Pushing Boundaries

Is M/M Romance? If not, then what?

Dear <<First Name>>,
Response to my latest novel, Meatworks, has been far more positive than I dared hope. While the book was something I personally would have loved to read, I wasn't so sure how it would strike my readership. One sentiment I've noticed in many reviews was that Meatworks is NOT a Romance.

This assertion really struck me, because it seemed to me that I never claimed to be a Romance writer. Or did I?

Genres are categories of writing that help readers pick books they'd like to read. If there were no genres, it would be phenomenally difficult to find new-to-you authors. It would be like shopping at a grocery store where the tomatoes are shelved next to the toilet paper, somewhere behind the bakery counter.

My quick and dirty idea of what's expected of a Romance (and I'll capitalize it to mean Romance-Genre) is that two people meet, they have a bunch of conflicts, and in the end they overcome those conflicts to be together. There may be starships or FBI agents or werewolves or rodeo riders involved, or it may just be two regular people who ran into each other at a high school reunion, but if the core of the plot is about characters overcoming conflicts to end up together, the story is a Romance.

The M/M genre is really new, roughly 10 years old. It's considered a Romance genre, and yet many of the top-selling titles don't follow strict Romance-genre rules. PsyCop focuses on the external conflicts Vic and Jacob face. After some initial feeling each other out, they become an established couple and they function as a team. There is no "will they/won't they?" The series focus is not the route Vic and Jacob take in pursuit of their HEA, it's Vic's journey to come into his psychic power. Therefore, PsyCop is not a Romance. It's an Urban Fantasy.

Can a work contain elements of love, sex and relationship without being a romance? Absolutely. PsyCop contains enough of these relationship elements to keep some pure Romance readers happy, though others feel dissatisfied whenever Vic interacts with anyone other than Jacob. But not everyone reads solely in one genre, so readers who like multiple genres (Romance, Horror, Fantasy, Sci Fi) enjoy PsyCop for what it is.

Meatworks is not a Romance, and it's not intended to be. There are relationships involved, to be sure, but the story is more about the protagonist's troubled relationship with himself. Readers going in looking for a Romance will not only be disappointed that the focus was on the character rather than the relationships, but they'll probably be appalled by the characters who don't fit any likeable Romance types. Not only have I tagged the novel as a gay dystopian Sci Fi rather than a gay Romance, I've conveyed my intended genre in the haggard cover model, the dark title and the blurb that contains words like filth, crusty, loathes, and stump.

Ten years ago there wasn't room in the mainstream Sci Fi / Fantasy / Horror market for the type of novels I write. There may be room today, however the industry has also evolved to the point where I no longer need mainstream publishing to reach an audience.

Maybe the more important consideration would be: is there room in M/M to accommodate non-Romance novels like Meatworks?

Love,
Jordan

Find Meatworks in PDF, Mobi and ePub at JCP Books
At Amazon for the Kindle
At B&N for the Nook
In various electronic formats at Smashwords
Did the story grip you? Please support the expansion of the genre by leaving a thoughtful review on Amazon.
Wondering what it's all about? Read the first chapter.