Every year, All Romance eBooks produces a Trend Analysis that they distribute to all their publishers.

The report is naturally focused upon All Romance eBooks and their position within the industry, but once you sift through that bias, it contains some very interesting information.

I thought I’d share some of the highlights.

 Some buyer highlights

We’re continuing to experience triple digit growth in the U.S. and the bulk of our sales are to U.S. customers. We are currently selling in 202 countries.

Top ten markets: United States, Canada, UK, Australia, Germany, India, New Zealand Philippines, Malaysia, and the Netherlands.

Female = 89%

Male = 11%

I find this one very interesting, because I believe it’s not just specific to All Romance eBooks.  I suspect the growth trend they’ve experienced can probably be applied to ebooks in general and romance ebooks in particular, for all ebook retailers.

The sales to the non-US countries is even more interesting, because many of them do not claim English as their primary language, and All Romance eBooks don’t sell foreign language editions.

J.A. Konrath, who is probably one of the loudest champions of indie publishing, has predicted that non-English translations will be one of the primary sources of income for indie authors over the next few years.  All Romance eBook’s sales trend is supportive data for that prediction.

Some bookish highlights

Heat Rating = over 97% of sales are on books rated 3 or higher, of significance is that the 5 and 4 flame sales have see a combined drop of 4% over last year with most of the difference shifting to the 3 flame rating.

This could mean one of two things.

1)  Readers are getting sick of erotic romance and are choosing “tamer” romances once more, or

2)  The definition of “hot” has shifted along the scale so far that what was once considered 5-flames for ARE is now only 3-flames.  The 5-flames is now kink, BDSM, and extreme erotic, while readers who still love their erotic romance are still buying them, they’re just buying 3-flame romances, not 5.

The fact that The Romance Studio have thrown away their “erotic” categories in the CAPA awards this year and melded the erotic and non-erotic all in together would hint that romances are all erotic these days.  Erotic romance is losing its distinction.  “Extreme erotic” is now the uppper end of the scale, while we are simply enjoying “normal” romances.

Despite everything I’ve said here, it is only the books that I label “erotic romance” and put the highest “hot” rating on that sell the best for me, personally.  If I lower the rating or label in the slightest (down to 4-flames for instance), the sales plummet.  My ARE sales figures do not match what All Romance eBooks are reporting, here.

Sales Revenue DRM v Non DRM = 97% was for Non DRM titles for 2011

96% was for Non DRM tittles for Nov & Dec

These figures are misleading.  Can you see the catch?  ARE don’t state how many DRM titles v’s Non-DRM titles are available.  If there is only 1% protected titles available overall, then naturally, the non-DRM titles are going to out-sell the protected titles.    So even bothering to compare from year to year is meaningless.

But, much further down in the report, ARE had this to say about DRM protection:

A special note about DRM, the impact of agency, and piracy.

While ARe supports both the DRM and non-DRM business models, we advocate that publishers refrain from using DRM and provide open access – it’s what our customers overwhelmingly want. We appreciate and understand the concerns expressed about potential revenue loss due to piracy. We believe the best deterrent is to provide customers with easy access to appropriately priced content.

Tens of thousands of DRM titles were removed by what has commonly been referred to as “Agency” publishers in April of 2010. Data from Q1 of 2010 seemed to indicate DRM might have ended up being approximately 12% or more of sales in 2010, as opposed to the 4% that resulted. Although we certainly realized some lost sales due to the decrease in that inventory, data supports the fact that many readers simply found alternate content to interest them and accordingly shifted those purchasing dollars to non-Agency publishers.

The market share of DRM titles decreased further in 2011 to 3%. We attribute this to two factors: the decrease in overall market share of DRM inventory due to the loss of Agency publishers, AND buyer preferences shifting to Non-DRM publishers and Indie Publishers.

Agency Publishers returned to the site in early November. The DRM/Non-DRM market share split did improve during the subsequent two-month period of time (from 3% to 4%). We anticipate a 4-6% share in 2012, a far cry from what we believe we possibly would have seen without Agency interruption.

So if ARE are carrying 3-4% DRM titles and readers are choosing about 97% non-DRM, then that would seem to indicate that readers are not choosing based on whether the book has protection or not.  Which belies what ARE are saying, above.

Although, there are other sources (J.A. Konrath is one) that say readers do care, very much, if a book is protected or not, regardless of whether they have illicit intentions or perfect innocent ones.

I know I get mildly vexed by all the heinous “we are watching you!” safeguards on ebooks, when I buy DRM proected ones, but I don’t think it would stop me from actually buying a book I really wanted.  Would it stop you?

File Formats

File formats = PDF and ePub account for 85% of files downloaded. Next is PRC/Mobi at 14%, other file formats combined equal less than 1.

NOTE: We believe PDF, ePub, and PRC/Mobi are the “must have” formats.

