So I’m about to finish book 1 (first draft) of my dark mafia romance trilogy. And over all I’d written like 7 smut chapters. The book is heavy with plot characters dynamics and stuff…

Also one of the tropes in my book is “marriage with benefits.” To make it short MMC and FMC are forced to marry for various reasons but then the FMC proposes a deal to MMC to turn their forced marriage in one that benefits them both, turning things sexually. At the same time fmc is a spy giving information to a rival mafia but in the mean time fall in love

I just don’t know if to put more smut chapters since the book will be labeled as marriage with benefits and readers will expect smut but at the same time I hate when mafia books are too much with smut and we don’t get to know the characters or none existent plot.

Any tips? What should I do? Any fellow authors who had the same problem?

7 smut chapters is the perfect number for me because then it get too repetitive (and the ones I wrote are very filthy 😏 quality over quantity) it’s the first book of a trilogy…

Thanks in advance!

I’m writing my first dark romance book/series. I’m struggling with writing more than 500 or so words a day. Is this normal for new/beginner writers?

I feel like I struggle with word flow and I think that’s what is hindering me from writing more words when I write.

Any tips?

Hello all. I have written a romance novel, set in England in the 50's. I am searching for a narrator, and several people have auditioned on ACX. Some are male and some female. If I had to choose only one person to narrate (due to costs) do people prefer female narrators over male ones for a historical romance? There are some very sexy scenes too...just wondering if there is an ICK factor when listening to a male voice especially during the s3x scenes?

I might add that it is written in 3rd person, equally shared POV's. She is 18, and he is 27. TIA.

My novella is about 50% sex scenes, but also heavy on world building and sweet romantic scenes. It's romantasy, and sex is a necessary part of the entire story. Should I put it in the erotica category on Amazon, or in the romance category with steamy keywords?

Hi everyone! I’ve been working through plotting a long series in a small town. Each book is a standalone romance, but different characters, you know the deal. As I was breaking the story, it just made logical sense to me to have the gender/sexuality of the couples be different over the course of the series. The larger portion of them wound up cishet M/F but a fair number came out as F/F, M/M and a few were trans or on the non-binary spectrum. I myself am queer (pan) so none of this felt out of reach to write, but when I told a friend who reads the genre a lot they suggested I might be stabbing myself in the foot sales wise. Like if book 3’s pairing is different than the original target audience of book 1 & 2 my sales and read through would drop and I might regret the choice. Basically they argued to pick any pairing but to stick to it for the series and then do another series for a different gender/sex pairing so as not to splinter my readership. I have such mixed feelings about this. Is that true? I don’t think I would care if the sexuality in a series was different as long as the book was the same world/vibe. But maybe I’m super wrong. Maybe gender/sex plays a huge role in someone’s decision to read the book? I am writing with the book wth the intention of making a full time income after 5-10 years so sales do matter a lot to me, especially long term read through. I am so torn! Any thoughts or input from published authors would be much appreciated!

I am hoping this follows the rules! I didn't see a weekly thread anywhere.

I am writing a friends to lovers romance. In it, the MMC's sister dies. That sister is also the best friend of the FMC. Anyway, I'm trying to decide if the death should be the very first scene (so they have enough time to mourn and fall in love). I think I prefer this because I honestly don't want the reader to feel the HUGE emotional impact of someone dying halfway through a romance. However a friend (who is great at writing) said that it would probably be better about 25% of the way through so that the reader gets to know that character that dies more.

What would you do in this situation? The death is important to the book so I want to keep it. I'm just not 100% sure whether it's best to put it at the very beginning or 25-50% through.

I’m currently rereading mine and instead of getting lost in the story, my brain keeps going:

“I could’ve phrased that better.”
“Why did I use that word twice?”
“This scene needed one more line.”

Tell me I’m not the only one.

Hello, I originally posted this in RomanceBooks, but I wasn't allowed to post there. I wanted romance readers' opinions, but this might be better haha.

I am writing an MM romance novel (my first), and I wanted to get some opinions from the pros.

