# Which romance subgenres sell best?



## SnickersBabe (Jan 9, 2017)

I read on another forum that science fiction romance doesn't sell as well as the other romance subgenres. Is there a place on Amazon or elsewhere that lists how well each romance subgenre sells? I'm new, so just trying to be thorough in my research.


----------



## KelliWolfe (Oct 14, 2014)

Romantic suspense is the top seller for both ebooks and paperbacks, followed by contemporary. RWA has a good breakdown by subgenre and print/ebooks.


----------



## Usedtoposthere (Nov 19, 2013)

Also really depends: which sells best for YOU? I write both contemporary romance & romantic suspense. My contemporary sells better. I think it matters a lot what you have a passion for, what you love to read, what kind of stories fill your head.


----------



## NatWrites (Oct 14, 2016)

Hmmm. Good question.

My experience is almost purely anecdotal, so take it with a little bit of salt. (Ok, maybe a small lump of salt...)

In terms of broader genres, I think Romantic Suspense and Contemporary Romance will always sell best, but I have found that sub-genres, like Erotic Romance and especially Dark Romance have found a HUGE following lately.

I hear a lot about Romance readers liking works with darker themes. Don't know if this is just a trend or something that has or will continue to be in "market," but I can't tell you how many readers and friends I have that love very similar Erotic stories (e.g. Sexy boss that wants to bend over his assistant and talks like a sailor) or stories that get pretty wicked or twisted (e.g. sexual abuse/rape, torture, kidnapping, etc.).

I don't know what's ringing people's bells so much in these sub-genres, but something seems to be resonating...

Just my two cents. For all it's worth


----------



## Goulburn (May 21, 2014)

NatWrites said:


> Hmmm. Good question.
> 
> My experience is almost purely anecdotal, so take it with a little bit of salt. (Ok, maybe a small lump of salt...)
> 
> ...


I opened this because I'm interested in learning what works in romance. My question is, What does pretty wicked or twisted (e.g. sexual abuse/rape, torture, kidnapping, etc.) have to do with romance?


----------



## BellaJames (Sep 8, 2016)

NatWrites said:


> Hmmm. Good question.
> 
> My experience is almost purely anecdotal, so take it with a little bit of salt. (Ok, maybe a small lump of salt...)
> 
> ...


Dark romance has been around for ages. It is not a new trend. It was made more popular with books like 'Captive in the dark' by C.J. Roberts back in 2011.

Dark romance books on goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/dark-romance


----------



## BellaJames (Sep 8, 2016)

Even though RWA says Contemporary romance and romantic suspense are the most popular. NA romance is very popular and addictive too. 
There are many authors who have quit their day jobs and built a successful publishing business writing NA romance. NA romance readers seem to be some of the most passionate readers. They set up book blogs (I have seen goodreads members start their own book blogs to talk about all these NA and contemporary romance books they love).

I think you need to write what you really want to write within a popular genre. If you don't read, enjoy and understand paranormal romance or romantic suspense, then what's the point of trying to write it.


----------



## Justawriter (Jul 24, 2012)

KelliWolfe said:


> Romantic suspense is the top seller for both ebooks and paperbacks, followed by contemporary. RWA has a good breakdown by subgenre and print/ebooks.


This data is almost 3 years old. It may not still be accurate. I think that contemporary romance and new adult may be ahead of romantic suspense. I see much more of both it seems.


----------



## DanaG (Feb 13, 2011)

Rosalind speaks the wisdom.  I tried a number of different popular genres when I started.  50 shades of Grey was huge at the time and people were making huge money writing knockoffs of it.  I tried several times, and failed spectacularly every time.  Then I tried New Adult, also newly emerged and huge at the time, and did slightly better - I got a ranking of about 2000 - but still, not great.  And I hate writing it.  Apparently writing grim and angsty is not my talent.  I moved on to PNR with shifters - huge, smash hit for me.  And I still write in that field.  It apparently is not as hot as it once was, and a lot of people try it and utterly fail, but I do really well with it.

So - I'd look at which types of romance are selling the best, and then, out of those, pick the one that you can write the best.