Agree, agree, agree.  With one proviso.

PRC/Mobi, by the way, is the platform that Kindle is built upon.  It’s actually identical to Kindle, except for a change in serial number and file name.

If you’re buying ebooks in a format different from these three/four, then you might want to think about starting to change over to one of these four.  Actually, three.  I’d give up on PDF, too.  It’s too unweildy for the fluid ereaders.  It’s a useful will-open-on-anything format, but as a permanent, native format, it has problems.  Pick either Kindle, ePub or Mobi, and find an eReader you love that uses that format (or use your cellphone, iPad or tablet), and start trading over.   Soon, everything will be available in these formats.  Yes, everything.

In terms of which romance sub-genres owned the biggest piece of the pie in 2011, the top 10 are = Erotica, Vampires/Werewolves/Shapeshifters, Gay Fiction, Paranormal, Contemporary, Sci-fi/Fantasy, Multiple Partners, Interracial, Historical, Time-travel, Drama, and BDSM.

No big surprises here.

 _____________________

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2. BLOOD KNOT Nominated Best Erotic Paranormal Romance 2011 My erotic urban fantasy MMF romance, Blood Knot, has been nominated for vampire book of the year by the reviewers at The Romance Reviews. Now...
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This post is part of a series.

Part 1: Damn Good Romances
Part II: Romantic Tension
Part III: Romantic Conflict
Part IV: Emotional Intensity

______________

Romantic Tension

Romantic Tension is one of those invisible elements in a romance novel.  New writers are often told they need romantic conflict, characters, a plot, and sometimes they’re even advised that emotional intensity is needed – and I’ll be covering some of these in later posts in this series.

But most courses and most primers on romance novels slide right over romantic tension, or else they lump it in with romantic conflict – which it isn’t.

Romantic tension is also sometimes called sexual tension, but sexual tension is a subset of romantic tension.

A perfect example of romantic tension is the classic first meeting moment.  You get it in every romance novel…the moment when the hero(es) and heroine first lay eyes on each other.  Any romance author worth their salt knows the value of that first meeting and the effect it can have on you, the reader, so usually they won’t miss the opportunity to really crank up the tension for the hero, the heroine – or you.

One I particularly enjoyed writing came from Mia’s Return, and as the title suggests, it wasn’t technically a first meeting, but the hero and heroine were meeting after over ten years apart, and the heroine, Mia, though the hero, Alexander, had died (warning — explicit language and images ahead!):

The elevator stopped on the next floor, with more people getting on, but by then his animal instinct was crowding him, making the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He was being watched. His heart thundered.

He made no sudden moves. Instead, as people pushed onto the elevator, he turned so his back was to the side wall of the car, giving him an excuse to look at everyone if he brought his head up.

He lifted his head and looked around.

She was standing on the other side of the car, almost completely obscured by the other riders because she was only just over five foot.

Mia. Shamira Menendez of San Diego, California.

His first aching thought was You’re so fucking beautiful, Mia.

Then reality caught him in the chest. Mia was staring at him because she thought he was dead. She thought he died ten years ago, in San Diego.

And now she was watching him with tears in her eyes and all he could think about was his swelling cock and his exploding heart and how much he wanted to take up where he had left off…bending her over the counter, sliding his cock into her pussy, and making her scream his name.

“Are you all right, sir?”

He tore his gaze away from Mia. “Excuse me?” he said hoarsely. He looked down at the grey-haired lady next to him.

“Your breathing is all funny,” she said. “Are you claustrophobic?”

Others were looking at him now. Becoming the centre of attention was never a good thing for a vampire. Zack had drilled that into him. Seaveth was even more of a sergeant about it now vampires were assimilating into human society. He swallowed. “I’m fine,” he said.

But he wasn’t. He looked at Mia. She was still watching. She knew it was him. There was no way to deny it. No escape. No bluff he could use to fool her. The knowledge gleamed in her eyes.

“Give him room, please,” she said. “Everyone, stand back a bit.” She was stepping closer, taking charge.

They all shuffled back, clearing eighteen inches. Mia squeezed between them and stepped into the space. “Take a deep breath,” she told him, her voice low.

He couldn’t tear his gaze from her face. The tears in her eyes pooled and one fell down her cheek. Just one. But she didn’t wipe it, or show any sign of emotion. Cool, calm, controlled. “We’re nearly there,” she added, speaking for the others in the car, maintaining the illusion of a claustrophobe in full panic mode. She knew as well as he did it was nothing of the sort.

As the doors opened, the others stood back, letting them exit first. She grabbed his lapels and hauled him from the car. He let her, for he stood a foot higher than her and outweighed her by nearly a hundred pounds. But her scent alone was wreathing his head and making his senses reel. Something with vanilla and…grapefruit? He could feel his incisors trying to descend and his mouth filling with vampire saliva to deaden her flesh so she wouldn’t feel the first piercing of his teeth. And his cock was pounding with the agonizing need to slam her up against the marbled walls of the foyer and fuck her senseless.

