK con in the US--Shore Leave in Towson, MD (a frequent haunt of Jacqueline Lichtenberg. Shore Leave is well known as a writer's con and attracts many of the pro SF writers of Pocket Books TREK line, as well as those of us who write romance-heavy fanfic. We all seemed to get along just fine! :) It is a dream of mine, I will admit, to one day make a presentation at SL as a genuine published author of my own SFR novel.
May I begin my comment by saying that I am one of the lurkers that Heather mentioned, and I suppose I am a rare bird as I enjoy every genre written, to date. I truly have no preference for any particular genre or story length; a fab tale is all I really want.
To that end, Ms Sinclair made a good point about shelving that I should like to address. No book I find shelved in the mystery isle is a hybrid of mystery romance (I shall use MR for the acronym); all are subgenre mystery as Ms Sinclair stated and I believe this is for two reasons:
Mystery lovers are not usually seeking a hybrid romance, and
MR is located in the romance section, because romance sells foremost.
Subgenres are not the same as hybrid genres, and from what I've found on romance blogs, the author choosing to write romance hybrids tends to find she/he pleases few romance reviewers due to the H/H relationship focus taking equal stage to the theme. To my way of thinking, a hybrid is more diverse in plot and more pleasing.
To sum up, it seems it will take a while for romance readers to embrace genre hybrids as a pleasant foray into unchartered waters. And I am thrilled TGE has spoken up for SFR.
Linnea, you are awesome. I want to add a SFR authors links to my website. That's a good idea. If anyone here would like me to add them to my blogroll, I'd be happy to.
And I don't mind however you want to define me, Linnea. What I appreciate is that you explain your naming system on your site, so when you say "futuristic" on your site, everyone knows what you mean by that, as opposed to leaving it up to people's former impressions. That's a good thing.
I think all SFR and related authors should have a page on their website like Linnea's! I think it really does help.
I agree about having a SFR author page. I'll be adding one.
Subgenres are not the same as hybrid genres, and from what I've found on romance blogs, the author choosing to write romance hybrids tends to find she/he pleases few romance reviewers due to the H/H relationship focus taking equal stage to the theme. To my way of thinking, a hybrid is more diverse in plot and more pleasing.
To sum up, it seems it will take a while for romance readers to embrace genre hybrids as a pleasant foray into unchartered waters. And I am thrilled TGE has spoken up for SFR.
Actually, I don't believe it takes romance readers any time at all to embrace hybrids. What it takes time for is publishers to figure out how to market them, booksellers time to figure out how to shelve them and everyone in general to figure out how to define them.
Case in point, what is paranormal romance? On the face of it, just going by the noun adjective combination, it's a sub-genre of romance - romance is the noun, paranormal is the adjective. Then, too, the movement to get it off the ground started with the romance genre.
However, within the last, oh, five years or so, I've seen discussions all over the web that said anything from it being a sub-genre of romance, to it being a sub-genre of science-fiction/fantasy, to it being an out and out hybrid of all of the above.
Do you know what the real truth is?
Individual books could be any of the above. And usually are.
Sure the movement to get the interest in writing and reading the books started within the romance genre but once it took off and publishers got interested -- do you honestly think only romance publishers were interested?
That's why I keep harping on the fact that genre labels only get us so far because they're like tables of contents. They're only as clear as one can logically break down things. Logic only gets us so far when books start crossing genres in big ways. Tags, OTOH, are the index in the back of the book. Tags are what are truly useful in telling the reader everything about the books.
And tags can easily be imbedded in the descriptions and blurbs if one is sneaky enough.
BevBB
I agree. The label isn't as important as getting the publishers interested. I talk to members of my family & friends who've read paranormal romance & prefer it over other subgenres, but they aren't even familiar with the term "paranormal romance." Still, there are people who do look at labels, especially when they browse online and join online reader groups, etc.
"And tags can easily be imbedded in the descriptions and blurbs if one is sneaky enough."
Yes. I do this. Like putting a word like "intergalactic" in the tagline & blurb. You know it's going to be a story set in space.
Yes. I do this. Like putting a word like "intergalactic" in the tagline & blurb. You know it's going to be a story set in space.
Yes, exactly. It's the difference between old-style brick and mortar shelving thinking and new-style electronic "shelving" thinking. You'd be surprised at how many times over the last year I've had to explain on forums the distinction between categories (genres) and tags (keywords) to people. For the most part, people are still stuck in a pre-Internet mentality. Which is okay, but, you know what? Cross-referencing existed before the Internet, people. Keywords and card catalogs did, too.
We just didn't have the technology to access the information in them at the tips of our fingertips. We do now.
