Is femslash or lesbian romance fiction too niche?

EzzyAlpha · Feb 23, 2012

I have a tendency to stick lesbians in everything.

I'm sorry, it's fun.

But I have to wonder if femslash is too much of a niche for a story to get popular.

It's just a thought I've had for a while.

Edit: Actually, hold those posts.

Femslash itself isn't that niche like, true, it's sticking it in other genres that makes it more niche.

Like my fantasy/slice-of-life/femslash or superhero/sci-fi/femslash stories. The whole combination is too niche, not the individual parts.

veinglory · Feb 23, 2012

Lesbian fiction per se can sell just fine. But the lesbian and femslash readerships seem to be far more separate than the gay male and slash readerships. The best selling lesbian work still seems to go mainly the small press non-ebook route.

fadeaccompli · Feb 23, 2012

I'd say it depends on whether you mean "this book is in genre X and has a lesbian protagonist" or if you mean "this book is in genre X but is primarily about the lesbian protagonist's romance and sex life." There's nothing particularly limiting about having a lesbian protagonist, but lesbian romance in particular is more niche than straight romance, and crossing it with other genres may push you further into niche category. See, for example, <em>Ash</em>, where the final romance is between two women, but the story itself isn't about that romance as such.

(I, for one, would be thrilled to see more urban fantasy/superhero/steampunk/space opera novels where the protagonist was a lesbian; conversely, I'm not particularly interested in romance-focused or sex-focused stories in any of those genre. But I am not the whole of the market.)

The Seanchai · Feb 23, 2012

fadeaccompli said:
(I, for one, would be thrilled to see more urban fantasy/superhero/steampunk/space opera novels where the protagonist was a lesbian; conversely, I'm not particularly interested in romance-focused or sex-focused stories in any of those genre. But I am not the whole of the market.)

Agree! I write lesbian fiction (mainly) and would love to see more lesbian stories--of any genre, romance or not! (Not particularly interested in erotica though.)

Domino Derval · Feb 23, 2012

I thought 'slash' referred to a pairing that was either someone else's intellectual property, or at least was gratuitous in light of whatever is going on in the story. Does it now refer to any sexually charged scene?

MJNL · Feb 23, 2012

"Slash" is a fan fiction term. Not a professional term.

If you're asking if your characters can be lesbians, yes. Good, realistic characters come from all sorts of backgrounds and have all sorts of attributes.

If you're asking if you can have gratuitous gay sex, it's like anything else
gratuitous: it rarely works well.

Eta: Unless you're writing erotica, of course.

Deleted member 42 · Feb 23, 2012

Domino Derval said:
I thought 'slash' referred to a pairing that was either someone else's intellectual property, or at least was gratuitous in light of whatever is going on in the story. Does it now refer to any sexually charged scene?

No; you've got it right; it's a derivative of fan fic.

pandaponies · Feb 23, 2012

*raises hand*

I'm probably biased because I'm a real-life lesbian, lolol, but I think the world really needs some more good lesbian literature. Hetero is everywhere (I'm writing some now, because it's socially acceptable and I can show it to my mother) and I don't think I've ever read a novel with lesbian characters that made me go "Wow. I love this. omg they're adorable." DO IT.

And send it to me. Please.

Dr.Gonzo · Feb 23, 2012

Femslash? Never heard of that before. You have to read it sitting down?

Aggy B. · Feb 23, 2012

Dr.Gonzo said:
Femslash? Never heard of that before. You have to read it sitting down?

Methinks its when fan-fic takes straight female characters and rewrites them gay.

Rhoda Nightingale · Feb 23, 2012

Yeeeah, banish the term "femslash" from any of your original fiction endeavors, along with the expectations of that particular "niche."

But there is a market for lesbian romance. It's a niche, but I'm not sure what you mean by "too niche." The readership is out there, and if you can craft a decent story with compelling characters you have a shot at getting it out there. That's the same for any genre. Gay men seem to be getting better exposure in the mainstream lately, but not much.

jjdebenedictis · Feb 23, 2012

The term "slash" came about because people were writing fanfiction with romances in it and the romantic pairing was denoted by, for example, "Kirk/Spock". (Or K/S if you're old school.)

