does size matter in romance?

[big_cane_sugar]

I'm sure this has been discussed before but I couldn't find it.

What I'm wondering is how long a story -- ahem, a story, y'all, a story -- can be in the Romance category before readers lose interest. Like, are novel-length things welcome?

I've got a story that, well, just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Seems like it'll be more pleasing that way. That is, if anyone actually wants to try to take in a monster like this...

 

[Jada59]

To me? No.

 

[ValentinianXIV]

Personally, I think novel-length might be a reasonable limit if there's nothing else besides the romance and smut to keep it going.

 

[big_cane_sugar]

To me? No.

That means you're willing to read a romance of any length? Or are you replying to my unintentional double entendre?

 

[Jada59]

Ahhh. Double entendre. Sorry. I prefer short stories. But some of my readers say some of my stories are too short.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Plenty of romance novels exist. It's probably a more favourable category to longer stories than categories where people are looking for quick fucking action.

 

[NotWise]

Romance is a good place for longer stories. The readers generally expect plot and character development.

I wouldn't go out of my way to make a story longer than it needs to be.

 

[Actingup]

I'm sure this has been discussed before but I couldn't find it.

What I'm wondering is how long a story -- ahem, a story, y'all, a story -- can be in the Romance category before readers lose interest. Like, are novel-length things welcome?

I've got a story that, well, just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Seems like it'll be more pleasing that way. That is, if anyone actually wants to try to take in a monster like this...

This is a length issue more than a size issue, but according to the interweb, romance novels average around 50K-70K. So if your writing is good enough, they can be that long.

 

[Ianus4]

I'm sure this has been discussed before but I couldn't find it.

What I'm wondering is how long a story -- ahem, a story, y'all, a story -- can be in the Romance category before readers lose interest. Like, are novel-length things welcome?

I've got a story that, well, just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Seems like it'll be more pleasing that way. That is, if anyone actually wants to try to take in a monster like this...

Within certain limits, size doesn't matter in that case either.

 

[Voboy]

Write what you'd like to read. That's the surest way to find an audience.

If you'd read it? Someone else will, too. So if it's not too long to hold your interest, it's not too long at all.

 

[Jon1959]

Everyone is sexy in some way. Body shape and size. Personality and adventurous nature. That an old guys experience anyway.

 

[OddLove]

I'm just throwing my two cents in for the hell of it.

Here's my four ranges of word count and how I judge them.

Also, this really applies to all categories.

If a story has a title, description, and tags that interest me, here's the ranges of word count that contribute to whether I do or don't decide to give it a chance.

For a story that's under 2k words, I probably won't consider clicking on it because in my own experience of reading erotica, it's going to lack depth, and most likely be a brief or rushed account of something that happened.

If a story is around 3k to 10k words, I'm mostly likely to click on it. Mainly because if the story isn't something I can get heavily invested in, it's still short enough for me to power through it and appreciate the parts of it I enjoyed. It asks the least from me, and often pays off.

If the story is somewhere near or between 15k to 50k words, I'll likely give it a chance, but I will be going into it with higher expectations, and if it doesn't hook me after one or two Lit pages I'll be quick to abandon it.

And when I story is way up there, like 100k and and beyond, I'm most likely not giving it a chance. On the rare occasion that I would give it a chance, it would have to hook my within the first or second Lit page.

Bonus opinions. If it's a "Part 1" and "Part 2" and so on type of situation, I'll read part one and if doesn't give me that "Episode" feeling and just gives of "Chopped Up Novel" vibes I'll stop reading and not come back for future parts.

I'm me, and I approve this message.

 

[MillieDynamite]

If you didn't intend a double entendre, you wouldn't've used size; you'd've used length! And yes, size matters, but it depends on whether it's an SPH or BBC/BWC story (maybe it's both).