Alison Kent's Blah Blog

In the comments section of the post below, the conversation has turned to the relevance of category romances for the generation of younger readers. One twenty-something commenter said this:

Yes, I want contemporary to be more relevant. To me, Harry Potter is more relevant than Harlequin/Silhouette series. Why? Even in the fantasy world, Harry Potter deals with friendship, growing up, etc. in realistic ways that I can identify with.

How am I to identify with an uber-alpha Greek tycoon’s virgin mistress, who pines over the gorgeous but class A asshole dude and wrings her hands because he said something mean to her? Or a girl with a secret baby whose father happens to reenter their lives, and she’s scared that he’d take the baby away, etc., etc., etc.

Thoughts?

***UPDATE***

With the word count being changed for all the lines, that leaves almost nothing in the RITA long contemporary category, and overloads the RITA short contemporary category. IMs and SEs and Americans and Blazes will all quality for short contemp now. Superromance, Everlasting, and Bombshell will be the only long contemps according to RITA designation, and neither Everlasting or Bombshell will necessarily qualify as romance. It will be interesting to see if RWA changes out the RITA guidelines to match Harlequin’s.

Also, Angelle Trieste has posted the breakdown of the new word counts on her blog, as does Jordan Summers here.

Jo Leigh adds the following to her blog:

The reason I’m posting this on the blog is so that folks didn’t think every book by Harlequin is now going to be half a story, or that the reader will be cheated. Some books, by some authors, have been coming in very long and when printed, the print bleeds into the margins, making it difficult for some readers. From what I understand, that’s all they’re trying to fix. The aim is to give folks a more pleasant reading experience.
(…)
I don’t know if the core market for Harlequin is over 50, but considering that the population is aging and that the most money and the most buying power now rests in the pockets of those 50+, I think it’s important to pay attention. Not to ignore a younger market, because well, where are you going to get the new readers, but it’s true. The Boomers are getting up there.

Which brings me to two comments left by visitors in my post below:

Thoughts? Why isn’t HQ picking up the younger generation? Are the authors writing more toward the older readers and not giving the younger readers anything of interest, or to which they can relate? Or are there truly fewer readers in the younger generation? Are they going to be more interested in, for example, the Harlequin / Dark Horse manga editions? I have daughters who are 21 and 23. Both are readers, but neither read romance. The FVT will read a chick lit now and then, but for the most part both girls read horror, true crime, etc.

For several years two of my crit partners were 24 and 26, but writing historical romances and reading those along with other bigger contemporaries, but very few Harlequins. When I worked the day job, our receptionist was a big reader of series romances, but I have to say she and a friend of my daughter’s (who reads all my books) are the the only twenty-somethings I know who are. Is this the norm?

***UPDATE***

Author Susan Gable asks:

There’s been debate among H/S authors as to whether or not the readers will notice that they’re getting “less story” in the lines. Debate about whether or not it’s possible to write as complex a story at 70-75K as it is at 80-85K. Some say it’s all up the writers, and that we could still write just as strong & complex a story at the shorter length as the longer. What do you think?

Will the readers be okay with giving up “more story” for ease of reading? Will they even notice they’re getting “less story?” (Remember, the printed books will still have about the same number of pages, so they won’t appear to be shorter.) Have attention spans gotten shorter? (In response to that argument, I toss out Harry Potter – and those are supposed to be children’s books!)

The trail went cold in New Orleans the same time as the weather, a double header for which he wasn’t prepared. Since hired by Cindy Eckhardt to look into the kidnapping of her husband Dayton—chief executive for the fire hot Eckton Computing—private investigator Jack Montgomery had reveled in all kinds of heat.

First the temperature that had the Gulf Coast in an unseasonably sweaty grip. Next the leads that had him hoofin’ it across the state line, from Texas into Louisiana. Finally the burning in his gut that made him believe this case was going to go down like cream.

But then the tables had turned, flipping him a big fat bird. And now he found himself standing in the middle of Jackson Square, two weeks into the new year, freezing his ass off and wondering whether he’d be doing better to turn left or turn right.

Aimless, he started walking, lost in thought and as the sign for Café Eros came into view, hungry enough to eat a six foot submarine sandwich. Café Eros, eh? Well, he’d never been one to turn his back on love—even if right now the only affair he was interested in involved his stomach and a whole lot of food.

Read the rest of this entry �