----------



## mmflores (Jan 3, 2016)

SnickersBabe said:


> I read on another forum that science fiction romance doesn't sell as well as the other romance subgenres. Is there a place on Amazon or elsewhere that lists how well each romance subgenre sells? I'm new, so just trying to be thorough in my research.


Even if a certain subgenre sells best, doesn't mean it's the best choice, both in terms of personal enjoyment but also because a subgenre might sell best, but there also might be a lot more competition. So from a purely business POV it would make sense to find the genre with the greatest popularity to competition ratio.


----------



## Elizabeth S. (Oct 20, 2016)

With romance, it's more than just subgenre--it's themes, tropes and trends within each subgenre. Shifters, bad boys, billionaires, etc. 

Science fiction romance is a pretty good niche, actually. It's gotten a little saturated recently, but there is an avid readership. You just have to hit the right tropes.


----------



## renamed (Nov 27, 2015)

Elizabeth S. said:


> Science fiction romance is a pretty good niche, actually. It's gotten a little saturated recently, but there is an avid readership. You just have to hit the right tropes.


The world needs more SFR!


----------



## Usedtoposthere (Nov 19, 2013)

Elizabeth S. said:


> With romance, it's more than just subgenre--it's themes, tropes and trends within each subgenre. Shifters, bad boys, billionaires, etc.
> 
> Science fiction romance is a pretty good niche, actually. It's gotten a little saturated recently, but there is an avid readership. You just have to hit the right tropes.


Again here--it's also what you can write well. I couldn't write a mafia or motorcycle club or MMA hero to save my life. I make an excellent living writing strong, sweet men. I don't think it's a trope and it sure ain't in style, but they sell for me.


----------



## NatWrites (Oct 14, 2016)

BellaJames said:


> Dark romance has been around for ages. It is not a new trend. It was made more popular with books like 'Captive in the dark' by C.J. Roberts back in 2011.
> 
> Dark romance books on goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/dark-romance


I think the more appropriate word I should have used is "trend-y." Nothing is new under the sun...but certain genres and sub-genres are cyclical. We all know that.

Take, for instance, Western Romances. Sometimes, cowboy stories sky-rocket to the top of Amazon; other years, they don't.


----------



## NatWrites (Oct 14, 2016)

Ryn Shell said:


> I opened this because I'm interested in learning what works in romance. My question is, What does pretty wicked or twisted (e.g. sexual abuse/rape, torture, kidnapping, etc.) have to do with romance?


It usually entails the heroine (the "h") overcoming some past or current trauma to be with the Hero (the "H"). Sometimes, the H IS the tormentor; sometimes, he is the savior.

For a lot of readers, I think that "Savior" trope or "Reformed Bad Boy" part of it adds an extra level of intrigue. I've read my share, but can't say I'm a "fan," per se. *shrugs*

I do know some authors who can write the HELL out of a Dark Romance and almost draw you in against your will


----------



## Crystal_ (Aug 13, 2014)

Contemporary and New Adult sell very well, but they are incredibly saturated right now. It will be very hard for a new author to break out without a huge ad budget. If I was launching a new romance pen name, I would look at underserved romance markets.


----------



## Disappointed (Jul 28, 2010)

Kay Camden said:


> The world needs more SFR!


Hell yeah!


----------



## Taking my troll a$$ outta here (Apr 8, 2013)

SnickersBabe said:


> I read on another forum that science fiction romance doesn't sell as well as the other romance subgenres. Is there a place on Amazon or elsewhere that lists how well each romance subgenre sells? I'm new, so just trying to be thorough in my research.


Are you researching in order to decide what genre to write in? SciFi Romance definitely has a lot of fans, and there are plenty of SciFi Rom authors selling well. It's tough to say one genre is better to write in vs another, because a lot of it has to do with other variables, such as how saturated the market is for that niche, not to mention if the book you're writing is likely to do well for basic factors (genre appropriate cover, story, editing, etc). I have a much smaller subset to examine than Amazon does, but from my mailing list promos, these genres have the most subscribers: (Most subscribers to least subscribers, and many are so close that I consider them ties)
ROMANCE
1 Contemporary Romance
2 Paranormal Romance
3 Fantasy Romance
4(tie) Historical Romance
4(tie) Time Travel Romance
5(tie) New Adult Romance
5(tie) Erotic & Dark Romance
6(tie) Romantic Comedy
6(tie Inspirational Romance
FICTION
1 Mystery, Thriller & Suspense 
2 Cozy Mystery
3(tie) Paranormal Fiction
3(tie) Science Fiction
3(tie) Fantasy Fiction
4(tie) Horror
4(tie) Historical
5 Women's Fiction
6 Literary Fiction

Like I mentioned, this is just my observations from what I do and the feedback from my readers, after a busy year of running these things. I'm definitely curious to see how the numbers breakdown this time next year.

