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Boulder Pooh-Poohs Romance.

Contributed by: Esri Rose on 5/8/2008

Boulder is a little snobby when it comes to books. I myself am a lefty feminist intellectual who reads more history, biographies and mysteries than anything else, but on at least one occasion (and shortly after watching the first Lord of the Rings movie), I wanted to read about a hot elf who falls in love with a woman who owns a new-age store in Boulder. It didn't seem to be out there, so I wrote it. And boy, is it a tough sell in this town.

Women read more than men in this country, and they read a lot of stories about luuurve, but our own beloved independent, the Boulder Bookstore, does not have a romance section. The only place you can find a romance in the Boulder Bookstore is in new paperbacks, where a handful of bestsellers like Nora Roberts rule the middle-of-the-road roost.

Boulder Bookstore does have an erotica section, and one of the perceptions of romance novels is that they are smutty books without the arty prose. It's a rare interview or article that doesn't bring up the term "bodice ripper," even when the heroine of the book doesn't wear a bodice and spends her time hammering stakes into the heaving bosoms of male vampires. There is plenty of sex in many of today's romances -- except for sweet romances, inspirational romances, and young-adult romances, or the romances of people like me, who aren't much into the details of pink plumbing. Of course, wildly successful mystery writers like Janet Evanovich are not averse to a bit of on-the-page nookie, and nude females artfully draped in satin often decorate the covers of big-book thrillers by men. There's plenty of sex in all media right now, from Carl's Jr. commercials to Cirque du Soleil. I'm not saying everyone should like Carl's Jr., but I am saying that publishers are selling a product, and sex is selling like hotcakes -- or in the case of romance covers, beefcake.

I admit that, being a snob myself, I was rather put off when I first saw my book's cover art (over which I had no control) with the title (on which I compromised hugely). I wouldn't usually pick up a purple book with a half-nekkid guy standing pensively under a full moon. Combined with that, the title Bound to Love Her suggests sharpened high heels and the creative use of silk scarves. Was this a cover that said urban fantasy with an environmental message and a slight Buddhist subtext? Possibly not. But in the same way that genre-mystery covers usually have a skull or a discreet pool of blood on them, and thriller covers all seemed to feature the cross hairs of a gun sight for a while, romance publishers follow trends. They imitate the covers and titles of bestsellers in their field. They try to send a signal that if you like stories with werewolves and vampires, you will LOVE this one about elves. They also want to save money. The budget for a debut author like myself didn't include elfinating the ears on my cover's generic hot guy. Instead, my editor had the art department cut the top of his head off in the photo, so the tips of his ears don't show.

Another misconception is that romance writers use a "formula." Everyone knows that romances have to have the kiss by page 17 and the woman has to be divorced if she has pre-marital sex (in chapter 3), right? Harlequin (the biggest publisher of category romances), wants readers to be able to find the kind of stories they like, so they do have some very loose guidelines. When I eat a chocolate-chip cookie, I expect to find chocolate chips. I don't require that each cookie have 19 chips. It's the same kind of thing. Then there are single-title romance writers, like me. My publisher's only requirement is that I write a good story. I do follow some of the conventions of romantic comedy. For example, my heroine has a humorous sidekick. He's a gamer named Jed.

Finally, when a person says they "don't like romances," they may be unaware that romances account for about twenty-five percent of all books sold. Would you expect to like every one of the books in another quarter of the pie? I don't like all histories, or all biographies, or all mysteries. There are terrible books and outstanding books in every genre. So ask yourself this question, fellow snooty Boulderites -- among all the romance subgenres of suspense, historical, contemporary, inspirational (Christian), mystery, sci-fi and fantasy, are you sure there's not one book about a Boulder gal and her happy ending that you might enjoy? My publisher gave me a readership-building price of four bucks, so it won't cost you much to find out.
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Esri Rose will be signing copies of her book, Bound to Love Her, May 10, 4:30 p.m., at the Borders in the 29th Street Mall. Borders recommends that you call (720) 565-8266 and reserve a copy . Learn more about Esri Rose and her book at ElvesAmongUs.com.











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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Esri Rose

Boulder , CO

Esri Rose has posted 1 story and 0 comments since joining on 4/12/2008. Esri Rose 's average story rating is 5.
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