My book is about two friends who meet at work, become friends, go their separate ways, and then are brought back together as friends (and romantically obvi). My question is: how do you feel about time jumps in romance novels, especially when combined with other tropes and people figuring out their sexuality? How long is too long? My two MCs met in high school and are reunited two years later (college-aged), when one is finally out as bi (but the other MC doesn't know this yet). I want to do the angst/slow-burn right, but I don't want to lose readers because of the time jump. I obviously plan on filling in the gaps/explaining what happened during that gap in time later in the book.

Thank you for your time and consideration!

Hey fellow authors!

I just finished the third round of revisions for my novel and I would like to start querying. I had someone look over my query letter and they flagged my manuscript for being 93k words. After multiple rounds of revisions, I brought my book down from 110,000 to 93k words. Honestly, Im not sure what else I can remove without taking away really important details to the plot. Is 93k too long for someone seeking out traditional publishing?

I also had 2 beta readers tell me they really enjoyed it. Im waiting to hear back from 2 more

Sorry, first time posting here hope that's okay. I was wondering where exactly would one go to reach writing/critique groups? I've seen some people mention facebook, and while I don't wish to provide any of my personal information, I would still love to meet also new authors and people to exchange feedback with. Thank you!!

I've seen discussions on the eroticauthors subreddit regarding this in the past and I feel like the answer has always been "the rules for publishing romance are the same as erotica" even if it's generally accepted that romance seems to be given much more leeway.

I ask this because I'm reading a romance right now that had I published something similar under erotica I know for a fact that my account would be banned faster than anyone would be able to utter their safeword. It claims to be CNC and that the FMC signs all these waivers and whatnot, but it is really toeing a VERY THIN line to the point I'm pretty sure CNC is just NC at several points in the book just based on the FMC's reactions and inner monologues.

This book has over 1k ratings and is needless to say extremely popular. I just feel like had I tried to write something similar my account would get banned.

Am I correct in that assumption?

i’m posting this here because i genuinely don’t know who else to turn to. all my life i’ve wanted to be a writer. it’s what’s kept me alive in my darkest moments.

recently i had a huge knock-down with a non-fiction proposal, so my agent and i have discussed moving into fiction instead. i LOVE writing fiction more than anything - my genre of choice is dark romance/erotic historical fiction, and i have a completed novel of this nature sitting in my drafts.

now, i mentioned to my parents that i’d be moving into the fiction space, when they asked what genre, i said ‘romance’ and left it at that. they, of course, assumed it was ‘smut’ and shamed me, said i’d never be taken seriously, etc.

now i feel embarrassed and ashamed, i don’t want to write anymore, i feel unsupported and like someone has taken a sledgehammer to my ONE lifeline and the only thing i’m proud of. i’m also scared of being disowned/kicked out of the house if i release something of that nature.

but i’m a woman in my 20s. at the same time i’m thinking, ‘i can write what i want’? i’m not a kid. nonetheless, i am feeling so, so low and broken right now. i feel so unsupported by my family (not my agent though - she’s absolutely superb and really kind). does anyone have some words of advice on how to overcome these feelings i’m having and get enthusiastic about my writing again?

Hi!

I wrote my first romance novel last year and decided to send it off to a development editor while I wrote my second book in the series. I finished the second book no problem and am letting it set while I focus on getting the first one published.

Writing is so easy for me, the words just flow and I can sit down and write a book in a few months or less if I have the time so I figured editing would be just and easy. I’m coming to learn it’s the complete opposite and I’m feeling extremely dejected.

I got the first book back from the editor and I’m going through to change what I want about the story (adjusting plot lines, plot holes, character traits, etc.) and I completely hate the way the editor edited the book and it’s been really hard for me to actually sit down and read through it all making notes and edits as I go along.

Does it get easier? Is there anything I could be doing to help myself out? Any words of advice or encouragement because I’m really getting worried I’m not going to be able to work through this first draft of the first book let alone the second book I have sitting and waiting 😭

Anyways I’d appreciate any ideas to get some motivation going or maybe to make the editing process easier!

