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Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Random Thoughts: Is Paranormal Romance dead?

I was going to pull another handout to write about then someone said something to me that made me start thinking. I've been writing for a long time. I Joined RWA in 1993 and published in 2001 and since I joined RWA I have heard that Paranormal stories were dead. That publishers weren't buying them anymore. Twenty years later and many books later I still hear it.

There's only one problem - I don't believe it.

First I want to explain my definition of a paranormal. It is anything out of the ordinary. From shapeshifters and vampires, to science fiction and futuristic stories, to stories about psychic abilities and ghosts.

Since I started writing I've seen the run of vampire books saturate the market, and werewolf/shapeshifter books have been making the rounds recently. Time travel was big for a while. I love reading them and have written two of my own. There's been books about witches, physics, superheros. Then there's the movies and TV shows.

I thought paranormal was dead.

I've been writing in the paranormal field since I started writing. I don't write it because it sells but because it's what moves me. It's the way my mind works. Most writers who write what I write are the same way. We have that weird what if question that pops up every time we start a story.

I wrote paranormal when they said the market was dead. It's one of the reasons I went the electronic publishing route. I didn't want to write what the big pubs said was hot, I wanted to write what was in my heart. Electronic publishers are willing to publish a good story. It doesn't have to fit what they thought would sell.

I just find it funny that "they" keep saying the same thing year after year yet it seems to be what people want to read.

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