I'm not saying genres and sub-genres are irrelevant or will ever be, but what I am saying is that they're not the only way readers find books. If anything they're a starting point but certainly not the ending point. I mean, just because many of you like science fiction, does that mean you buy every single science fiction novel published?
Or do you pick and choose? Even with sub-genres, how do you make a final selection between the types of books you like to read? Don't readers also find books by the themes (read keywords or tags) that they like to read? The more specific the better? Character types, plot points, special interests, whatever.
You want to sell science fiction romances to readers? Sell those unique features that readers are interested in be they cyborgs or pirates or whatever under the umbrella of the overall label. Sneak under their defenses with things you know they already like.
Not the other way around.
I love the links pages to other SFR authors. I've found several from Linnea's site.
I'm now wondering if there's a way to find out the number of Google hits specific tag words get--as a means to gauge how many people are interested in specific topics? Don't know if the results would be too broad to apply to book purchases, but surely there's a way to filter the results.
We should have Amazon tag parties, where we all log in to Amazon, pick out our favorite SFR books, and tag the heck out of them to move them up listings.
We should have Amazon tag parties, where we all log in to Amazon, pick out our favorite SFR books, and tag the heck out of them to move them up listings.
Well, if you're truly going to make it a party, don't just stick with Amazon. Hit all the major booksellers online, including the solely ebook ones. For one thing, a lot of people recently have shifted loyalty away from Amazon because of their crazy policies. I tend to focus on B&N and Books-A-Million nowadays, the latter primarily because I have a BAM within reasonable driving distance.
Plus, I'd hit the online library programs, too.
Mfitz, you go, girl.
I believe there is a largely untapped audience for SFR in other countries
I'm continuing to write my SFR column for Germany romance magazine Loveletter and so far readers of the magazine are interested.
Unfortunately, they can't read most of the books right now. That takes agents & publishers making foreign rights sales. But you never know--SFR could take off in other countries first.
Kimber An, that is so cool about your daughter’s costume.
Perhaps erotic sci fi will pave a path as well.
Jennifer, spot on. Paranormal and erotic romance are about niche genres breaking out. It can take years and even decades, but it can happen.
as has been raised, there's no one consistent place to find futuristics/SFR/RSF.
Exactly. And I think your idea, Linnea, about authors linking to other authors is fantastic. If both readers and authors organize a “one-stop” SFR community, that’s a significant way to counteract the lack of consistency—at least online.
In fact, I recently discovered a debut SFR author and so I immediately let her know about our efforts. I don’t mind searching for this type of information (and the thrill of discovery is pretty cool), but I worry we’re not visible enough if new authors don’t even know we’re here. The community could operate in part as not only a resource for readers but also a promotion vehicle for authors.
@Donna Fingers crossed for you!
MC, thanks for your kind words and I so appreciate your thoughts—and your de-lurking!
And what BevBB said. Readers can’t embrace what they can’t find or don’t know about. SFR is not for all romance readers, but once we are able to clearly define the appeal I think many more will be interested than are currently.
I recently read a quote by Clare Willis in RT Book Reviews about paranormal romances. She said: “It’s a romantic smorgasboard—vampires, ghosts, fairies, werewolves—anything goes as long as it’s sexy!”
Admittedly, I groaned a little because I’m not keen on simplifying hybrid genres or selling SFR on the sexay quotient. However, Willis managed to capture paranormal romance in a convincing way, and it made me wonder how I might characterize SFR in such a fashion.
@Jess I sent a new author your way and suggested she email you. Oooh, and tag parties—me like the sound of that. I’ll bring the cheese dip.
Sell those unique features that readers are interested in be they cyborgs or pirates or whatever under the umbrella of the overall label. Sneak under their defenses with things you know they already like.
BevBB, will you marry me?
@AnnaM Keyword Tool might be of help.
Yay new authors. Please do email me. I'll help any way I can.
A blog like this that's fan-based rather than author-spam based does wonders for SFR. Every author has to pimp her books these days, unfortunately, so much of it is ignored.
Heather, you need to make a banner we can post on our sites to build up your popularity.
@Marilyn--There's the "Proud Passenger of the Galaxy Express" rocket icon that I--and I think several others--have posted on their blogs with a link to this blog. Maybe we need to do a campaign to get the word out to more blogs about posting the icon and link.
We, as frequest flyers on TGE can also get word out about the blog through word of mouth. I can't tell you how many times I mentioned TGE and passed out the web address at RWA. I know Donna was one of those I pitched. *waves to Donna*
I love the SFR author link and I'll be putting one up on Spacefreighters very soon.
