Romantica

[Le Jacquelope]

Has anyone read much of the Romantica genre?

I've been digging around for some online examples of romantica and been coming up fairly short. I do know of titles that are available in the bookstores, which means Romantica is probably more prodigious in the mainstream market than erotica.

I do know that Romantica is a blend of Erotica and Romance. Whereas most Lit(Erotica) submissions I've seen (and all that I've posted) have sex in every chapter (except maybe the novellas), Romantica takes its good sweet time to get to sex after a healthy amount of right proper build up ahead of time. (There may be Literotica submissions that follow the Romantica format but I have not seen any.) When romantica stories do get to sex, the sex is quite explicit, somewhat like what you would read in erotica (as is written typically by women authors).

My new stories haven't been even considered (by me) for Lit because I've shifted to a Romantica format which lets me hold off on sex for several chapters while I work on character interaction and build-up. Or, to put it short and sweet, "This submission and the next one have no erotica.. sorry! Wait until 3 submissions later!"

Romantica simply lets me pace my story right in that it is free of the "each submission should have sexual content" constraint. I see it as a very liberating genre, combining the best of both worlds of storyline development and erotic storytelling freedom. Plus I've seen it on bookstore shelves, which implies the authors are less afraid for their careers.

So who here writes romantica and have you ever submitted any to Lit?

 

[Guest]

My "Young Writer" is a kind of Romantica (to me at least).

Not a bad story either.

Or, if you didn't like my story, try this:

http://www.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=152243

 

[oggbashan]

So who here writes romantica and have you ever submitted any to Lit?

Some of my stuff comes into that category.

Try 'Hedgehog Feud'; 'Ancient Liberties' or 'E-mail Valentine'.

I have been accused of making readers wait far too long for the sex.

Og

 

[Guest]

Re: Re: Romantica

I have been accused of making readers wait far too long for the sex.

Og

You owe me big time.

[size=0.5]Yea, I'm a roadkill.[/size]

 

[Monazwx]

Romantica, I like that.
Sometimes though, depending on how horny I am, I like to get to the good stuff quickly.

 

[Guest]

Re: Re: Romantica

I have been accused of making readers wait far too long for the sex.

Og

Same could be said of most of the women I ever dated.

 

[Monazwx]

Re: Re: Re: Romantica

Same could be said of most of the women I ever dated.

I write romantica, infrequently though.

My stuff would probably be considered more erotic than stuff you would see normally in the mainstream. Romantic stuff with cocks and pussies, not manhoods and flower petals, etc.

 

[Omni]

The whole idea and word Romantica was started I believe or if not was brought into prominence by the online publisher Elloras Cave.

I do not write for nor am I affiliated with EC, however I must say the are widening the edges of main stream publishing and showing the way to profitable e-book sales.

Great company doing a great job, my only pet peeve with them is alot of their books get categorized in advertising as under erotica and it muddies up the water some in the differences between what is selling erotica and what is romantica.



Omni

 

[Frederick Carol]

I think two of my stories come close, in that there's a more leisured build up. Seeing that they're my best scoring stories, maybe I should write more!

Anyway, the stories are Second Time Around and The Gift.

 

[Le Jacquelope]

I think two of my stories come close, in that there's a more leisured build up. Seeing that they're my best scoring stories, maybe I should write more!

Anyway, the stories are Second Time Around and The Gift.

Very interesting... I gave 'em a five


Omni - is Romantica a phrase copyrighted by EC or is it a generic thing?

 

[wishfulthinking]

I have read about 3 books from elloras cave, but I would not classify them as romantica. There were sex scenes about every 5 pages, with a loose plot squeezed in! Not want you want to read when you curl up on a stormy afternoon with your hot choc!

Some people say my stories are like romance books with lots of sex - but they are definitely written with lit readers in mind, so there is sex in every chapter It seems to me that if you want a story to do well on lit, you must have hot sex thrown in somewhere!

Edited to add: try badgirl!

 

[KarenAM]

I once had aspirations of writing Romantica and being rich and famous for it. But then I found that while I have no problem waiting for the sex scenes in my work, it wasn't because of the typical romantic buildup, but instead was for other reasons, as in my story Finding Words.

So I guess I'm just not a romantic at heart.

I am, however, appearantly considered quite literary by at least one reviewer/fan, which is gratifying.

 

[Metal_Monkey]

I have read about 3 books from elloras cave, but I would not classify them as romantica. There were sex scenes about every 5 pages, with a loose plot squeezed in! Not want you want to read when you curl up on a stormy afternoon with your hot choc!

I read some stories from EC, and I wasn't pleased with them either. I found that the writing was sub-par and the pricing slightly steep (one "quickie" was $3.99 for 45 double-spaced-12-pt-2-inch-margin pages; I read it in 25 minutes and the sex was humdrum). One of my major pet peeves with EC is the lack of reader feedback. Obviously some authors are good because they have 20 titles for sale, but it's not like I can flip through the book in the bookstore! I want to know what happens before I buy it, and the blurbs aren't enough. I also wish the blurbs were edited better - there's all kinds of grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors.

Literotica is different from EC (in my mind) because it's a "quick fix." I don't usually look for lots of character development in a story, or a great plot. I want sexy, I want sizzling, I want to get off ASAP.

Now, when I buy romantica, it's the total opposite. I need lots of foreplay (pun intended) to make my purchase justifiable. I need to be emotionally involved. Romantica is rare because our society is puritanical, and even if an author wants to get explicit, publishers won't let her(/him). But there are exceptions, and lots of them hide in the romance genre. I'm sure you're familiar with them. If not, PM me and I'll make up a list.

