Paranormal Romance vs Fantasy

Here's my take: a paranormal romance fits the main definition of romance (love story is central, happy ending), but contains a paranormal element that is also central to the plot. I'd define "paranormal" here as taking place in our world, more or less, but a version where at least something supernatural is real: vampires, werewolves, ghosts, witches, etc. (People sometimes include time-travel, but that's really more a sf-based plot device than anything--apart from moving between eras, there's usually little else weird going on.)

By my definition fantasy takes place in an alternate world with its own rules. For a fantasy romance, the love story would still have to be central, otherwise you might have a fantasy with romantic elements. I think some books straddle the line between paranormal and fantasy, because the author sticks to our world but creates such an elaborate system of rules, mythology and hierarchy around their paranormal element that it's essentially an alternate world anyway.

Paranormal: He was perfect for me. If only he hadn't been dead for 400 years.

Fantasy: Prince Ur-Kazjir's brow furrowed in concentration as he willed the Crystal of J'hllla to levitate to his hand--if he failed this Guild test, he'd be condemned to the rank of Second Baraggh forever.

As to the trilogy question: personally, I wouldn't if romance is your goal. Yes, it's possible if you can keep the love story central in all three books, or manage to end each in a satisfactory way but find new challenges in each book. But it's hard enough to sell a single title--I think to have your best shot, the first book will have to stand alone whatever you plan for the future.

I don't believe in writing for the market, unless your idea of fun is spending your life working for The Man. Churning out stuff to order might satisfy your initial desire to get published, but I'm thinking it would turn into a grind pretty quickly. Sure, survey what's selling, and if you have competing ideas it's probably worth pursuing the one that might be more likely to get the contract, and you should absolutely read enough to be able to judge what a well-written book in your genre looks like. But that's different, in my opinion, from "catering to the publishers."

Word count for a single-title romance: in the 80,000-100,000 range. Category romances are shorter (assuming there are paranormal lines?), and if you go for e-publishing, the word counts are a lot more flexible.

I think you'll find it useful to read the lectures I placed in the stickies at the beginning of this forum. These definitions and information were culled from conversations with various paranormal/fantasy authors, editors and agents. I think Lectures #1 and #3 will be most helpful to these questions.


Go to Lecture #1 - Genres
Go to Lecture #2 - Romance Subgenres
Go to Lecture #3 - What's Love Got To Do With It?
Go to Lecture #4 - Master & Servant
Go to Lecture #5 - Lord & Overlords

Now, as for a trilogy--again, a romance depends on an HEA. If there IS an HEA in the first book, then book #2 of a trilogy will either have to deal with the dissolving of the initial relationship (which will likely anger readers) or include a secondary romance with two different people. It can be done (since my co-author and I have done it in BOTH of our series now...LOL!) but the underlying storyline has to be compelling and make sense as to WHY you've colored outside the box.