A Category Romance Primer
by Juliette Hyland
I started writing category romance for Harlequin/Mills and Boon in 2019 with my first book published in 2020. Twenty-five plus books and online reads later, I still get the following question all the time: What is category romance? Usually they immediately follow up with: Okay, but why would you write that? The answer to the first question is in the next section, but before I answer that, I have to address the second.
I fell in love with category romance as a teen. I snuck them off my mother’s and grandmother’s shelves (though today’s category does not look like the ones I read under my covers with a flashlight).
Category Romances are what I like to call mental candy. Their whole purpose is to make the reader feel good. Yes, there are suspense categories, and you might jump off your seat a bit, but when you read that last page, you are satisfied. Everyone in the story is happily loved up.
Some big names either started in category romance or still add category books to their impressive list of publications. Nora Roberts, Maisey Yates, Jeannie Lin, Farrah Rochon, Teri Wilson and many others. I will admit that seeing my books on shelves or in ads from Harlequin with some of these ladies was more than a dream come true.
What Category Romance is? And where it exists in trad and indie publishing.
Honestly, the best way to think of category is a romance book not just with a central romance focus (part of the romance genre requirement) but as a romance book taken down to its core—the romance between the main characters. This is the only real focus of the book. Everything else is a distant second.
These books have tight word counts. Most are between 50k and 55k; though there is some wiggle room based on which category you are in. The side characters that are a staple in longer romances (called Single Title) are largely absent. There might be a quirky best friend who runs a coffee shop, but she, or he, is window dressing. No real substance. Everything is drilled in on the main character’s path to happily ever after.
Traditional
The other thing that makes a category romance a category romance are the requirements for the line you are publishing in. Each category line has requirements around the main characters, location, and heat level expected. At its heart, these requirements are promises you are making to the reader.
The biggest name in category romance is my publisher, Harlequin/Mills and Boon. But they are not the only name in the game. Tule Publishing has lines dedicated to locations in the US and more than one of their romances has hit the television screen. Entangled Publishing also has submissions open for their category lines.
Indie
Category works in indie publishing, too. You might not see it marketed as category romance; though a quick search in Amazon generates multiple indie stories mixed in with the trad published books. Why does it work in indie? Because category at its heart is all about meeting reader expectations. So, if you are reliably delivering a short and spicy mafia romance or a lovely cowboy romance or any other consistent short romance type to your readers, you are writing a form of category romance!
Meeting the reader’s expectations
All genre fiction requires you to meet reader expectations. Write a cozy mystery and don’t have your mystery solved? Watch how fast the knifes come out. Romance requires a happily ever after or happily for now ending. It is the promise you are giving your reader.
Category takes the happily ever after requirement and layers in the line requirements. If you pick up a Harlequin Medical or a Tule Montana Born, you know you are getting your happily ever after plus medical professionals or a story set in the hills and ranches of Montana. The reader goes for exactly what they want.
When I write for Harlequin Medical, the main characters must be in the medical field (or veterinarians) but I have wiggle room in location. I’ve set stories in teaching hospitals in large cities and in the Alaskan outback, with two doctors doing their best to serve a community in a harsh winter environment. Medicals also have a large heat difference, so while mine are on the higher heat level, others have no on page intimacy. The Romance Line is all about wealth and fantasy. The locations need to scream power, wealth and privilege, as do the characters. Like the medical line, there is a range of sensuality levels.
You can find the requirements for each Harlequin/Mills and Boon category at this link. Tule is located here and Entangled here. Remember, these are not suggestions, they are requirements. And that is fine because readers eat them up.
Crafting your own story. No, I am not talking about following formulas.
So you’ve found a category romance line that calls to you. You understand the basic line requirements. Now what?
Category romance follows the same romance beats as single title romance, just in a much tighter word count.