On the other hand, published erotica is the biggest let-down of all (for me). I got suckered into joining the Venus book club. It's a nice place to buy hardback editions of how-to's, and they even carry books by Emma Holly (if you don't know who she is, I'll personally spank you and then hand you a copy of Menage). But they have these book club editions of erotica that make me want to gag - after I finish yawning. I hate "erotica" that synchronizes sex with the seasons, compares genitals to yams and honeypots, etc etc ad nauseum. There's no emotion in that, just a pretty picture. I would rather have an author write "Like that... yes. Yes! Unhh!" than this: "They came together at last, and a piece of her soul returned." Or whatever. You get the picture.

This post is getting long, so I'll cut the rant short. But I want to say one last thing about Emma Holly - she is a goddess when it comes to emotionally invlolving sex-writing. Call it romantica, erotica, whatever you like, just read it. And avoid her "romance" titles - she's breaking into the genre and I wouldn't recommend those books for your first time with her.

MM

 

[wishfulthinking]

I read some stories from EC, and I wasn't pleased with them either. I found that the writing was sub-par and the pricing slightly steep (one "quickie" was $3.99 for 45 double-spaced-12-pt-2-inch-margin pages; I read it in 25 minutes and the sex was humdrum). One of my major pet peeves with EC is the lack of reader feedback. Obviously some authors are good because they have 20 titles for sale, but it's not like I can flip through the book in the bookstore! I want to know what happens before I buy it, and the blurbs aren't enough. I also wish the blurbs were edited better - there's all kinds of grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors.

Literotica is different from EC (in my mind) because it's a "quick fix." I don't usually look for lots of character development in a story, or a great plot. I want sexy, I want sizzling, I want to get off ASAP.

Now, when I buy romantica, it's the total opposite. I need lots of foreplay (pun intended) to make my purchase justifiable. I need to be emotionally involved. Romantica is rare because our society is puritanical, and even if an author wants to get explicit, publishers won't let her(/him). But there are exceptions, and lots of them hide in the romance genre. I'm sure you're familiar with them. If not, PM me and I'll make up a list.

On the other hand, published erotica is the biggest let-down of all (for me). I got suckered into joining the Venus book club. It's a nice place to buy hardback editions of how-to's, and they even carry books by Emma Holly (if you don't know who she is, I'll personally spank you and then hand you a copy of Menage). But they have these book club editions of erotica that make me want to gag - after I finish yawning. I hate "erotica" that synchronizes sex with the seasons, compares genitals to yams and honeypots, etc etc ad nauseum. There's no emotion in that, just a pretty picture. I would rather have an author write "Like that... yes. Yes! Unhh!" than this: "They came together at last, and a piece of her soul returned." Or whatever. You get the picture.

This post is getting long, so I'll cut the rant short. But I want to say one last thing about Emma Holly - she is a goddess when it comes to emotionally invlolving sex-writing. Call it romantica, erotica, whatever you like, just read it. And avoid her "romance" titles - she's breaking into the genre and I wouldn't recommend those books for your first time with her.

MM

I've read Emma Holly's shapeshifter series. I can't remember what is was called. Bit of a let down, but I do admire her attempt to marry SF, erotica and romance.

As to elloras cave, I'm glad I'm not the only one! I really hate it when I come across a mistakes and mispellings in published work [one or two is ok]. Especially when I'm pretty bad, and probably don't pick up half of them!

But ultimately, I want character development, which is missed out in romantica.

 

[Marsipanne]

Romantica is exactly what I like. Try reading badgirl23 and brightlyiburn. I think their stuff fits into that category. The story I'm working on is also romantica, but it's about 3/4 way through at the moment. It'll be submitted in a week or two.

As for published romantica, I find that historical romances often are rather saucy. Just look for the one with the dodgiest cover. I actually have a weakness for historical romances.. anyway, they're very cheesy (as most romances are) but the easiest way to find erotic ones is either by the cover, or to go on to romantictimes.com and they give a rating for how sexual it is, and also a rating out of five for how good the story is.

Authors you might want to try:

Connie Mason
Christine Feehan
Lisa Kleypas
Thea Devine
Emma Holly

I personally havne't read any Emma Holly apart from excerpts from her site (she writes hardcore as well as historical romances) but I've heard a lot about her. I've read one Thea Devine novel, which was okay, but nothing spectacular. It was actually quite strange, I didn't like it too much. I like Lisa Kleypas (but I've only read one of her books actually)--she has nice, clear style and the story flows well. Christine Feehan is good, but all her Carpathian stories are identical (well, almost). Lots of sex though. Connie Mason's stories are also similar (less so than Feehan's stories) and there are quite a lot of sex scenes.

Personally, I'd go for Lisa Kleypas. I've read one book of hers, which I really liked, and I hope to read more soon.

 

[Omni]

Omni - is Romantica a phrase copyrighted by EC or is it a generic thing?

I don't think it is copyrighted, but I am not positive. I just think they coined the phase to describe what they are offering through their company.

I understand they are to open up a more umm, harder core erotic section soon. I believe at least one writer from here might be featured.

Alot of this is breaking out into erotica for women and not porn for men, it comes in all guises right now. Most is right now loosely based from the traditional romance book genre. Which is not a bad idea because it is a huge market place to tap into.

Now I even wonder what to call my stuff. It is erotica, but with romantic elements. The hero and heroine are always together somehow by the end. It will be interesting to see how all the sub categories play out and which attain popular speak, and which fall by the way side.

Omni ~