It’s hard to know what to do. There are emerging cross overs and I understand the need for cross promotion so that you get both audiences, but it’s frustrating for a reader (and authors) to pick up a book labeled romance and not finding it to be very romance-y.

One thing that as a book seller I find frustrating is trying to shelve a book in any given genre, as there are just so many cross overs. And the paranormal section is a nightmare!

Personally we have broken it down into one genre of just Paranormal..so that it includes any paranormal with or with out romance, the dark paranormals and urban fantasy books and the magical chick-lits(glad to see I am not the only one that has used that term).

The market is changing and its getting really difficult to label an author one thing or another at the moment in this area. I really believe that this is due to the ‘new’ nature of the genre, no one has really come up with any parameters of what is what, and I’m not really sure they can. Especially as there are so many crossovers in these particular genres by subject and by author writing one style one series and another the next.

This really is a mine-field for the writers, readers, reviewers, publishers and book sellers, with so much confusion as to who fits where and when.

When I wrote HELL’S BELLES, I hadn’t intended it (or ROAD) to be romance. I was thinking more along the lines of dark fantasy with some tingly sex scenes. (I hadn’t really known about the term “urban fantasy” then, and I’d been aiming for a magical chick-lit sort of voice. But yeah, I think of myself now as an urban fantasy author.) The books, however, were marketed as romance.

So I’ve been learning more about the romance genre along the way, and I think the novella in ETERNAL LOVER does a better job from the romance angle. And I’m pretty sure the upcoming third book does as well, but that one absolutely **isn’t** a traditional romance. It still says “paranormal romance” on the spine. If it were up to me, it would just say “paranormal.” Or “urban fantasy.”

Heh — so maybe my voice is more “campy urban fantasy” than “campy paranormal.” ;)

You might want to contact her to be sure I am correct in all this or read her blog, but frankly, I liked her series. I see a LOT of books that are being labled paranormal romance when they should be marketed as urban fantasy or just paranormal. Another good example is Yasmine Galenorn “Sisters of the Moon series”. They read more as urban fantasy than romance, but are labeled paranormal romance. She herself has on her website that it is not paranormal romance due to the fact that there is no typical HEA endings or one couple in every book.

Frankly, I find this trend of dumping the urban fantasy books in romance whether they are romance or not annoying as it is hard to find a specific “genre” then. Do I go to horror? Or Romance? Or Fantasy? The line keeps blending. Of course, I adore blending genres in books, but it does make for it hard to categorize it in the stores or catalogues.

Excuse all typing errors, grammar and spelling as I have a horrible headache from the weather.