- Intro to the main characters
- A meet cute
- The moment where they can no longer go their separate ways
- Your main characters grow together, and it looks like everything will work out
- But before that growth finishes, they fall back into their old ways (a little)
- The black moment: where our main characters fear all hope is lost
- Finally, the grand gesture where our main characters proclaim their love and live happily ever after
The best resource I have ever found for reader expectations in romance is, Romancing the Beat, by Gwen Hayes.
But Juliette the heading says you aren’t talking about formulas!
I’m not. There is no formula for a category romance, or any other genre fiction, books. But there are reader expectations or beats, if you are a Save the Cat Writes a Novel fan.
The world is still very much your oyster. As a medical romance author I have stories with a secret prince OBGYN, a former child actress turned GP, a doctor who moved into the research lab and runs into his former college boyfriend, an emergency doctor at the South Pole—my newest release.
In the Romance line, I have a princess lottery that starts with the prince drawing her name out of a giant glass bowl. Book two in that series (yep, you can do series in category romance) has the king choosing his queen by yanking her name out of a hat. Well, technically her sister’s name, but still.
The story possibilities are literally limitless! That is one of the reasons I fell so hard for category romance as a reader. And it is the reason that I continue to come back to the lines as a writer over and over again.
Drop any questions you have in the comment section below.
Added bonus, tell me an over-the-top or just regular romance idea you have and I will see which category line I can slide it into.
Opportunity:
Someone who answers the bonus will win free registration to Category Romance: Writing Short for the Win, my August 4-29th email class on crafting your very first category romance where we really dive into how to make the magic happen. Tomorrow afternoon I’ll have random-org draw a name and post it at the end of the comments — so check back then, because class will start soon!
* * * * * *
About Juliette
Juliette Hyland has written more than twenty-five books for Harlequin/Mills & Boon, Imprints of Harper Collins. She's given workshops around the country, in person and via Zoom, on writing craft. Her favorite topic of all time is writing tropes - she always finds ways to sneak it into conversations. Her favorite question for authors - why?
You can find Juliette here:
- Website: www.juliettehyland.com
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/authorjuliettehyland
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/juliettehyland/
- Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/16954530.Juliette_Hyland
Top image by Juliette Hyland via Depositphotos and Canva.
Leave a Reply
22 comments on “A Category Romance Primer”
Tagged as:
Subscribe to WITS
Recent Posts
- The Dos and Don’ts of Blogging for Writers
- Common Questions Writers Are Asked
- The Hidden Cost of Spam: How Emails Waste Real Resources
- What Actually Scares Me About AI
- Three Ways to Develop Characters in Fiction
Welcome, Juliette! This is great information! I haven't done much romance, but I do have plans to write one involving a homeschooled girl who accidentally defeats an alien invasion and then finds the love of her dreams in her security guard. Part of my playful science fiction series.
I asked for over the top and you delivered!!! Carina Press, an imprint of Harlequin, does do sci-fi romance so there is a possible place in the category world for this very fun sounding story!
I've been a romance reader and author for many years. Your post is spot on! I'm in the planning stages of this scenario, a rom-com: P.I. goes undercover to the mountains on the trail of just-released ex-con jewelry thieves who he believes have buried their loot up there. Cabin next door is beautiful, successful cookbook author and podcaster. He must keep his identity a secret from her. Raccoon hijinks, inept thieves can't find their loot, etc. Is there a specific rom-com line?
Yes!! Entangled Publishing does Romcoms and so does Carina Press. Very interesting premise!!!
I love reading (and writing) romance. It is my happy place!
I'm in awe of the fact that you've written twenty five books in five years. How on earth did you achieve that? Interesting though because I had no idea there was such a thing as category romance and I've categorised my two Indie published novels as romance, although they are not really. Both are set in Ireland and fit more into the women's fiction category although they do have romantic elements. I write as liz Doran. Thanks for the informative post. As a teenager I used to read my mother's Victoria Holt novels. All those swooning women in too tight corsets wearing emerald velvet dresses and tripping over their hems on the Cornish coast, only to be saved by the handsome man of the manor.
