When I first started writing erotic romances, I listened to the published writers who advised “Write the book of your heart and you’ll find a market for it.” I wrote contemporaries featuring billionaire heroes.
And I received rejections…from everyone. Erotic romance publisher wanted sexy paranormals. They weren’t interested in publishing contemporary erotic romances. This type of story wasn’t selling.
I looked at my long list of story ideas and found an idea for a paranormal erotic romance. It was a unique story, a story I was passionate about. The hero was a dragon shifter, not a wolf shifter. It wasn’t set in today’s world. It was set in a medieval fantasy world.
The first publisher I approached (Changeling Press) accepted Dragon Lord’s Mate. It required many rounds of revisions and even more editing but we all knew, with paranormals being hot, the story would sell well enough to warrant this hard work.
Five years later, I likely wouldn’t be able to sell Dragon Lord’s Mate. Very few publishers are looking for paranormal writers. They already have many successful paranormal writers writing for them.
I CAN, however, sell my beloved contemporary erotic romances. I can sell the stories I’ve written about billionaires and bikers and other delicious contemporary heroes. I’m happily writing more stories about my delicious billionaires while the market is hungry for them. As my farming granddad used to say, “You gotta make hay while the sun shines.”
The irony is that Blaine, the hero in He Watches Me, could have very easily been a vampire. If I had made that tweak, this story would have been sold years ago. I’m glad I didn’t. I like Blaine the way he is. But it was a possibility.
Should you write what is selling well right now?
Are you passionate about your idea?
If you have a list of ideas (I recommend keeping a list of your top 100 story ideas), is there an idea on this list that is selling well right now? Do you love this idea?
Because passion ALWAYS shows. There are thousands of erotic romances published every month. If you aren’t passionate about your idea, readers won’t be passionate either. They’ll give your story a pass and read something else.
Is this idea a unique twist on the theme?
Unless your story is already written and ready to be pitched to a publisher, a me-too, clone story of a popular release is unlikely to sell. If the publisher wants this, they’ll approach the original writer OR one of their existing writers and request it. Give the publisher a unique twist on the idea. When I pitched He Watches Me to Avon Impulse, I called it Fifty Shades Of Grey with exhibitionism, rather than BDSM.
This twist also keeps the theme fresh and interesting. I hear from readers with billionaire fatigue because every hero seems to be Christian Grey. There’s no need for that. Simply placing your billionaire at the top of a different industry (or giving him a different kink or a different dark secret or…) will make him unique.
Do you know WHY this theme is selling well?
When wolf shifters were hot, some writers wrote sensitive sophisticated wolf shifters. Yeah, a kinder gentler hero isn’t what wolf shifter readers want. They want the beast. The primitive animal male only the heroine can tame.
Know your theme. Know why readers are reading this theme. Ideally, your unique twist will make these readers happy. For example: Hawke, my hero in Sinful Rewards, doesn’t ride the expected Harley. He rides a chopper. BUT he does this because he’s a rebel, the rebel hero fans of biker stories want. He might be even MORE bad a$$ because of his different choice in bikes.
Can you write this idea quickly?
If it takes you ten years to write a story, you’re not catching any trends (and that’s okay, write what you want to write). What is selling well right now is only important to you if you can sell a story right now. The last installment in Sinful Rewards, my billionaires and bikers serial, is releasing a year from now. Bikers might not be hot in a year.
Are you willing to sell your story to a digital first publisher?
The big five print publishers have a long lead time (though this lead time is shrinking). It will likely take years for your story to be published. Some trends last (vampires lasted for years). Some trends don’t.
Publishing with a digital first publisher (like Avon Impulse) or self publishing eliminates most of this lead time and lessens this concern. Some writers had Fifty Shades Of Grey types of stories published days after this story broke out.
The longer the lead time, the higher the risk that the trend will have ended or the market will become so flooded with stories, your story might be lost.
What other considerations should writers think about when deciding whether or not to follow a trend?
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Sinful Rewards 1
Cynthia Sax
Belinda “Bee” Carter is a good girl; at least, that’s what she tells herself. And a good girl deserves a nice guy—just like the gorgeous and moody billionaire Nicolas Rainer. He is everything she wants in a man.
Or so she thinks, until she takes a look through her telescope and sees a naked, tattooed man on the balcony across the courtyard. Hawke is mysterious, the bad boy she knows will bring only heartbreak. He has been watching her, and that makes him all the more enticing.
But when a mysterious and anonymous text message dares her to do something bad, she must decide if she is really the good girl she has always claimed to be, or if she’s willing to risk everything for her secret fantasy of being watched.
Is her mystery man the reclusive billionaire with a wild side or the darkly dangerous bad boy?
Buy Links:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Sinful-Rewards-1-Cynthia-Sax-ebook/dp/B00I7V89H0
ARe: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-sinfulrewards1-1560586-237.html
Barnes And Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sinful-rewards-1-cynthia-sax/1119055390
Google: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Cynthia_Sax_Sinful_Rewards_1?id=g08ZAwAAQBAJ
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/sinful-rewards-1/id814148703?mt=11
