It is a truth universally acknowledged that men do not read or write romance novels... unless they are attempting to "cash in" or use phrases like bodice ripper or burning desire (for example: these two snarky gentlemen). However, according to statistics from Romance Writers of America, 9 percent of romance readers are guys. Who are the real men who read and write romance novels just because they like it? I spoke with a few of them and about the portrayal of men in the genre, how people react to them, and how to make these books more appealing to dudes.
But wait -- what is a romance novel? Most people know them as the trashy books with heaving bosoms often found in back corners of bookstores or racks in the drugstore. The Serious Definition is a novel with a plot that centers around two individuals falling in love with an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending.
Nora Roberts it the queen of romance. Books like 50 Shades of Grey are often an intro to the genre. But one guy romance author, Greg Herren, points out that what really makes a romance novel might not be what we expect -- and guys might be reading them already!
The great irony is men already read books with romance in them -- they just aren't called romance novels. If you take Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Identity, flip it and tell it from the woman's point of view, it would have been published as a romantic suspense novel and would have had a completely different cover, a different marketing plan... but really, Jason Bourne meets a woman, she goes along on his big spy adventure, and they wind up together, with a happily ever after on a Carribbean beach at the end....
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maya-rodale/the-real-men-who-read-rom_b_4713546.html
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