Gritty violence in romance...can it sell?

Well, it depends...

I think there is a subgenre of Romances called Suspense Romances or something like that.

However, just because there is a romance plot doesn't automatically make it a Romance.

There are other audience expectations, depending on the type of Romance.

For example, I know some Romance readers who, like me, don't like cheating or overly immoral heroes/heroines, etc.

Some subgenre have more flexibility in some expectations, like M/M Romances or SFF Romances.

I think it also depends on the publisher. Some publishers have more stricter guidelines about the type of content in their books.

For me, in a Romance, the Romance parts really have to be take center stage and be the vital main plot. Like, if you took out the Romance parts, the story structure would collapse entirely.

Again, just having a romance plot doesn't automatically make a story a capital-R Romance genre book in my eyes. There are plenty of other genre books that aren't Romance genre, but still have romantic subplots, like General Fiction, Women's Fiction, non-Romance SFF stories, Mysteries, etc.

I'm concerned that you said you would have to strip down some story content in order to fit a genre, in which you admit you don't read. You wouldn't want to sacrifice a great story in order to jam it into a genre that may not suit it as is, and in a genre you are not familiar with.

Perhaps you should try reading some Romances with similar plots (or close to the same genre) to your story, and see if your book could fit into that niche?

Basically, IMHO, I think in order to find out where your story can fit, is to check out what's current in the genre you want to enter.

I hope perhaps some AWers can recommend some dark Suspense Romances here. Reading some similar stories in the genre can definitely help, I feel.

(Unfortunately, I don't read that particular subgenre of Romance, so I can't give any helpful recommendations of my own. ^_^;; Sorry. )

In summary: Read a variety of Romance books from a variety of publishers, especially those Romances that are closer to your preferred subgenre (suspense? thriller-ish?). Get familiar with the genre.

Alternative: When you finished polishing the final draft, you could try getting some beta readers to read it, and/or query and submit it to Romance publishers and see what results.

ETA: I think it can help us if you explain what qualifies as "gritty". Like, descriptive violence, tortute, or rape, etc?

I know there are some SFF that can be pretty gritty, and still have some romance elements.

DMcLeod said:

Does anyone have any experience with violent, gritty, messed up Romances? Think Natural Born Killers in book form (with a happy ending).

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Yes. Dark Romances are a thing. Pretty popular lately. You can search Amazon for dark romances. They vary from disgustingly (my opinion) dark to mild and less disgustingly dark. Ha. I wrote one and am in the process of writing another. Good luck!

Yes, dark romance is a thing. Personally, I've seen more self-published and small/indie pub dark romance than Big 5, but there is definitely a market for it. (Side note: does anyone have any Big 5 dark romance recommendations?)

I think there are some dark or twisted erotic/erotica tales out there. I think some have some horror elements. (Is Horror Romance/Gothic Romances a thing?) Some have BDSM elements, too.

Does your story have any erotic or disturbing content? It could probably fit those kinds of stories.

You can try looking up some Goodreads lists, too. (However, these lists are labelled by readers, not professionals, so their labels/tags may not always be accurate.)

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/41581.Most_Controversial_Dark_Romance_
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/dark-romance

Most of these "Dark Romances" seem to be by niche publishers or are self-published, from what I noticed so far. <--I don't know if any of the Big 5 would release such books, or, at least, label/market them as genre Romance.

What about Romantic Suspense? Never hurts to check up on that genre as well. I know all sorts of publishers, including the Big Five, and Harlequin, that releases Romantic Suspense.
http://www.thebigthrill.org/latest-books/romantic-suspense/
http://www.justromanticsuspense.com/
http://www.heroesandheartbreakers.c...p-10-romantic-suspense-novels-you-should-read
http://www.goodreads.com/genres/romantic-suspense

ETA: It all really depends on how the content is handled, and what types of themes or subject matter does it touch upon.

From the limited info given about your story, your story sounds more like a thriller with romantic elements, or maybe (erotic?) romantic suspense.

I think reading more of the Romance genre, especially the subgenres mentioned above (Dark Romances; Romantic Suspense), could still provide more clues on where your story can fit.

Check out the publishers of those stories you do enjoy, as well.

Evernight Publishing accepts dark romances. They put out a dark romance anthology in May. One of my stories is in there with 5 other authors' stories. It stayed in the Amazon top 100 (Romantic Erotica category) for a couple of weeks, and it was an All Romance Ebooks bestseller. So dark romance does sell.

And, Carina Press (an imprint of Harlequin) has a call out for dark romances right now.

From the Carina Press site: We’re seeking dark, erotic thrillers and psychological thrillers; stories of adultery and betrayal; characters with unusual sexual kinks; conflicts involving socially unacceptable pairings (teacher/student, prisoner/parole officer, step-siblings); real unredeemable bad boys and bad girls; tales of forced seduction/capture fantasies...