I know others mentioned it upthread, but I think you truly need to write something that you are at least interested in, because it does come through in your work. The ebook market is tremendously saturated in every genre today in comparison to even a year ago and it's harder to get noticed even in the smaller niche genres, because even the niche genres have bestselling authors who dominate the lists. And I'm a true believer that if you have a quality product, write something you are passionate about, and work hard to target your niche audience, you will attract readers who are equally as passionate about your work. I keep telling myself that anyway, since my first book was a time travel romance featuring native american characters put out at a time where time travel romance was pretty much only sexy highlanders.


----------



## Evenstar (Jan 26, 2013)

ebbrown said:


> Are you researching in order to decide what genre to write in? SciFi Romance definitely has a lot of fans, and there are plenty of SciFi Rom authors selling well. It's tough to say one genre is better to write in vs another, because a lot of it has to do with other variables, such as how saturated the market is for that niche, not to mention if the book you're writing is likely to do well for basic factors (genre appropriate cover, story, editing, etc). I have a much smaller subset to examine than Amazon does, but from my mailing list promos, these genres have the most subscribers: (Most subscribers to least subscribers, and many are so close that I consider them ties)
> ROMANCE
> 1 Contemporary Romance
> 2 Paranormal Romance
> ...


Really valuable stuff, ebbrown, thanks for sharing


----------



## BellaJames (Sep 8, 2016)

jmb3 said:


> Speaking as a new author who released her first novel in the New Adult field eight months ago, it's not impossible to break into, and be successful, in this sub genre-even with no following or ad campaigns. I put my book in KU Unlimited with no expectations and didn't get my first review for eight days. It took about two weeks for it to take off. The only ad I've ever run on it was a Bookbub in August. New Adult seems to have a huge, passionate following and the readers span all age groups. I get the twenty somethings for sure but many of my biggest fans are grandmas.


See this is what I mean. Authors on here share their experience but that is not everyones experience. There are many romance authors that are not on this forum, actively talking and sharing their experience.

I have communicated with a few new NA romance authors and they have said similar things. They launched with no following, spent very little on promos and they had success from month 1. They wrote hooky books that are engaging.

I said the same thing above, NA romance has some of the most passionate readers I have ever seen.


----------



## Goulburn (May 21, 2014)

NatWrites said:


> It usually entails the heroine (the "h") overcoming some past or current trauma to be with the Hero (the "H"). Sometimes, the H IS the tormentor; sometimes, he is the savior.
> 
> For a lot of readers, I think that "Savior" trope or "Reformed Bad Boy" part of it adds an extra level of intrigue. I've read my share, but can't say I'm a "fan," per se. *shrugs*
> 
> I do know some authors who can write the HELL out of a Dark Romance and almost draw you in against your will


Thank you for explaining.


----------



## Taking my troll a$$ outta here (Apr 8, 2013)

Evenstar said:


> Really valuable stuff, ebbrown, thanks for sharing


No prob. I hope others find it useful. &#128522;


----------



## CarolynVMurray (Mar 13, 2015)

I recently bought the K-Lytics Romance Report. It gives great up to the minute detail on the sales and level of competition for a long list of romance sub-genres. It's $24, and about 24 pages long.

http://k-lytics.com/shop


----------



## alexnewton (Jun 17, 2015)

Thanks a lot for the mention, Carolyn. - Just to let you all know, there is a new and expanded edition of the K-lytics Romance report. It has data on 92 Romance sub-genres.
Here is a *Kboards post with more information* on it:
https://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,245870.msg3459787.html#msg3459787