He was almost hyperventilating with the dilemma.

Her hand rested on his chest. God, he could feel her heat through her hand. He swallowed.

“You’re supposed to be dead,” she whispered. No hello. No attempt to confirm who he was. She was that sure of him despite ten years.

Mia’s Return, 2009

While not a traditional romance novel in the strictest sense, a really great (and famous) first meeting scene can be found in Gone With The Wind.   The snippy exchange between the pair is priceless:

 Her hand dropped to a little table beside her, fingering a tiny china rose-bowl on which two china cherubs smirked. The room was so still she almost screamed to break the silence. She must do something or go mad. She picked up the bowl and hurled it viciously across the room toward the fireplace. It barely cleared the tall back of the sofa and splintered with a little crash against the marble mantelpiece.

“This,” said a voice from the depths of the sofa, “is too much.”

Nothing had ever startled or frightened her so much, and her mouth went too dry for her to utter a sound. She caught hold of the back of the chair, her knees going weak under her, as Rhett Butler rose from the sofa where he had been lying and made her a bow of exaggerated politeness.

“It is bad enough to have an afternoon nap disturbed by such a passage as I’ve been forced to hear, but why should my life be endangered?”

He was real. He wasn’t a ghost. But, saints preserve us, he had heard everything! She rallied her forces into a semblance of dignity.

“Sir, you should have made known your presence.”

“Indeed?” His white teeth gleamed and his bold dark eyes laughed at her. “But you were the intruder. I was forced to wait for Mr. Kennedy, and feeling that I was perhaps persona non grata in the back yard, I was thoughtful enough to remove my unwelcome presence here where I thought I would be undisturbed. But, alas!” he shrugged and laughed softly.

Her temper was beginning to rise again at the thought that this rude and impertinent man had heard everything—heard things she now wished she had died before she ever uttered.

“Eavesdroppers—” she began furiously.

“Eavesdroppers often hear highly entertaining and instructive things,” he grinned. “From a long experience in eavesdropping, I—”

“Sir,” she said, “you are no gentleman!”

“An apt observation,” he answered airily. “And, you, Miss, are no lady.” He seemed to find her very amusing, for he laughed softly again. “No one can remain a lady after saying and doing what I have just overheard. However, ladies have seldom held any charms for me. I know what they are thinking, but they never have the courage or lack of breeding to say what they think. And that, in time, becomes a bore. But you, my dear Miss O’Hara, are a girl of rare spirit, very admirable spirit, and I take off my hat to you. I fail to understand what charms the elegant Mr. Wilkes can hold for a girl of your tempestuous nature. He should thank God on bended knee for a girl with your—how did he put it?—’passion for living,’ but being a poor-spirited wretch—”

“You aren’t fit to wipe his boots!” she shouted in rage.

“And you were going to hate him all your life!” He sank down on the sofa and she heard him laughing.

If she could have killed him, she would have done it. Instead, she walked out of the room with such dignity as she could summon and banged the heavy door behind her.

Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell

It’s not just the first meeting that creates romantic tension.  As I mentioned earlier, sexual tension is one of the classic ingrediants of a romance novels — these days it’s sometimes the only romantic tension element used, possibly over-used.  Hormones are a major player in any romance, real or fictional, and their swirl and surges add delicious tension all on their own:

She did not seem to mind his interruption. Again, she tilted her head to study him curiously. “Did you think I was lying?”

“I think… you’re capable of it. You let Thorsby think we were close friends.”

“You played along with it. Doesn’t that make you as much a liar as me?” She put her hands behind her back, like a small schoolgirl reporting to her head mistress. “Do I not get my tour of the conservatory now?”

The linking of her hands behind her back had a remarkable effect on her décolletage. Stuart found his gaze drawn there, yanked there and held with invisible pincers, despite the fact that as a gentleman, he never looked directly at a lady’s chest in public. He could feel his heart begin to beat with the old excitement that came from the type of hunt he preferred. Was she doing it deliberately? Her breasts were pushed toward him, lifted up by the heavy boning of her corset and almost offered to him. She was petite but her breasts were lush, coffee-cream globes.

He wrenched his gaze away and looked into her eyes. The same amusement was sparkling there and he knew she had done it deliberately.

She was testing him.

Had she been testing him all along?

But now she had moved the game onto pleasurable territory he considered his own. He relaxed and smiled at her, feeling more sure of himself. “I would be honoured to guide you through Lord Dumfrey’s famed conservatory,” he said, holding out his arm.