I totally loved Victoria Holt and Mary Stewart!
Catgorizing indie's is so important and soooo much work. I have one indie book and that list is daunting!
Fell in love with Category Romance in my thirties and most of my favorite authors are in the Category Romance genre. Been dancing around completing my first romance for years. Fingers crossed this is the year I complete it. Great post and going to check out Romancing the Beat.
Romancing the Beat is the best resource!!! You will not be disappointed.
For all that people tend to think of Romance as one big homogenous label, it's always interesting to learn just how many subgenres and subcategories there are. Thanks for spelling some of it out! I'm working on a fantasy series with a strong romance element, so posts like this are helpful. 🙂
So would I be wrong in thinking Hallmark movies qualify as a category romance? I've toyed with some fantasy takes on Hallmark tropes just for laughs:
An unlucky-in-love werewolf gets dumped right before the winter holidays. What’s a girl to do but hire someone to pose as her boyfriend for her pack’s big Solstice celebration? But she discovers too late that the handsome werewolf she hired is from a rival pack! As the charade gets more complicated, so do her feelings for the werewolf who’s starting to feel less like a fake boyfriend and more like a real keeper. (Title: Happy Howlidays)
A big-city Elf must return to her small town to save her family’s magical plant nursery from going out of business - or from being bought out by the big-box magical garden center run by a handsome but infuriating High Elf who's convinced he's better than these small-town Elves. Our heroine has no intention of losing her family’s business--or her heart--to a High Elf who always plays to win.
I love these takes. I've never thought of movies that way. Now I will have to have a think on that!
Hi, Juliette! This is a short blurb from a completed manuscript that I submitted to LIS, but was turned down because the reader knows from the beginning who is after the heroine. Is it possible it would fit somewhere else?
On the run from a cold-blooded killer, Diana Roberts needs three things: a safe place to hide with her children, a new identity, and a bit of luck. FBI agent Sam Johnson seeks revenge for his brother’s murder while on an undercover investigation. But saving Diana and her kids from danger soon becomes top priority.
So with suspense the reader wants to go on the investigative journey with the hero and heroine. It is one of the reader expectations of suspense. I would suggest looking to see if there was a way to adjust the story so your reader goes along with the journey.
Thank you, Juliette. So informative. I think my latest (almost finished) work is a love story rather than a M/M rom because it has other important characters besides the American Jewish guy and the Palestinian Israeli young man he meets while visiting Jerusalem. But despite the seas and continents between them they do have their HEA.
It sounds like a romance. If you M/M have a happily ever after or a happy for now ending than you have written a romance. But if you have well developed side characters, you have a trade romance. Still a romance just a longer one that doesn't fall directly into the category folder. Good luck with your Romance!!!
Category was my gateway into reading romance in late elementary and middle school--I borrowed them from my mom's pile.
I love how this is so many people story about category. I got them from my mom and fell in love with happily ever afters!
Thanks for this. I've never really tried writing category romance, but it sounds like something I'd like to do.
My romance is a time travel where a woman goes back to medieval England to become the mother of King Arthur.
Wow! A timeslip! So fun. I am not sure if there is a place taking timeslip but I think Tule has some category with light fantasy elements. I saw give category a go. If nothing else, it teaches craft!
Hi everyone!
Thanks for the lovely comments. I ran the names of everyone who commented through [Link deleted]And the winner of the free registration to my category romance class is Chrissie!
Chrissie, please send me an email at ju******@************nd.com and I will get everything set up.
Juliette
Love your recap, and thank you! Though I fell way behind in my emails and missed when you dropped this. SO much good information for everyone to appreciate. Wishing you a fantastic course! Not answering the bonus because 1) your course began! and, since you know me, I'm writing young adult with romance. Not yet trying that tough juggle of full romance, let alone category.
[…] A Category Romance Primer […]