Dear Author: Romance Book Reviews, Author Interviews, and Commentary

Joanna Trollope Gives Chick Lit Some Props

By Jane • Jun 17th, 2008 • Category: Publishing News • •

Chick lit is a taboo term in publishing right now and even in its heyday, the sub genre took alot of heat for being substantiveless pap. Joanna Trollope blogged for the Guardian that the effortless entertainment of chick-lit is actually difficult to write.

The thing is, it’s hard to write good romantic fiction, and it’s much, much harder to write funny good romantic fiction. One of the criteria we judges were given was that if we hadn’t laughed, or been really beguiled by the end of chapter one, we should hurl the book away from us (and yes, a lot of books deserve hurling, but that’s the fault of their quality and not their genre).

Trollope is one of the judges for the new Melissa Nathan prize, an award for Comedy Romance. Thanks Rebecca for the tip.

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Jane is a long time romance reader whose passion is, you guessed it, reading. Jane also does not like to talk about herself in the third person, but apparently this is the way that this biography thing works (although in a true biography, someone else would be writing this blurb). Anyway, currently Jane loves urban fantasy authors Patricia Briggs and Ilona Andrews. She's really excited about this year's crop of historicals including Joanna Bourne's The Spymaster's Lady and Sherry Thomas' Private Arrangements and the upcoming Loretta Chase Her Scandalous Ways. She's looking for a good contemporary author. Email her with a recommendation!
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One Response »

  1. I think the first link is not the correct link. It doesn’t take me to the Guardian but rather to Melissa Nathan’s site for information about the award.

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