Romantasy is arguably the hottest genre out there right now thanks to hits like Fourth Wing and A Court of Thorns and Roses. The genre is a portmanteau of romance + fantasy, and features prominent elements of both, although it could be argued that romance squeaks in as the dominant of the two.

I have never written a romantasy before, but from my shows to my books, I’ve included some aspect of romance in them, be it sweet or tragic or twisted. I think the romance in Son of the Siren is especially sweet, and there was a criticism ( a good one!) that the reader wanted more of it, which I take as a good sign.

Thus, I decided to make my forthcoming trilogy a romantasy. YA romantasy, but romantasy nonetheless. There are a few reasons why for this:

• I want to write a healthy, loving relationship instead of the popular enemies-to-lovers, captor/captive, and bully romances. Of course there will be flaws and mistakes in the relationship, but I want something positive. There’s a trend in romantasy I want to bust about red flag men and the women who overlook it just because the men are hot.
  
• I think I’m getting better at romance…I don’t know about physical scenes, but I think the lovey-dovey stuff is coming along.
  
• I want to be more successful, and that entails writing a bit more to market.

Let’s talk about that last one for a moment. I never thought I’d be someone who would consider writing to market, as I always stubbornly insisted on writing whatever I wanted. I did that with Son of the Siren. I took a chance on writing something very controversial that has been polarizing to readers and critics, and that has impact. I can’t measure it, but I can tell you that my sales aren’t where they should be by a long shot, and it’s possible that this plot point may be turning readers away. I’m not sure.

The rest of Son of the Siren is very much a fairy tale and quest fantasy and settles into a more traditional example of the genre, and despite the people wrapped up in the darker part of the story, my reviews are overwhelmingly positive (4.5 on Amazon, 4.13 on Goodreads). But again, my sales numbers haven’t been doing so well.

My publisher is quite open about what has worked and what hasn’t for them. I was told from the get-go that standalones are a hard sell, and that turned out to be true. To my surprise, I was told that series were where it’s at, the bigger the better, and that first person was the more popular POV for certain genres, and yes, romantasy is one of the genres popping off.

I am still writing what I want to write, but I went ahead and decided to take my publisher’s observations into account. Write what I want, but…write more than one book (a trilogy was the best I could come up with), write in first person POV, and write romantasy.

I’ve been working very hard on The Name and the Key trilogy and the story has always lent itself to romance, and physical desire has a lot to do with the alchemical magic system in the book. It seemed like making it a romantasy instead of a fantasy with romantic elements was the way to go.

The thing is, since I’ve never written substantial romance in a book before, I’m not sure if I’ve put in enough of it! And then there’s the whole issue of spice–it seems like everyone wants spice nowadays, but the thing is–I’m pretty sure this book is still YA (my editors and beta readers will correct me if I’m wrong). I have some naughty touching and foreplay but no sex in the book at all, and it’s that way because I don’t feel comfortable writing explicit scenes for young people. Can you still have a successful romantasy without the spice? I’m not sure. Instagram, TikTok and YouTube make it seem like you can’t. But I’m sure there are low-to-no spice books out there that people love!

I’m almost done with Book One. It’ll go off to beta readers at the end of this month, and I’ll be asking them to focus on the romance and see if the book qualifies as romantasy to them, or if I need to go even further and add more romantic scenes. Although I’ll have other questions for them (I have more than one trouble spot in the book that needs a look), my primary concern is that I’m not checking off the genre requirements.

It’s an exciting (and kind of scary) writing adventure for me, and I hope at the end of this journey I’ve come out on top. Thank you for your support.