----------



## Guest (Apr 24, 2017)

I'm from Books Butterfly. This topic is of huge interest to us because authors seem fixated on stuff like YA which doesn't sell. And which has near infinite competition. Meanwhile there are SO MANY upcoming genres and subgenres that authors seem to be avoiding

I'm modifying the list ebbrown made with data based on what we see for Kindle, Nook, Apple (albeit mostly Kindle) for romance. For reference, romance is perhaps 40-50% of our 5 million readers. Also our readers are mostly Apps and Twitter. So data for someone like Bookbub who are mostly Facebook and Email might be completely different

ROMANCE
1) Steamy Romance
2) Contemporary Romance
3) Clean Romance
4) Historical Romance
4) Paranormal Romance
5) Shifter Romance (its own category)
6) Fantasy Romance
7) Dark Romance
 Romantic Erotica
9) Christian Romance esp Mail Order Bride Romance & Amish Romance
10) Romantic Suspense - results vary wildly based on whether author goes with Romance + Romantic Suspense (good) or with Romantic Suspense + Thriller/Suspense (not as good)
10b) African American Romance
11) Time Travel Romance
12) New Adult Romance
13) Romantic Comedy
14) YA Romance (not technically in romance, but interesting)
15) BDSM Erotica is very hit and miss but it's going to become big
16) Erotica - different pricing expectations which we don't understand (people buy even short stories for $1). However, this is growing fast

Inspirational Romance -> doesn't do well with us unless it is also in another genre

FICTION
1. Thrillers
2. Cozy Mystery
3) Mystery (except Hard Boiled and Noir - those are less popular)
4) Suspense
5) Technothrillers
6) Historical Fiction
7) Women's Fiction
7b) Chick Lit
 Biographical Fiction (but Fiction)
9) Adventure
10) Science Fiction
11) Military Science Fiction
12) Humor
13) LitRPG (upcoming genre)
14) Fantasy
15) Urban Fantasy (very hit and miss)
16) African American (upcoming genre)
17) Horror - still strong, just not as strong as earlier ones
1 Paranormal


Kiss of Death - anything with YA or anything with YA protagonist. Just too many authors writing these sort of books
Double Kiss of Death - anything for Children. Absolutely anyone can write a 30 page children's book and almost everyone does. Absolutely no way to do quality filtering and readers have almost given up

*************

I could go on all week

Any new author, or any author looking for what genre to write in should invest into 3 or 4 tools like kindle keyword research tools and this report (i can't verify how good it is, but something like this is critical). And other sources. Investing $100 or $200 into such things is worth ten times more than putting money anywhere else. We see genres in which EVERY book does very well, and yet hardly any author writes in those genres. Meanwhile there are genres where it's absurdly tough to do well, and everyone jumps in

************

Also, and i don't mean to upset anyone, avoid everything you see on forums which is anecdotal evidence. You have to look at large data sets. That's why a keyword tool. Even the data I've shared above is very limited because it's based only on 5 million readers and mostly apps and Twitter

Also, all of Non Fiction is very big. Later I might do a list for what genres are hot. However, in Non Fiction the volume is so high it's super difficult to filter for quality


----------



## Blocked Writer (Oct 23, 2015)

What is Inspirational Romance? I would have assumed it meant Christian Romance, or included it, except that they're listed separately and apparently have much different rankings.

Also, what are some example keyword research tools?


----------



## SBlake (Mar 23, 2017)

I'm launching a new pen name for romance. I plan to start with two holiday romances, which seem to trend heavily in the fall, but also look relatively easy to chart with. It's up in the air if I'll make the third book a holiday romance or a sports romance, which seems a little harder to break into. I will launch with two holiday books at the same time, probably in August/September, and follow up with the third book a month later. I'll be pushing hard for mailing list sign ups, too, using FB and cross promos. There are also a few promo sites that will take new releases without reviews, and I'll be hitting those up right after launch. 

I suggest reading Chris Fox's books on writing and launching to market. It helped me a lot with my genre research, and now I have a clear direction to which subcategories to aim for. I'm hoping that I can get readers hooked with the holiday books and then move on to more traditional contemporary romance after the new year.


----------

