{"id":1202,"date":"2010-09-26T11:39:26","date_gmt":"2010-09-26T16:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/?p=1202"},"modified":"2010-09-26T17:29:08","modified_gmt":"2010-09-26T22:29:08","slug":"a-romance-novel-by-any-other-name-would-still-read-as-sweet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/26\/a-romance-novel-by-any-other-name-would-still-read-as-sweet\/","title":{"rendered":"A Romance Novel By Any Other Name Would Still Read As Sweet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this week I read a piece about Danielle Steel's<\/a> interview with CBS News in which she denies being a romance author.\u00a0\u00a0I found the statement so shocking that I emailed a link to the\u00a0story<\/a> to Mr. Quack.\u00a0 From trolling the blogosphere since that time, I understand that Ms. Steel's statement surprised a bunch of folks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It also reminded me of a USA today piece<\/a> about a novelist who lives\u00a0right down the road a piece from me, Nicholas Sparks<\/a>.\u00a0Mr. Sparks was pretty vehement about not being a romance novelist\u00a0too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What do Danielle and Nicholas have in common?\u00a0 They're both laughing all the way to the bank.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You know what else they have in common?\u00a0 People read their books for the love stories.\u00a0 Instead of sneering about the romance genre, Steel and Sparks should be\u00a0thanking romance readers for supporting their work and buying their books.\u00a0 See, romance is the not-so-little genre that could.\u00a0\u00a0In these down and out times when everybody is cutting back on everything, people are still buying romance.\u00a0 Today\u00a0more\u00a0readers than ever before need something that will take them out of reality and\u00a0sweep them away on an emotional joy ride.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Steel says<\/a> she \"thinks of romance novels as being more of a category\" but her books are about \"situations we all deal with\" like loss, war and illness and jobs.\u00a0I wonder what Danielle thinks romance novels are about?\u00a0 Situations we don't deal with?\u00a0 All books, Danielle's included, pick particular people, places and things\u00a0and blow them up, bigger than life.\u00a0 It makes them more interesting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sparks says<\/a> he doesn't write romance novels - he writes love stories and he thinks that is \"a very different genre.\"\u00a0Romance novels, he says, are supposed to make you escape into the \"fantasy\" of romance but his books are love stories\u00a0more akin to Jane Austen and Shakespeare.\u00a0 Sparks thinks his work is most like Hemingway's \"A Farewell to Arms.<\/em>\"\u00a0 As an aside, Sparks detests Cormac McCarthy's work, calling it \"horrible.\"\u00a0 McCarthy has been compared<\/a> to William Faulkner.\u00a0I guess that would case Sparks v. McCarthy as Hemingway v. Faulkner.\u00a0 REALLY?\u00a0 Talk about a fantasy world....<\/p>\n

At the core of Steel and Sparks comments is an obvious disdain for romance novels and a heavy dose of two writers who found so much success that they started believing their own PR.\u00a0 The Steel story brings the criticism home more because her comments would surprise the most readers.\u00a0 Danielle doesn't do romance?\u00a0 So why have we been reading and buying her work all of these years?\u00a0 Our bad, I guess.\u00a0 It's a mistake we can correct starting today.\u00a0 We can forgive poor Nicholas a wee bit because in romance terms, he was born with the handicap of being well... male.\u00a0 If he considered himself a romance writer then - in macho terms - he'd\u00a0think he was calling himself less of a man.\u00a0 That's a shame.\u00a0 A male romance writer finding the\u00a0kind of success Sparks has would make him a real trailblazer.\u00a0 Instead of appreciating his own possible contribution to the romance genre and showing biased bitches like me that men can bloody well write romance, he enters his own fantasy world where he's like Hemingway.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And it is a fantasy world because all writers\u00a0of fiction are, after all, professional dreamers.\u00a0 ALL fiction is, in a sense, fantasy.\u00a0 It's a world created in the head of the writer and populated by people he or she crafts.\u00a0Sparks and Steel want to elevate themselves far above writers who happily wear the romance novelist label - like yours truly.\u00a0 See, they've come not only to believe their own good PR, they've come to believe in all the bad PR that the romance novels get\u00a0all the time.\u00a0 They think that romance novels are born of a formula while their work is born only of creative genius.\u00a0 Dani and Nick - get over yourselves.\u00a0 The promise of a happy ending is not the kiss of death; it's a big ole' dose of hope in a pretty hopeless world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With apologies to Sparks who hails from the sister state to my homeplace, love stories are\u00a0the heartbeat of all romance novels.\u00a0\u00a0Romance novelists may be imaginative enough to set the love stories in other times and other places - sometimes even in other worlds altogether - but all of that is just smoke and mirrors and\u00a0yes, wallpaper.\u00a0 The relationship is the story.<\/p>\n