The Royal Talisman, 2012

There are all sorts of ways to increase romantic tension in a romance, beyond using sex, and a good writer will use them all.  One of them is what I call “indirection” — the use of witty little interchanges between the hero and heroine, all while sexual tension boils and simmers just beneath the surface as sub-text — in a searing glance, a studied pose, the symbolic stroke of a fingertip along a jawline…

It’s not misdirection, because the conversation can certainly be going somewhere, too.  Most often the conversation can be serving a useful purpose:  solving a crime, unravelling a paranormal mystery, all sorts of thriller sub-plots that might be afoot in which the hero and heroine are embroiled.

But it keeps the romance firmly centre stage and the tension cranked up while the rest of the story unravels.

And who said the reader has all the fun?

Next: Romantic Conflict

____________________

Related posts:

1. Damn Good Romances – Part 1 This post is part of a series. Part 1: Damn Good Romances Part II: Romantic Tension Part III: Romantic Conflict Part IV: Emotional Intensity ______________...
2. Ease Yourself Into MMF Romances – Part II How can MMF be Romantic? This is Part Two of a Series Part 1: Ménages Categorized Part 2: How can MMF be romantic? Part 3:...
3. Ease Yourself Into MMF Romances – Part I Ménages Categorized This is Part One of a Series Part 1: Ménages Categorized Part 2: How can MMF be romantic? Part 3: How To Read...
4. Are Romances Built On Hormones A Good Thing? I’ve been touring Betting With Lucifer around a few stops now, and a lot of the feedback I’ve been getting is that it’s a great...
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Stop #4 of the Bannockburn Binding book tour.   Today I’m at Vampire Romance Books where I’m spilling my guts about what terrible pilots vampires make, in “Vampires…Natural Space Travellers?”

Swing by for an excerpt that hasn’t been seen anywhere else, and drop a line saying hello. I’m giving away a copy of Blood Knot today, too!

____________

Also, Bannockburn Binding is out in print on Amazon, now, too!

Bannockburn Binding - Tracy

Blood Knot by Tracy Cooper-Posey

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Berengaria has visited here before.  Apparently, she had so much fun, she’s back to do it all again.

Wednesday, December 21st, Berengaria will be stopping by to talk about herself, life, and her latest MMF romance, Santa Baby.

Oh yeah, and she’s giving away an ebook from her backlist to a random commentor, so don’t miss out.

———

Jaid hates the annual family Christmas party, a huge event with people she doesn’t recognize or like. She’s hot and horny and looking for action on the holidays.

But this year things look brighter. Her second cousin, Greg, and his partner, Steve, invite her to spend time with them. Two sexy Santas for Jaid? Oh Santa baby!

Related posts:

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2. Working Notes – December 12, 2011 I’m one of those writers who doesn’t believe in writer’s block.  I don’t think it exists as an independent condition.  If a writer can’t bring...
3. Ease Yourself Into MMF Romances – Part I Ménages Categorized This is Part One of a Series Part 1: Ménages Categorized Part 2: How can MMF be romantic? Part 3: How To Read...
4. What I’m Reading – December 5 Even when I was in hospital, I didn’t get huge amounts of time to read — shocking, I know.  Mark smuggled my laptop into isolation,...
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Even when I was in hospital, I didn’t get huge amounts of time to read — shocking, I know.  Mark smuggled my laptop into isolation, and saved me from going insane.  I wrote blog posts and my latest book instead of reading.

But there were times when I simply too tired to do either, and I did read to pass the time.  Being locked up in a 12 x 12 room by yourself means you’ll do anything to keep from being bored, even when you have the energy of a slug.

So I got a few books read, and I have a few more lined up inside my various readers, because I spent quite a bit of time browsing the on-line bookstores when the nurses weren’t looking.

Silken Threads by Patricia Ryan is possibly the first non-erotic long historical romance I’ve read and finished in about five years.  And it was a near-thing, too.  I was close to putting it aside around the second chapter or so because it looked like it was shaping up to be a typical poor abused heroine/big misunderstanding plot.  But it veered off that well-beaten path and I kept reading.

Although the “sexy” moniker on the cover is probably stretching it, the book was entertaining enough to hold my attention for its full length.  That’s quite an achievement these days, as my internal writer/editor is usually screaming in agony with many books, forcing me to abandon them because they’re not how I would have written/edited them.

While I was completing my annual walk through The Lord Of The Rings on DVD, I also picked up the e-book version of another fabulous epic:  Gone With The Wind.

It’s been many, many years since I watched or read Gone With The Wind, but as I had time on my hands, and as trekking through epics seemed to be a theme at the moment, and there was a reasonably priced e-book version available, I jumped at the opportunity.

I quite like the movie version, but you really have to read Gone With The Wind to fully appreciate why such a fuss was made of it when it was first published.  Yes, it’s incredibly long.  But the detail in the story is mind-boggling.  Mitchell did her homework when it came to the war and living conditions in the south.

