Romance is a vastly popular genre and one of the easiest for self-publishing authors to break into. Romance readers tend to be voracious and are willing to try new authors. This makes it an ideal genre for self-publishing authors to explore. However, despite the apparent simplicity of the romance genre, romance readers have definite expectations, and self-publishing authors need to meet those expectations if they want a good reader experience.
Here are five tips for self-publishing authors to meet the desires of romance readers.
1. Understand Genre Expectations
Romance should always end with the couple being happy and looking forward to a bright future together. Any book that ends without the couple together is NOT a romance, even if the rest is a tale of love.
Romance readers expect the book’s plot to be the characters falling in love. There can be subplots, but the book’s primary focus should be the characters getting to know each other and growing close.
Self-publishing authors who wish to write in the romance genre should read heavily in the genre to better understand what readers want before attempting to write a romance.
2. Embrace the Tropes
Romance readers tend to choose books based on tropes. Self-publishing authors should be clear about what romance tropes are the focus of their story in the book’s synopsis and marketing materials.
3. Characters Matter
While great characters are essential in most stories, they are the most important part of genre romance. Readers want a couple they can root for. However, a perfect couple is a boring couple who will not have enough conflict and roadblocks to make the story of their falling in love interesting.
On the other hand, if either character is too terrible, readers won’t be invested in their happiness.
There are a few rare exceptions to this rule, based on niche subgenres, but generally, characters should be people the reader wants to like and can relate to.
4. Subgenres
Romance has a variety of subgenres, and each has norms that are followed. Sometimes, self-publishing authors break those rules, but when they do so, they should understand the potential risk of alienating readers.
5. Cover Art
Whether a self-publishing author gets custom book covers or a premade book cover design, they should be sure that readers can immediately identify the book as a romance. Additionally, the cover should hint at the subgenre and the heat level contained within the pages.
InstantPublisher is a book printing company. They offer book publishing services, including interior book design, premade book cover design, and various custom printing services. For more information about the book self-publishing services InstantPublisher offers, visit our website.