In elevating themselves above romance novels, Steel and Sparks\u00a0place themselves on\u00a0pedestals high above and way apart from their readers.\u00a0 And that's\u00a0a big, big, mistake.\u00a0 Romance readers are some of the smartest folks on earth but they're also some of the most fiercely proud and stubbornly loyal.\u00a0 \"Romance readers are considered among the most loyal fans ...\"<\/a>\u00a0 If Steel and Sparks are so much better than folks who read and adore romance novels, then those buyers should remember that the next time they're browsing a real or virtual bookshelf.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You know what? Even in today's downturned economy, romance readers continue to buy in much higher volumes<\/a> than readers of other genres.\u00a0In fact, romance novels were one of \"10 winners in the recession\" according to US News and World Report.\u00a0\u00a0Hemingway and Faulkner didn't make the list.\u00a0The author of the piece I just cited<\/a>, Meghan Daum of the LA Times, calls\u00a0romance novels \"formulaic,\" \"overwritten,\" and \"underdeveloped.\"\u00a0 But even she had to admit that the romance novel buisness is pretty much recession-proof.\u00a0If Sparks and Steel don't care that romance sells, then their publishers surely will.\u00a0 As Time magazine pointed out<\/a>,\u00a0while overall book sales numbers are down, revenues for romance giant Harlequin are UP.\u00a0 More than 1 out of every 4 books sold is a romance novel<\/a>.\u00a0 \"A love story is a love story\" AND THE GENRE IS AUTHOR DRIVEN<\/a>.\u00a0So writers who disdain the \"romance novelist\" label risk alienating the most loyal book buyers on the planet.\u00a0 Will Sparks and Steel's publishers support their declarations?\u00a0<\/p>\n

If their publishers support their big ticket authors' disdain of romance novels, then let 'em put their money where their mouths are. Let them affix warning\u00a0stickers to the books -\u00a0Warning.\u00a0 This Book Is Not a Romance Novel<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The publishers should make sure that the books are never shelved anywhere near all those romance novels that the buyers have stopped by the store to browse.\u00a0 If they don't like the buyers then Sparks, Steel and their publishers surely don't want the buyers' money.<\/p>\n

Sparks and Steel have come to think way too much of themselves and way too little of their readers.\u00a0 If a reader is looking for a romance and picks up and likes a Sparks or Steel book - then the book IS a romance novel.\u00a0 Once a book\u00a0is printed, the story is no longer the author's, it belongs to the reader.\u00a0 And the ultimate opinion of any book isn't the writer's, the publisher's, the book\u00a0store's or the reviewer's - it's the readers'.\u00a0<\/p>\n

How should Sparks and Steel answer the question?\u00a0 How about something like this:\u00a0 \"I've never considered my books to be romance novels, but my opinion isn't worth a hill of beans.\u00a0 The stories are whatever the readers believe them to be.\u00a0 I just hope they enjoy the books.\"<\/p>\n

Sparks and Steel overrate themselves and underrate their readers.\u00a0 That's a dangerous mistake for any writer.\u00a0 It's an error that I hope I never make.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier this week I read a piece about Danielle Steel's interview with CBS News in which she denies being a romance author.\u00a0\u00a0I found the statement so shocking that I emailed a link to the\u00a0story to Mr. Quack.\u00a0 From trolling the blogosphere since that time, I understand that Ms. Steel's statement surprised a bunch of folks.\u00a0 ...continue reading \"A Romance Novel By Any Other Name Would Still Read As Sweet\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1202"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1209,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202\/revisions\/1209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}