And then there’s the (sort of) romance.  Rhett Butler is the epitome of the alpha romance hero.  Dashing, enigmatic, physical, and endlessly playing mind games with Scarlett because he wants her — but on his terms.

Scarlett though…

Scarlett is a fascinating character, but not as a romance heroine in today’s terms.  She almost fits into the Too-Stupid-Too-Live category, and at times, her blindness over Rhett’s feelings just drives you crazy with frustration.  Her relentless self-absorption and self-centredness, despite the incredibly harsh lessons life keeps handing out over and over again, are a little unrealistic.  Any real person would adapt and change.  Even characters in books change over the course of the novel.  But not Scarlett.  She keeps on keeping on…hanging onto her teenage crush over Ashley, blinkered to the real world and anyone else’s feelings but her own.  She utterly lacks change — except toward the end of the novel there are some incremental adjustments to her thinking and responses (finally!) to the wholesale evolution of the world around her.  These tiny compromises are enough for her to realize she loves Rhett, but too late to keep him.

It’s Scarlett’s one dimensional character that makes Gone With The Wind such a chore to read.  Everything else about the novel is fabulous.

I do wish I had her waist dimensions, though!

______________________

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Happy Birthday, Barbara Ann Cooper.  My Mum.

My Mum lives in Australia, and believe it or not, she reads every single one of my posts, although some of them have to crisp the hair in her nostrils!  She also keeps every copy of every one of my books that I give her, but I know there are some of which she’s never had the courage to crack the covers.  (grin)  Just the two men on the front cover is enough for her.

Still, she is proud of the fact that I’m published, regardless of what I write.  That’s more than many romance writers get from their families, who find the whole genre too tawdry to speak of aloud, so:  Go, Mum!

___

I crawled home (it felt like crawling) from the hospital yesterday, and after 10 days locked up in a 12 x 12 isolation room, I now have the energy of a sloth.

Needless to say, progress on the novel is likewise crawling.

But with better food, actual fresh air coming through the windows, uninterrupted sleep and some real activity (climbing stairs, etc), I may find some reserves for getting some serious wordage put down on paper…if the universe is aligned right and feeling kindly, that is.

We’ll see.

____

In the wake of the huge spike in traffic that the MMF Romance series has created, and because there is a dearth of resources and groups for MMF Romance, I have created a new Facebook group: MMF Romance Novels.  As far as my searching and delving shows me, it is the only MMF Romance group on Facebook or Yahoo, or Google.

If you love your menages, please come and join the group. You can help build this group into an great place for readers to find information on new (to them) MMF authors and titles and more. Plus it can be a place where like-minded readers and authors can hang out and talk about the novels they love without fear of ridicule or worse.

See you there.

Tracy

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How can MMF be Romantic?

This is Part Two of a Series
Part 1: Ménages Categorized
Part 2: How can MMF be romantic?
Part 3: How To Read Your First MMF Romance
Part 4: Where To Find Your MMF Romances
Part 5: Narrow Down Your List of Potential MMF Novels To Read
Part 6: Keeping Track
_____

If you’re new to the idea of MMF then the most frequent newbie question is:  How can MMF romances possibly be romantic?  With two guys, er, doing it to each other?  Doesn’t it turn into a pornographic sex-fest?

Well, with two hot alpha-style (usually) guys and their hormones in the driving seat, there’s no denying the sex gets hot in MMF romances.

But un-romantic?

Oh wow…that just about qualifies for the understatement of the year.

There’s plenty of hard evidence (pun not really intended, but I’ll let it stand) that MMF romances are more romantic than straight MF romance, by, oh, a factor of three to one.

Some Basic Math

Straight MF romance novels work well — they’re at their most romantic and effective best — when the romantic conflict is pushed as high as it will go.  In other words, the author has arranged it so that the hero and heroine are as tested, romantically, as it is possible to strain two people and still keep their love for each other alive.  It’s these sorts of books that readers find unput-downable.

In a straight MF novel, there is only one set of romantic conflict.  There is only the hero and heroine:  M <–> F .

In an MFM novel, you have three people interacting, but the two males only interact romantically with the female.  The males are often related to each other, and therefore may love each other in filial ways (brotherly love), but do not grow to love each other romantically.

In MFM romances, therefore, there is only two possible sets of romantic conflict: between hero A and the heroine (1) and between hero B and the heroine (2).  These romances provide twice the amount of romantic conflict, and some confusion for the heroine — especially if she feels she has to pick between the two heroes.

You can imagine that if an MFM novel sets up twice the amount of conflict and confusion, how much better an MMF romance gets.

Hero A and heroine (1)
Hero B and heroine (2)
Hero A and Hero B (3)

Plus, all three characters are facing romantic dilemmas:

• They’re falling in love with two people at the same time (or they might already be in love with one and falling in love with the second).
•  Romantic guilt is rampant, until the menage is settled (that is, if these characters have any sort of moral conscience at all!),
•  If the author sets her plot up for maximum romantic tension, then the characters will also have to consider romantic sacrifice, too: giving up the one they love so that the second one they love will be happy.

