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.
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Such a fascintating discussion. When I write, my “reader” is a young woman, although that’s more a state of mind than an actual age. Someone with a similar education to mine, someone who understands an urban life, someone who enjoys sex and who doesn’t want to give themselves away to a man. That’s just who I think of, and it always has been.
But then, I’ve had difficulty, in the years I’ve been writing for Harlequin, identifying with a lot of the other writers. Most of those I know have been married for a long time, have kids and were, frankly, nice girls. I, uh, wasn’t. Not by a long shot. So maybe that has something to do with differences in style? In who we write for?
I have no idea how to get more young readers interested in category. I’m not even sure it’s possible at this point, without an entirely new kind of campaign, one that would require a large investment on Harelquin’s part.
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true jo, it’s either you like romance books or you don’t. i have been in love of people finding happily ever after in romance books and the great sex they have, espically in blaze books.
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I’m going to have to say that the cost of the books (almost $5.00) has affected the number of books that I purchase. I can read these series books in about an hour. You do the math… I have to limit the number of books that I pay full price for. Therefore, I’ve become more selective in my choices…I can’t believe that they’re making the books shorter! I choose romance because it allows me to escape and experience things and places I myself would never do or expose myself to…
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I write single title, and recently the length for those have been adjusted to around 85K to 90K, so it’s not only series titles that are getting shorter.
As for the generational issue, it was touched on at my blog, too, in regards to the new H/S manga and in a post on anime.
I think the reason the H/S shojo manga is being published and distributed under Dark Horse — a smaller press that specializes in comics and manga — is to avoid the “stigma” of being a name only moms and grandmas read. Of course “Harlequin” is still on the cover, but the format is totally manga and put out by a company your mother probably doesn’t read — unless your mother is me. ;)
Jury is still out on whether the stories themselves will appeal to the usual shojo readers, but I can’t say much about that because I don’t read any shojo titles. Most of them, though, have struck me as highschool romantic angst wrapped within a paranormal twist.
Something else that might be an issue is that what’s considered sexy in a guy for a ‘boomer might not be as sexy to a teen or a woman in her 20s or 30s. The alpha still rules supreme in romance, which often tips the scales of equality in the relationship in his favor. Though this depends on how you define “alpha,” I suppose.
In the author community, I’ve noticed a worry that writing for a younger market will alienate the loyal and long-time fans that made the genre what it is.
I think this is a valid concern, but I wonder why everyone assumes one demographic has to be excluded in favor of another. Can’t all those college-educated marketing types and powerful publishing minds find a way to meet the needs of both?
H/S probably IS trying to figure out how to tap into the new while not alienating the new, but not sure they’re going about it in the best way.
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In the author community, I’ve noticed a worry that writing for a younger market will alienate the loyal and long-time fans that made the genre what it is.
I’ve seen this too, and it’s a definite concern. But then we have to decide what happens when those loyal long-time readers are gone. Have we written ourselves out of an audience?
I wonder why everyone assumes one demographic has to be excluded in favor of another. Can’t all those college-educated marketing types and powerful publishing minds find a way to meet the needs of both?
You’d think so, wouldn’t you! RDI has definitely been a success for HQ, and I think probably has the youngest demographic of readers. Is that because they took the Harlequin name off the spine? So those younger readers don’t even know the books are published by their grandmother’s publisher?
I wonder if that’s the next step. A line of series romances that have a completely different name. To the uninformed reader, they would be in competition with, not the same as, Harlequin. Hmmm …
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I wonder if that’s the next step. A line of series romances that have a completely different name. To the uninformed reader, they would be in competition with, not the same as, Harlequin. Hmmm …
I was thinking this very thing. I have read a few Dark Horse comics and I was floored to see it was related to Harlequin…not that it will change whether I read them or not — but for the uninformed reader who is caught up in the stigmatism of “Harlequin,” why couldn’t they create another publishing name like they did with RDI and Luna? Maybe that way they could possibly catch the younger reader who may shy away from the H/S logo and if they put the time and effort into putting out quality stories that aren’t mirror images of H/Q, then maybe Anon and myself and others that can’t relate to the categories currently out there, would be inclined to make the purchase. Do men realize they are reading “Harlequin” when they read Gold Eagle books???
A new name might just be the ticket. I certainly don’t foresee myself going back to category on a steady basis especially when they will be getting shorter. Like Laurie it only takes me an hour to read them and while I will continue to support my favorite authors, I won’t be trying out anyone new.
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a worry that writing for a younger market will alienate the loyal and long-time fans that made the genre what it is.
A year or so ago, there was an editorial shift and they said that they wanted the Desires to be more young and playful and flippant. A few weeks ago they totally backtracked on that and said, give us powerful alpha heroes… like in Presents. I don’t think that’s speaking to the younger audience. And from what i’ve seen of the European Temptations (Mills and Boon Modern Extra crispy?), they are more like Presents.
Of course, I got turned on to category romances by a lesbian college roommate who ONLY read Presents, so what does that say? (I quickly shifted towards the more “modern” lines because I couldn’t buy all those tycoons spanking virgins.)
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Gotta say…. I prefer longer books to shorter ones, all things being equal. I bet the general public doesn’t agree. But what about the general book-buying public?
It seems to me that if they want larger print, the way to fix that is to print the longer works on more pages, not chop the books short. Of course, it must cost more to print a 250-page book as opposed to a 200-page book.
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I can never get my head around the way people diss the books as the one’s their grandmother read. This would be the same grandmother who burned her bra, rioted in Paris, demonstrated at Berkeley, stood up for equal rights and took on the men who didn’t think they were worth equal pay?
Maybe they should have more respect; I speak as one who was there!
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Oh, and one who writes Harlequin Romance which may have more to say to young people than the ones with all the alpha Greek tycoons.
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Bravo Liz!!
Speaking as a women’s libber who kept her maiden name and horrified the inlaws. Our generation helped change the world.
Romances have always been an enjoyable diversion for me. And I am pleased to see stronger, more self-assertive heroines today. Hopefully gone are the days of fearful, simpering females with ripped bodices and no exit. A good can of mace or a swift kick in the castanets is so much more satisfying a read for me.
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