Men Love Romance Too
Perhaps the most delightful surprise of my author career is the discovery that men, contrary to popular belief, love a good romance. Not just traditional or heteronormative romance, either. I am talking about cisgender, heterosexual men as well here; the same ones who grew up on a steady diet of patriarchal stereotypes that told them “real men” didn’t like that lovey-dovey kissy stuff; men who are both Gen X and Millennials in addition to Gen Z. In fact, surveys show that men may love romance even more than women do.
Most of my books are not “romance” in genre; their plots don’t revolve around a particular couple’s relationship, and not all of the romantic subplots have a “happy ever after” in the strict sense. That said, I think the relationships in my stories are what drive the plots in more ways than one.
When I wrote these stories— both The Slave-Soldier Series and The Noble Pirates—I couldn’t decide who would be the target audience for them, since, in addition to (generally non-traditional) romance, they are heavy in both world-building and actual history. I’m pretty sure my battle scenes are as long as my romantic scenes, to be honest. My books are hard to market (and no doubt this drives my publisher crazy); Manzakar has been tagged as everything from romantasy to military fantasy, and those categories tend to draw very different types of readers (as you can imagine).
While I knew that a certain demographic of women would love my books—plenty of women have proven that they love stories with an equal (or greater) dose of adventure with her romance, they’re just not a demographic the publishing industry has been able to pin down, apparently. But other than gut instinct, I had no way of being certain that men would love those types of stories too.
Throughout my writing career, as both a web serial writer and a novelist, some of my stories’ biggest champions have been men who just want to read something entertaining, regardless of genre. Some of my best, most detailed reviews have come from men. (And I don’t just mean my dad and brother.)
I think the publishing industry has kinda lost its way in this respect—it’s become so focused on selling to specific markets that it’s lost the forest for the trees. There’s this false sense that people won’t read outside the lines of their tendencies: Men read thrillers, military, and epic fantasies, sci-fi, etc. with sex (but not, heaven forbid, romance) and women read “women’s fiction,” romantic fantasy, and romances that focus on falling in love or relationships.
Well, I’m calling bullshit on all that.
People like good stories. Period.
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