Back of the Book Blurb: Romance novels represent one of the most lucrative genres in book publishing-making up over half of all mass market fiction sold in North America and generating more than $1.2 billion a year. This book will show you everything you need to know to successfully break into the romance writing market, from planning and plotting your story to editing and selling your manuscript.
She is Too Fond of Books’ Review: The cover of Vanessa Grant’s Writing Romance catches your eye with its promises to help you
- create a romance bestseller
- write romantic scenes from start to finish
- get in on the big business of writing romance
The book does, indeed, give guidance to the writer wishing to navigate the labyrinth of writing and marketing a romance novel. Topics that are covered include defining the various types of stories (broad categories), brainstorming and idea-generating suggestions, character vs. plot, character types, conflict and struggle, selecting a setting, research, hints for organizing your time and staying motivated (getting through brick walls).
There are several shorter sections each devoted to a specific type of romance novel – historical romance and romantic saga, inspirational romance and controversial subjects, suspense and paranormal romance, and erotic romance. Each of these topics is written by a contributing author, which adds a new perspective to their particular specialty.
This advice, coupled with the suggestion that an aspiring writer participate in workshops (on-line or IRL), message boards and the like, addresses the need for support and feedback from people with like-minded goals … It really struck me as wisdom that could be applied to many areas of my life:
No matter how supportive your friends and family are, they’re unlikely to understand your passion for nonexistent people and events the way another writer can. You may have access to local writers’ groups, or you may live in an isolated location where the nearest group is a hundred miles away. If you’re connected to the Internet, you’ll be able to commune with other writers no matter where you live.
The book includes a CD-ROM which includes MP3s of two of Grant’s multi-part seminars, Word and Excel templates for such tasks as correct formatting and macro writing, tracking backstory and book events, and creating book notes. There are dozens of links to Internet sites useful to writers, a “character worksheet” tool, two full novels (e-book format) used as examples in Writing Romance, and samples of manuscript pages properly formatted for submission.
Writing Romance is chock-full of solid guidance for writing and marketing romance. Many of the suggestions, and all of the templates on the CD, can be applied to most other types of fiction as well. I think this is a good reference not only for the romance writer, but for any writer of fiction who is looking for a clearly-written, concise guide that covers the process from initial planning to publishing.
Vanessa Grant is the author of over 30 published romance novels, selling over 10 million books. Aside from
writing romance, she has taught workshops and online courses on romance and fiction writing. She has written a software program called MuseNames, to aid fiction writers in finding the perfect names for their characters. More information can be found at the author’s website.
Writing Romance is available from amazon.com.
Many thanks to Lisa Roe, the Online Publicist, for providing my review copy of Writing Romance. Maybe I’ll be inspired to rise to the challenge of NaNoWriMo next November!
Dawn, I tagged you for the bookshelf meme. Maybe you’ve already done it? I hope you don’t mind.
I see that the 1997 version of this book is available at my favorite book- (and DVD)- swapping site, http://www.bookins.com. I wouldn’t get the CD/MP3s, but I think I’d rather invest $4.49 than the $15+ at Amazon. I do love the musenames idea, though! I once worked with a journalist named Brent Manley and I want to use his name someday. I also know a woman named Cookie Brassfield, and I love that name for a character, too.
Charlotte – good for you, to snag an older version at a lower price! The info on the CD is helpful, too bad you’ll miss that …
[...] exactly one other person for nine of the books in my library. I’ve reviewed two of these, Writing Romance and The Artist Within: A Guide to Becoming Creatively Fit; both for book tours, but with different [...]
Hey Vanessa, (another Vanessa here). I’m doing some research on our name and was wondering if you know any history behind it. Mine was from my great-grandmother, but she’s passed on now so I can’t ask her where it came from. Thanks!