Neither of these last two romantic dilemmas is possible in any sort of romance but an MMF romance!

Then, consider the Character combinations.

MF has your basic girl/guy combo.  The hero can be alpha, or beta or the new style Gamma (A short-hand definition of a Gamma would be a politically correct Alpha male).

MFM opens up all the possibilities:  The two heroes could be any combination of all the endless types of heroes we like.  Alpha and a Beta, or an unredeemed bad boy with a metro-sexual beta…the author’s imagination and the heroine, genre and inspiration provides unlimited possibilities.

Except…neither of the heroes interact with each other romantically, so dreaming up fabulous combinations means very little.  They’re just two more interesting heroes for the heroine to fall in love with.  A Yin and Yang bookend for her heart to collect.

Let those two heroes romantically collide and all sorts of romance possibilities can develop.  The character of the two heroes adds depth and layers to the romantic conflict already in place, can provide fuel to fan the fire and really blow the conflict into a raging inferno.  Add in the heroine’s drives, ambitions and character, and the romantic conflict takes on nuclear meltdown characteristics.

How the romances are resolved in an MMF provides endless novel possibilities, too.

When you consider the many thousands of straight MF romance novels that have been written and published over the decades, coming up with a fresh way to bring the hero and heroine happily together at the end of the novel just isn’t possible these days.  It’s all been done before.  Authors rely on the uniqueness of their characters and situations to provide the novelty, now.

There is a reason why romantic “tropes” are listed and laughed over:  The amnesia plot, the pregnant bride plot, the big misunderstanding plot….  They’ve all been done before.

In MMF romances, because there are three characters in the romance, and the genre is so new, the plot possibilities are still fresh and novel, and the way the romance is resolved at the end is still often a mystery until the end for you, the reader.  You get to be genuinely surprised by how it all gets sorted out.

 How can two guys “falling in love” be romantic?

1. Brokeback Mountain
2. If you haven’t tried reading an MMF yet, you’re going to have trouble with the concept, plain and simple, because you’re getting the idea of the sex act mixed up with love.  Two different things.  And yes, both sex and love between two men are included in an MMF novel.  But it’s possible you’re thinking ewww, gay porn.   Or even, simply, oh, bisexual, then?
3. Stop.  Don’t put labels on it.  Love is love.  We’re talking about a romance novel and about love, the greatest emotion on the planet.  Romance novels celebrate that emotion and its power to move mountains, conquer heroes and bring them to their knees.  And that’s exactly what happens to the two men in an MMF romance.  They’re humbled by love for two people, one who just happens to be male, the other female.  And their lives are utterly changed by that love.  You will thrill to see it happen, I guarantee it.
4. Here’s another reassurance.  MMF romances are written for a female (primarily – something like 99.8%) audience.  The book is designed to thrill and entertain you, the reader.  Therefore the heroes are gorgeous, hunky, driven, and desperate..and sexy to the nth degree.  They aren’t going to do anything that will turn off a female reader who understands the MMF genre.  The books are romance, first and foremost, designed to appeal to you.
5. And don’t forget, the heroes in an MMF novel are also falling in love with the heroine at the same time — the romantic tension is tripled and conflict, the engine of any good book, spirals.

Ultimately

MMF is more romantic than MF or MFM because:

1. It has two sexy, desparate heroes that interact with each other, not one or two independent heroes
2. It holds three times more romantic conflict than MF novels and a third more than MFM novels.
3. It has more emotional tension and
4. more potential for novel romantic entanglements and difficulties

In the right author’s hands, MMF will melt your heart, and you’ll wonder why you ever hesitated to read one.

Next:

How to read your first MMF Romance.

More resources:

My MMF Romances

Additional Articles:

The MMF Thing…How to Get It

MM and MMF – Let’s Try Again. Why Do Women Like Men Who Like Men?

Do Women Like MMF?

The Heroes in MMF Romance Don’t Need Classification

__________________

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1. Ease Yourself Into MMF Romances – Part I Ménages Categorized This is Part One of a Series Part 1: Ménages Categorized Part 2: How can MMF be romantic? Part 3: How To Read...

Ménages Categorized

This is Part One of a Series
Part 1: Ménages Categorized
Part 2: How can MMF be romantic?
Part 3: How To Read Your First MMF Romance
Part 4: Where To Find Your MMF Romances
Part 5: Narrow Down Your List of Potential MMF Novels
Part 6: Keeping Track
_____

If you’ve never, ever, picked up an erotic romance with more than the requisite single hero and heroine featured in the romance before now, but you’re reading this post, that means:

1.  You’re curious about ménage stories.

2.  You’re not sure where to start — what’s a mild menage?  What’s too hot and might turn you off? (You’ve heard that there’s some really x-rated stuff out there, after all).