Because male same-sex pairings are so popular in fanfiction, the term came to be synonymous with them. Femslash thus denotes a same-sex pairing, but with women instead. Heterosexual pairings are referred to as het.

Being a fan of a particular romantic pairing of any sort is called shipping. "Smoosh" names, which form a portmanteau of two character's names (e.g. Snupin instead of Snape/Lupin), are also a popular way to denote a romantic pairing.

Nobody ask me how I know this stuff.

sickmuse · Feb 23, 2012

I'm hoping as more writers and readers increase the demand for lesbians in other areas of fiction, we'll start seeing more lesbians in space operas and horror novels and whatnot.

EzzyAlpha · Feb 24, 2012

I've actually seen femslash used in terms of original fiction, especially on deviantArt and Fiction Press. It's pretty much everywhere, though the manga fans also use "Yuri" and "Shoujo-ai". It basically means lesbian romance.

I suppose it's a lot easier to write "Femslash" on a summary than "Lesbian Romance"? I mostly use it because it's the standard of the sites I post my stories in.

Alas, I am really not a professional

It's what I've always seen though I've only been interested in it for a year or so.

I asked mostly because it seems it's a lot harder to get people interested in a story with a lesbian romance as a subplot, which is actually what I've been writing most lately.

Rhoda Nightingale · Feb 24, 2012

^The internet has its own lingo, which will not fly elsewhere in the literary world. Just because sites like DA and FP use it doesn't make it the norm, believe me.

Question: If the lesbian romance is a subplot, then what genre are you actually writing in?

veinglory · Feb 24, 2012

Slash comes out of fanfic but plenty of people use it informally to mean the same as m/m and f/f. I have even heard it used that way by a mainstream agent. not something to put in a query letter, but not such a terrible word.

EzzyAlpha · Feb 24, 2012

I'm not interested in the literary world, I don't really want to get a book published.

I write a lot of genres I suppose. Fantasy and sci-fi mostly. I hardly ever write romance as a main plot, don't really like it.

jjdebenedictis · Feb 24, 2012

I read a great series of fantasy books when I was a teenager that featured a lesbian romance. Unfortunately, the senility of time has set in and I have zero memory of what the books or characters were named now. I do remember they occasionally referred to "Glitch, the godlet of fuckups", which was a personification of Murphy's Law, basically.

The thing that made the series great was that it was simply a fantastic yarn. The love affair was important to the plot, but it was not a love story; it was an adventure story. It was an exercise in sword-swinging barbarian women, magic-workers with metal fingernails, and psychic horses with fangs.

If you want to write lesbian romance, then I think that might be a bit of niche market. But if you want to write some other genre and feature lesbian romances in it, I don't think you need to worry about it being niche at all. If it's a great book, then there'll be an audience for it.

MJNL · Feb 24, 2012

EzzyAlpha said:
I'm not interested in the literary world, I don't really want to get a book published.

There's nothing wrong with that, but it does make me wonder why you're concerned with how "popular" lesbianism is. If you're not looking for a viable market why not just write what you want to write?

EzzyAlpha · Feb 24, 2012

Well, I want people to read my work, at least online but I'm not concerned with publishing books. I don't care about the sale, only the popularity itself. I suppose.

MJNL · Feb 24, 2012

Ah, ok, you just want an audience. I get it. Well, it might not be that the audience is small, but that the audience where you post is small. Are you counting hits on DA or something similar? Where is this question coming from? Are you getting low hits on your stories and wondering if the characters' sexual orientation is the problem?

EzzyAlpha · Feb 24, 2012

I've posted one complete story on dA and FictionPress.

Well, not exactly. I am aware my writing isn't quite good enough but it seems that lesbian romance stories get less hits in general.

Ketzel · Feb 24, 2012

I know, I'm gettin' on in years, but "slash" to me has always been slang for murder. And I was thinking that "fem/slash" in the context of this post referred to lesbian murder. And I was actually devoutly hoping that the answer to the OP would be "no, there is very little interest in fem/slash." So interesting how the usage has changed to such a diametrical opposite of the earlier meaning!
*Ketzel wanders off looking for her printed dictionary and her fuzzy slippers*

Is femslash or lesbian romance fiction too niche?

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