From Janet Dailey, Jude Deveraux, and 23 other romance authors whose works consistently hit the bestseller lists comes a book filled with the instruction and advice that writers need to create their own bestsellers in the genre.
For the aspiring romance writer who needs a little direction, Writing Romances: A Handbook by the Romance Writers of America is an excellent starting point. Divided into four sections, the business of romance is discussed in the first section, including thorough treatments of subjects such as agents, handling publicity, networking, and "the life and times of a manuscript." The following two sections closely examine the processes of researching and writing a novel--from writing with passion to point of view and writing with a partner--while the final section focuses on writing specific types of romances, including the regency, the short contemporary, and the historical romance. All 25 topics are handled by experts in the field: the business side of romance is presented by successful agents, publicists, and editors, while romance writing is handled by bestselling authors such as Jude Deveraux, Diana Gabaldon, and Janet Dailey.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
A good starting point.:
This book is a good starting point for anyone interested in writing romance, romantica and erotica. It gives good advice and examples on how to create believable characters/relationships and how to incorporate them into an interesting story that someone will want to read to the very end. However, since the book deals strictly with writing romance, this book serves the romantica/erotica author more as a basic outline for the more earthy story they want to tell. It IS worth reading since it can help establish... more info
Misleading title:
I bought this because I want to be a romance writer, and I was looking for information that would help me in this market as well as give me writing tips. It does a good job on the first count, but it was not very useful for me, a beginner, who did not know anything about writing romances. So the title is misleading.
Useful and Enjoyable:
I was honestly surprised by how much I liked this book. Of all the different "how to" books I've read about writing genre fiction, this one was the most helpful and informative on issues of marketing, publicity, and self presentation as an author.
No, this book does not take you by the hand and explain how to plot a story, how to develop a character, or how to format your manuscript. There are, however, many others that do, as a quick search for "writing reference" will show you. This book credits the... more info
More for the published author than a beginner.:
Unfortunately, this book deals mainly with the business-end of romance writing. While that's fine, it shouldn't be marketed as a writing book. It does have some tips for a beginner, but mostly you'll find advice for marketing, promotion, and other non-writing topics.
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