3.  You might even have tried a ménage romance before, and it wasn’t to your taste, but you read enough of it, that you know you’d like to try again.  You’re still curious.  But you want to ease into the genre properly.

4.  A lot of the acronyms, terminology and the huge range of ménage romances out there might possibly bewilder you.

5.  You have no idea who is a good author for this stuff, and who isn’t, and your favourite author doesn’t touch it.

Where to start?

That’s what this series will help do:  Get you started reading ménage romances, confident that you’re beginning with the best type for you.

Although the title of the series is “Ease Yourself Into MMF Romances,” that’s because MMF romances are the most popular (by far) of all the many types of ménage romances available these days (and we’ll get around to talking about the different types in just a tick).  You might decide you want to start off with a different type of ménage than MFF.  But this series will still help you sort out where to start — just use the same guidelines for your choice of ménage.

However, try to keep an open mind as you read along.  Don’t automatically blank out on MMF because of the two-guy thing.  There are some absolutely heart-rending and emotionally-rich, roller-coaster romances out there under the MMF tag and you’ll miss out on them because you’re categorically refusing to touch MMF.

And yes, I’m speaking from experience.  I had to ease myself into MMF at first.  And now, after almost four years writing MMF romances nearly 90% of the time, I find straight MF romances somewhat bland in comparison, t0 both read and write.  I have to work hard to keep romantic tension level high in those novels.

But now, some definitions.

Ménage.

Surprisingly, ménage does not mean “three.”   The strict definition of a ménage is “A social unit living together.”  Therefore, the ménage groups that end up living happily ever-after in romance novels are actually closer to the true definition than the temporary groups that come together for sex, then go their separate ways.

The word “ménage” that makes people think of “three” is actually shortened from “ménage à trois“…and that does mean “group of three” — although it still means a group of three that lives together.

You can have more than three in a ménage, and there are romances published that feature four and five in the group — with three heroes or four.  These are called, respectively, ménage à quattro and ménage à cinque.     These menages with the higher number of heroes are unusual and don’t sell nearly as well as the threesomes.

I supposed it’s possible to have a group of six or seven or even more, but I haven’t heard of a romance novel with this many featured…although Robert Heinlein described such a permanent family group in his science fiction novel series that began with Time Enough For Love and featured Lazarus Long and the Long Family.  (Side note:  I cry at the end of the novel, every time I read it.  Damn it.  For dry science fiction that was published over twenty-five years ago, that’s pretty impressive.)

I haven’t heard of a polyandrous, permanent love group in a published romance that features more than one female.

MMF/MFM/MFF and more.

As if defining the numbers in the group wasn’t enough.

Ménage romances are also subdivided by the genders in the group, and who-does-what-to-whom.  As some readers refuse to read bisexual sex scenes (and I hesitate to add even that much of a defining label to it), it quickly became necessary for publishers to find a way to indicate if the men (and later, the women) in the ménage paid any sexual attention to each other, or if they focused solely on the woman and ignored the other male.

The most traditional “threesome,” the one that naturally appeals to most women, is the idea of two hot-blooded, purely heterosexual males climbing into bed with her and spending all their time concentrating on her and her sexual pleasure.  I mean, why wouldn’t that idea appeal to any heterosexual woman?

So the acronym that was invented for the traditional ménage became, simply, MFM.  And you can see that the Males in this threesome are nicely separated by the Female.

Very quickly, threesomes where the two men in the bed turned to pleasuring each other as well started showing up on the romance shelves.  These ménages acquired the acronym MMF.  With the two M’s beside each other, it’s pretty clear that there is no delineation of roles and sex play.  Everyone is into each other.   These are the ménage romances that outsell all others these days.  They are enormously popular.  I know from my own sales records and royalty statements that any of my books that feature MMF romance relationships will sell at least five times more copies than a romance of the same genre and length, but with only an MF relationship.

More recently, a second female in the threesome has been introduced into Romanceland.  Whether it is a success or a marginalized specialty, the verdict is still out.  But it remains a legitimate style of ménage:  MFF.  Don’t think that MFF is the same thing as the type of threesome that men fantasize about, however.  Men generally have visions of two hot, overly-well endowed women spending their time and attention on him and his…er, nether regions, while cooing compliments.  MFF in woman’s romance is a different species altogether.  It is a romance first and foremost, and therefore all three in the group eventually fall in love and commit to each other, at least for now.  The sex scenes feature female on female sex acts, as well as female/male sex.