I also LOVE the tag party idea! Let's do it! Maybe they can be scheduled on a regular (monthly, quarterly) basis? I'd love to see a tag party take place before the holiday season to help SFR book sales.
BevBB, will you marry me?
Heh, I almost feel like I already have what with the way I seem to comment more here than on my own blog nowadsys. And seeing how much I've linked back here lately. Good stuff. :D
The thing about tagging is to remember to keep it real and honest. Don't over or under do it. Almost as frustrating as no information is for it to be wrong. One of my big pet peeves nowadays is when erotic romances, whatever their other themes or genres, don't get tagged or even described with the types of sexual situations found in them. That's just odd. Sizzling to sweet just doesn't cut it anymore when we could be dealing with reader comfort zones - or the lack thereof - in terms of menages, oral, anal, voyuerism or whatever might be in these books.
The same thing holds true whenever one is talking about educating/informing potential readers about new-to-them sub-genres - be honest but be as complete as possible. Think of all the themes and lingo that's already used in both romance and science fiction by the fans to describe the books. Check existing theme/topic lists on well-known reader/review sites if you need to create cheat sheets to start with and be consistent with terms.
But don't fake it or force it because readers do not like to be led astray. They simply want to find books they like.
The thing about tagging is to remember to keep it real and honest. Don't over or under do it. Almost as frustrating as no information is for it to be wrong. One of my big pet peeves nowadays is when erotic romances, whatever their other themes or genres, don't get tagged or even described with the types of sexual situations found in them. That's just odd. Sizzling to sweet just doesn't cut it anymore when we could be dealing with reader comfort zones - or the lack thereof - in terms of menages, oral, anal, voyuerism or whatever might be in these books.
I heartily agree.
As an erotic romance author, it ends up being a lose-lose if the reader is deceived about the heat level. And I don't want a reader who hates my book for being what it is.
It's in my best interests to let the reader know EXACTLY what's behind the cover. So one of the first things that my books should be tagged is "Erotic Romance".
I really do like when an erotic romance has the tag breakdown. I was familiar with that from fanfic and it makes a reader decision easier. Maybe a reader is looking for 'spanking' or maybe they hate it-great to know either way.
I meant to add(swine flu has rotted my brain) that I think the readers will come mainly from the paranormal romance readers who fueled the paranormal market in the past few years. Since paranormal moved from vampires and werewolves to all manner of fantastic beings and magical happenings, I think readers are more likely to try something different--but not too different. Sci fi romances are closer to paranormal romance than they are to Texas cowboy romance.
I really do like when an erotic romance has the tag breakdown. I was familiar with that from fanfic and it makes a reader decision easier. Maybe a reader is looking for 'spanking' or maybe they hate it-great to know either way.
It never ceases to amaze me that the people who read and write romances can't seem to deal with cataloging the most intimate aspect of that relationship in the books. o.O
Seriously, though, I don't know how many times in recent months (years?) online when I've brought this tagging business up, people will automatically jump to thinking it's about posting warnings and alerts on book descriptions and that's not it at all. It's about the simple cataloging of what's in the books across the board so readers can find what they want to read. Period. Just like what libraries have been doing all along. What might warn one person off, just might be what another person is looking for. Information is power. Buying power for one thing. Selling for another.
Prime example - last year I bought an anthology of erotic romances that featured shifters. Anyway, the description of the anthology was good but turns out that at least one, possibly two, of the stories were male on male. Now, I don't anything against reading those - I simply like to know ahead of time that's what I'm getting and there was nothing in the description to give a heads up about those stories being in that anthology. There were also no tags with the description either.
Fairly or not, readers tend to remember those authors and definitely those publishers that mislead them. At the very least, we will double and triple-check if necessary before getting burned again. Sometimes we will avoid certain "places" altogether. It just depends upon how annoyed the situation makes us or which hot button it pushes. Some are admittedly hotter than others.
The point is that any genre/sub-genre covers a lot of territory and not all readers define them the same way. So when tags (keywords) aren't used to further clue readers into what's actually inside the books most readers are at best left floundering trying to find a book they really want and at worst left wondering quite frankly if a bait and switch just happened to them when they end up with the wrong book.
Not good.
Give them information followed by good stories, though, and you have some very happy readers who will sing your praises to high heaven. And usually do. At least online, anyway.
Quote: 'What might warn one person off, just might be what another person is looking for. Information is power. Buying power for one thing. Selling for another.'
Exactly! And with spending money tight, as it is for many of us, I often don't feel like taking chances on a new author. If a new author is in my library, I'll go there first, or the UBS. And Ebooks are non returnable, so then I'm searching around the net for reviews before I spend my $5.
Hmmm. Gave me an idea for my website, a rating.
