John B. Rosenman

If you’re a romance reader or writer, you’re likely to know what HEA means.  Otherwise, probably not.  HEA stands for Happily Ever After.  In other words, if you write or read romance, you probably expect your lovers to live HEA with no serious problems.   Otherwise, it’s not really “romance.”

This came to my attention recently when Heather Massey wrote a review blog on my SF adventure-romance novel, Beyond Those Distant Stars.  You can find it as the July 6 post on The Galaxy Express at http://www.thegalaxyexpress.net.  Heather is very positive and supportive concerning the novel, but my non-HEA ending is a bit of a problem for her.  At the end of the novel, Jason and Stella do not ride (or fly) off into the sunset together, and the reader knows there will be no more romantic or erotic scenes between them.

For readers wanting a traditional romantic ending, it’s a downer.  It also commits the unpardonable sin of being UNPREDICTABLE.  One romance reader said online that when she reads romance, she wants “to turn her brain off.”  That means she settles into a romance knowing that the course of romance may be rocky, but that all will work out beautifully in the end.  HEA will reign. 

This may be the main reason readers like romance.  It guarantees a predictable, happy product, a storybook ending with the metaphoric equivalent of violins playing in the background.  It’s escapist fiction, a recess from the pains and disappointments of the real world.

Now, I admit I don’t read traditional romances, but I think the HEA requirement is too simple.  Worse, it encourages sameness, comformity, mediocrity, and predictability.  I suspect a lot of folks share a similar negative view of romance, but we shouldn’t forget that some romances are darn good.  My point is that romances need to be less restrictive and more open to possibilities in order to explore more fully the often painful and difficult realities of life.  Romances can be complex.  They can be literature.

The Galaxy Express is devoted to SFR [Science Fiction Romance].  Beyond Those Distant Stars is a science-fiction romance.  ONLY, there’s no HEA and while the romance is important, it’s not the main thing.  I like this because (1) It’s less predictable and I have a real problem reading a book whose ending I already know in advance, and (2), it contains more verisimilitude, which means it’s truer to life.  C’mon: How many HEA couples do you know?  For that matter, how many successful, loving couples who have shared a long life together have done so HEA?  Answer: practically none.  We’re talking about human beings here, folks, and human beings are the most contrary, cantankerous critters in the universe, inclined by their flaws to keep divorce lawyers and day time drama watchers happy.

So when I write science fiction adventure-romance, my lovers will seldom live HEA.  Usually they will split up and move on for various reasons, or continue together with some problems and uncertainties.  In many ways, I think that’s more interesting and true to life.  In addition, when I do write science fiction romance, romance is not the main thing as it is in romances.  Always, I’m more concerned with ideas, adventure, and characterization.  Always, there are romantic elements rather than a story focusing only on a romance.  On top of that, one sex or erotic scene is usually enough.  I can make my point with that.  

While I know there are readers who want simply to turn off their brains and curl up with a book whose happy ending they’re assured of, I see romance as a continuum of possibilities rather than a fixed standard.  IMHO, that’s what romance should be.  And if do have a happy couple, they will live HFN  (Happy for Now), which to me is more plausible and realistic.

John B. Rosenman

Many of the readers of this site already know the following fact.  Still, it bears repeating: in the world of fiction, Romance Rules!

As Leigh Michaels states in “Studying the Romance Novel,” “Romance novels are the best-selling segment of the paperback fiction market in North America.”  They “account for well over 50 percent of mass-market paperback fiction sold in the United States.”  In addition, “more than a third of all fiction sold in the United States (including mass-market paper, trade paper, and hardcover books) is romantic fiction.  Paperback romances outsell mysteries, literary novels, science fiction novels, and Westerns.  More than two thousand romance titles are published each year, creating a $1.2 billion business in 2004.”

Now the focus of this blog is not on why romance novels are so popular, whether or not they’re good or bad, or even on why many people, including literary critics, look down on them as an inferior genre.  Those are all interesting subjects, but my main point here is that it would benefit many of us to take into consideration the great popularity of romance fiction when we write and market our own novels. 

This is especially true because the modern romance novel has branched off into many different directions and covers terrain which non-Romance writers may regard as belonging to them.  Michaels states that in a romance novel, “the core story is the developing relationship between a man and a woman.”  Perhaps so, but she also acknowledges “that there are exceptions,” such as “gay romances.” 

These days, there are many varieties of romance fiction, a fact that we all should remember.  To take just one example, in the growing world of electronic publishers, Blade Publishing publishes over a dozen different types of romance.  They are Contemporary, Erotica, Fantasy, Gay-Lesbian, Historical, Inspirational, Interracial, Menage, Paranormal, Romantic Comedy, Sci-Fiction, Suspense, and Western.   

What does this mean – that we should all put attractive couples in our novels and throw in some feverish bump and tickle?  I’m suggesting we should at least consider it in moderation, if it doesn’t violate the integrity and intent of our storylines.  After all, romance and sex sell.  Their appeal is universal, timeless, and fascinating, and they are not about to go away.  According to Michaels, “22 percent of all romance readers are male,” for God’s sake.  We may snort at the genre, but love and sex are still what makes the world go around.  Together, they largely account for the perpetuation of the species. 

This also means that when we market our “non” Romance novels, we should not automatically exclude romance readers, writers, and reviewers, or avoid their society.  There is in fact a sea of such folk.  In two of the Yahoo groups I belong to, romance enthusiasts predominate.  Whatever our differences, I feel it’s useful to pitch my stuff with excerpts and sales lines and to emphasize what we have in common, which is an interest in torrid human relationships. 

One last area here involves two of my own novel covers.  The examples may be somewhat skewed, because these are online e-book and POD (Print on Demand) publishers.  In general, they appear to emphasize sex and romance more on their covers than do traditional print publishers.  Still, I think these two cases are instructive. 

The first cover is for Beyond Those Distant Stars.  Published earlier by NovelBooks, Inc., it will be reissued by Mundania Press with a new cover.  In the novel, there is a romance between a heroine and a sexy stud.  However, the romance is different from that in romances because while it is important, it is not the main focus or the core story.  The heroine herself is in her late thirties and only mildly attractive.  Also, because of a radioactive accident, she has been converted into a superhuman cyborg who doubts her attractiveness and sexuality.  With good reason: nearly two-thirds of her body is artificial. 

What did the Mundania artist do?  If you’re interested, click on the link below.  On the cover, the hero’s all right, but they turned Stella into a Barbie Doll.  In the first version, she was so stacked and well endowed up-top, she would have tipped right over and fallen flat on her face.  I had the artist downsize her, so she could at least walk.

 http://johnrosenman.com/?page_id=9

Now that you’ve clicked on the cover, is it any good?  Perhaps a more important question is, will it sell?  Sex and sexy people don’t automatically translate into big sales, but romance often does help, which to me is an important consideration. 

The second example involves Dax Rigby, War Correspondent, another action-packed science-fiction novel.  As in Beyond Those Distant Stars, there is an important, but not central love story.  If you click on the link below, you may agree that the artist did a striking job on the cover.  Lyrical Press, though, does have a romantic/erotic slant, and I can’t overlook the hero’s sculpted abs and manly chest.  If the cover were longer, perhaps we’d see a half-naked babe clinging to Dax’s right leg.

 http://johnrosenman.com/?page_id=64

SO, if you can’t lick ’em, join ’em.  Consider using romance elements in your novels and on your covers to enlarge their appeal and to sell and promote them.  After all, romance readers outnumber all other groups and like to buy books too.