In romance novels with groups numbering more than three, they tend to live in a little…well, group — of their own.  But even here, before the reader reads the romance, they’re going to want to know how everyone in that group interacts.   Sometimes you’ll see a romance of this type listed as FMMM or MFMM, or even MFMFMMM or some such.  But once you get past three members of a group, there is no way to indicate with a simple arrangement of letters all the possible sexual activities and variations.  Some of the men in the group might only play with the female(s), and some might not.  Or all of them…or none of them.  And there’s no romance industry standard or industry preference.  Yet.  The only way to figure out who does what is to hope that the blurb gives it away, and then read the book.

—

Ménages, and MMF ménages in particular, cross all romance genres.  You’ll find them in every subcategory:  Romantic suspense, urban fantasy, historical, paranormal, contemporary romance.  If you have a favourite type of romance novel, it’s a sure bet there’s an MMF romance author writing in it, somewhere.

Next:

How can MMF be romantic?

More resources:

My MMF Romances

Additional Articles:

The MMF Thing…How to Get It

MM and MMF – Let’s Try Again. Why Do Women Like Men Who Like Men?

Do Women Like MMF?

The Heroes in MMF Romance Don’t Need Classification

__________________

Related posts:

1. If You’re Really Alert… For the super energetic Saturday morning browsers, a little bonus.  I’ve just put up a page for the sequel to Blood Knot.  You’ll find some...

We read so many romance novels featuring heroes who sacrifice enormously to win and keep the heart of the woman they love.

We thrill to the idea of a man giving his all for love but we know that it’s just a novel and, in real life, love isn’t quite like that. Relationships are more stable, more about compromise and equality.

Grand, eloquent statements of love only happen in the movies and on our wedding days.

And sometimes, we hear odd, touching stories on the Internet or in our communities about someone who has done something wonderful to declare their love, like sending five hundred letters to carefully selected businesses so that the right windows in the right office towers spell out “Dan Loves Mary” the night he proposes in the restaurant across the river.

But that’s just at the start of the relationship, when the endorphins are high and everything looks just wonderful.

Then there’s my grandfather.

Actually, he’s my step-grandfather, but he was always there right from my earliest memories, so he may as well be my grandfather.

I called him Grandy, and I have no idea where the name came from.  He had a strong Welsh heritage, so that might have had something to do with it.  Grandy was always just there and frankly, I took him for granted up until he died.

It wasn’t until I went back to Australia in May this year — fifteen years after I left the country, and nearly twenty-five years after his death — that I learn how the man subsumed his personality, his life…for love.

Cecil Albert Radford married my grandmother, Isabelle, before I was born.  He was a car salesman, and a good one — one of the best in Western Australia.

That was a surprise for me, because the man I knew had been so quietly spoken and introverted, and car salesmen…well, they aren’t.  So there had been a major change in his personality, or else he had just been good at his job despite his natural personality.  Or something in between.

When they met, Grandy had been a 2 handicap golfer.  That means he was very, very good.  And when he got married he stopped playing, because my grandmother didn’t play.

Okay, so far.  Lots of people give up major passions to keep the love of their life sweet.  Happens all the time.  Clearly, he made a decision and stuck to his guns.  Good for him.

Then, later into my trip, I found out just how decisive and bloody-minded he could be, in order to keep the woman he loved.

I learned that Grandy had been married once before.  And he had a daughter from that marriage.  Both his ex-wife and daughter were still alive, and he cut them both out of his life when he married my grandmother, at her request.

He never saw his first family again.

It’s both appalling and uplifting, what real love can do to people and lives. On the one hand, it melded two people together for over forty years.  On the other, it ripped a father away from his daughter for forty years…and counting.

For that reason, and for one other, you could never write about the real power of true love in romance novels.

Real love doesn’t show up in conveniently show-cased moments, like the man who writes “Dan Loves Mary” on office block towers in a single scene.

It shows over forty years of stubborn refusal to visit a daughter who lives in the same city, because of a woman’s request, and the discipline to give up a loved sport because that same woman doesn’t have an interest in it.

You can’t write dramatic scenes that show that sort of love.  Readers would fall asleep over it.  And they would be angry at the negative side of it, too, because romance novels persist in only showing the positive, upbeat side of love.

And real love sometimes hurts at the same time it gives pleasure.

When real people fall in love, there are other people whose hearts get broken…for real.  There are ex-partners and would-be-partners who despair because they know their chances are finally over.  There are parents who despair because unsuitable partners go on to destroy their children’s’ lives and they must stand back and watch, and merely pick up the wreckage.

There are children — both adult and minors — who must stand by and watch as parents fall in love with new partners while their discarded other parent goes through the pain of watching their ex fall in love and deal with all the jealousy and rage that goes with it.

Even for the pair who are falling in love, there is often doubt and fear and adjustment.  Compromise — lots of it.  But there is also the high of first love to make up for it all, which helps.

But that’s the sort of real love that life is made of.

I wish I’d got to know my grandfather better.  I never really knew him at all.

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