Yes, but ratings have their own limitations. For example, what does "sizzling" mean when we're talking about whether or not people could be engaging in bondage, anal or oral sex, with or without multiple partners thrown in for good measure? Which one of those exactly is the reader supposed to expect in a sizzling hot book because that's a common erotic romance style rating?
Without specific tags, there's no way of knowing.
I just posted something on my blog that might of interest regarding this entire branding discussion both in regards to labeling in general and tagging in particular. It involves an experiment I did back in the spring tracking the way one of my favorite books, which also happens to be considered a futuristic/erotic romance (and is even described as a sci-fi romance by some) is listed by various booksellers.
Let's just say I had a specific question in mind, it was an extremely enlightening exercise and why I'm not such a strong advocate of tagging. The link is: http://bevsbooks.com/notes/?p=406
That was supposed to be "now such a strong advocate of tagging"
Sheesh. ;)
With regards to tagging, sometimes it's hard to find the lines. Some things are clear - is there spanking or not? - but other things aren't so clear. Example: m/m. I have read a number of stories where there is STRONG tension, maybe even a little non-overt sexual contact, and those are hard to classify. Or stories with overtly gay or bi characters who have their sex behind closed doors. Should it be tagged as m/m - even if there isn't any actual sex? And a lot of publishers are really fuzzy on this, just as they are on heat ratings.
We were doing key words/tagging for our upcoming release (ours is contemporary, but Ella Drake's story is SFR) and we ran into this problem. Our main couple is pretty easy to tag - firefighter, m/f, pretty vanilla. But there's a secondary couple, a m/m couple who feature PROMINENTLY in the story. Their gayness is integral to the tale. Do we include that? We elected not to because it was secondary characters who never have real contact on-screen, but it made Emily Ryan-Davis (my co-author) and I really think about how tagging might work for something like that.
Sci fi romances are closer to paranormal romance than they are to Texas cowboy romance.
Melissa, exactly. Thanks for visiting! And hey, if you put a Texas cowboy in space I'm so there.
there was nothing in the description to give a heads up about those stories being in that anthology
To respond to your comment in a general sense, BevBB, I find I need to do a lot of research for this blog since I'm trying to track down stories that are frequently off the beaten path (not complaining, just observing). Anything that "clues" me in to the existence of SFR stories is really helpful.
Elise, good point regarding stuff that's hard to classify. It's yet another reason why word of mouth is so important.
This is a great discussion--thanks again to all.
BevBB
I agree ratings like sizzling don't help. Some epubs will have an explanation for their terms, but who can remember all those. And since erotic romance runs the gamut from explicit vanilla m/f on up the line, it would be nice to have some details.
I'm thinking of having a heat level explanation somewhere on my website, a blurb to describe the 'hot' scenes in my own work.
Cowboys in space...sigh..Firefly. Gone too soon.
I actually have a space western started in a file somewhere. The dialogue is tricky. Requires alot of Lonesome Dove note taking.
I actually have a space western started in a file somewhere.
I can wait. *checks watch*
;-)
By tagging at Amazon do you all mean leaving reviews for books we've read?
Here's some info about tagging.
Ok, I just discovered this blog. My question is, do you include a science fiction series that includes a love story that is incidental to the main story? Personally, I like the old-timey Harlequins and Regencies and, of course, Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice, so I find the love interests in Lee and Miller's Liaden Universe series to be super romantic. How erotic must a story be to be SFR? Does the Prince of Mercenaries qualify since the main character meets, falls in love, etc., with no actual bedroom scenes and very little focus on the relationship?
Hi, Valerie, and welcome aboard!
do you include a science fiction series that includes a love story that is incidental to the main story
If it's incidental, then my approach has been to tag/define such a story as "romantic sf" plus whatever other tags apply. Or maybe "sf with romantic subplot." I agree about the love interests in the Liaden Universe as being super romantic, but I'm wondering if that might mean super romantic *for science fiction*.
However, I can also think of a romantic suspense or two that had less romance in it or maybe the equivalent of Lee & Miller's novels. All of which points to the importance, as BevBB pointed out, of being specific, and drawing upon elements a reader can see only after having read a story in its entirety.
How erotic must a story be to be SFR?
A story can be totally sweet to qualify (e.g., Pauline B. Jones' THE KEY). I don't think the issue is the heat level vs. the romance being a main or significant focus of the story. If the romance can be removed without affecting the story's outcome, then it's probably romantic SF.
I should qualify that for TGE, I blog about stories ranging from romantic SF to romances with SF elements. But I think most readers would consider romantic sf in terms of a science fiction story first and foremost. Some books blur the boundaries, though.
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