Gay vs. straight romance

This has been very educational.

For what it's worth, I've seen some authors(successful ones)that write more than one genre and also have many books in many different sub-genre's. I don't see why you should have to limit the breadth of what you want to write. You shouldn't have to limit yourself to only m/m or f/m etc. Why would a reader get upset that an author chose to mix it up and have a variety? I don't get it.

Does it mean if I write a sweet romance, something that could be turned into a hallmark movie, does that mean I can't write erotica? I'll get ousted by readers for going from innocent sweet to erotic? I guess if an author has a hardcore following then you don't mess with that? But then that means you aren't writing whats true to you, but you are writing for your readership....not that there is anything wrong with that, I'm sure many authors know what their followers want and they don't mess with it, since that would mean messing with your living and profit.

Some authors write under various pseudonyms for different genres and have readers follow them across the spectrum. Others have tried but have been raked over the coals and lost readers. YMMV

Personally, I like dark stuff and angst a lot. And somehow, gay (or at least m/m, not so much f/f) romance seems to have a lot more of that, than m/f romance where the challenges faced by individual characters or couples tend to be a lot more mundane than what I've read in m/m fiction. So I go for m/m stuff while I'm a straight female. I also like dramatic, emotionally "versatile" men, who seem more common in gay lit.

I worried about this with my Family of Lies series, so I made sure readers were aware that the series has M/M, F/F, poly, and het relationships. No one has given me grief about it, and fans have expressed interest in the different pairings after I posted brief descriptions about them on my blog. Maybe only having two books published helps me because I'm not really established enough for readers to have strong expectations.

That gives me some hope, Sam. Here's to eclectic romance!