Are there any discord critique servers focused specifically on dark romance? I'd love to be able to give and receive feedback on dark romance stories. I've joined other general critique servers before, but I find that rarely any of the works posted for feedback are dark romance, and I don't want to share my own work with people who are not already engaged with the subgenre.

I've been writing dark romance stories and posting them online for 8 years. I love reading them too.

What is your experience with R&R?

I have had a revise and resubmit first three chapters (based on first five pages) to a well-regarded editor at TWRP.

Do you think there is any chance here? I am now in the waiting game. I edited and sent back, and received a confirmation she got it. She said, "I'll get back to you shortly." but the wait....(Insert whining). In the meantime, I have finished up the next book in the series and sent it to betas. So, I am coping through moving forward. But I just wanted to see if anyone had experience with this type of R&R, and having success? Or not?

If you had told me a year ago that I'd be a published author, I wouldn't have believed you. I was never much of a reader, let alone a writer. But earlier this year, I started writing in a journal just to untangle my own thoughts and feelings. Somewhere along the way, it sparked a story, and within a few short months, I had poured my heart into an entire romance novel. I fell completely in love with the process. The words just kept flowing, and now my debut novel is actually out in the world! I'm currently deep into editing the sequel, and I already have rough drafts for the rest of the series in the works. Finding this unexpected passion has been so exciting, and I just had to share that joy out loud today!

Hey romance people!

I’m Jurij. I reached out to u/SalaciousStories a little while ago, and was kindly given the green light to introduce Quibble to you.

Quibble is a new publishing and reading platform focused on fiction. Every submitted book is subject to editorial review and approval. Publication is not guaranteed.

We look at two things mainly: a) overall writing quality, b) responsible AI usage. Naturally, we cannot detect every AI-generated sentence. We don’t pretend otherwise. Instead, we developed internal standards and protocols around what we consider acceptable AI assistance. The result is a curated library of human-written content only.

Accepted authors monetize their work from the day of publication, subject to minimum engagement thresholds. We’re redistributing most of our income back to the published authors. Some of our current top-performing authors have crossed three-digit total royalties. The monetization program terms cover areas like:

• how reading activity is measured
• payout cycle (monthly)
• withdrawal process, suspension and termination

We accept finished stories as well as serials - once accepted, you can add new chapters anytime, subject to a lightweight editorial approval.

While the submission volume is increasing, the platform itself is still early. Over the summer we’ll add features like notifications, chapter comments, original and fan-art uploads and more fun stuff.

While the current website may lean a bit more toward fantasy in its feel, we accept fiction across all genres, including romance. We’ll evolve the web visual identity to better represent all genres in the future.

If you have a romance story you want to build readership around, earn royalties from, and publish in a space with little chance of encountering AI content, we’d be happy to read it and hopefully publish it. We take no rights other than those required to operate the platform. Details here.

We’re also hosting our next monthly AMA this Wednesday at 19:00 Central European Time on our Discord if you would like to meet our team, ask questions live, or simply get a better feel for the community. See this post for more information.

Feel free to drop anything else you’re curious about in the thread as well: how we select stories, our writing standards, AI policy, creative control, cover art, author rights, monetization, where we think publishing is heading, etc.

More info: website.

Wishing everyone a lovely week ahead!

I'm working on my first MM romance and I'm trying hard to keep the two narrators' voices distinct from each other.

If you've written books with this structure (two MC's have first person narrator role in alternating chapters) do you have any tips/tricks/suggestions on how to do that? At this point the newness of writing this kind of book, period, makes me feel like all of my sentences are very samey samey.

Any suggestions would be deeply appreciated. Thanks!

Do any of my fellow romance writers put out a newsletter on substack or another site? Also, if you write with a pen name, how do you find free subscribers?

Bookbub New Releases for Less - has anyone done this in the contemporary romance category?

My book got accepted and I’m tempted to try it, just to get more eyeballs on my book, but of course it’s expensive. Also, this will be my first book, and it’ll do much more later in the game when there is also a backlist to promote in the book. I’m aware of that, but somehow I’m still considering doing it now 🫣😅

Still, curious about any experiences in this regard for a first book, preferably romance?