Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance

[jenlyn_b]

*Cross-posted from my blog, where I've been talking about some of the thoughts and ideas that came up at Romantic Times last week*

One really interesting RT panel was devoted to defining the (often blurry) line between urban fantasy and paranormal romance. Jackie Kessler (who, by the way, just sold an awesome-sounding YA that you can read about

Comments

[antonstrout]

I think it's many things.

Sometimes its the amount of horizontal hokey-poking that goes on in the pages that make it more paranormal romance, but not always.

Sometimes its the package and how much skin on the cover that makes it more paranormal romance, but not always.

Sometimes a books is heavier on action and fighting evil than it is on the developing romantic relationships that make it more UF, but not always.

Sometimes it's a sales team deciding they could get a better buy from the urban fantasy buyer for the bookstores than they could from the paranormal romance buyer, but not always.

Sometimes the noir detective style of the story with that cleverly worked first person perspective plants it down in urban fantasy, but not always.

Sometimes its an arbitrary choice to fill the monthly slots in a publisher's schedule, but not always.

These panels are great because the world will never truly know, but they do get people talkin!

[antonstrout]

It's cute you think you get a choice where it goes. :P

[dpeterfreund]

A romantic subplot doesn't make your book a romance, and since whether or not it's shelved as a romance often has a lot to do with who buys it, and if the romance in your book is a homosexual one, you'll be more likely, in the current market, to sell it to a fantasy house than a romance house.

[frost_light]

"Sometimes its the amount of horizontal hokey-poking that goes on in the pages that make it more paranormal romance, but not always."

Anton, I know you're being very clear that this isn't a definitive explanation, but as an author shelved in romance, I'll take this and expound on it a little for those people who DON'T add "but not always" at the end of the comment. I have one sex scene in my first book. Two in my second. One in my third - and I'm in romance. I think many readers can immediately think of several UF books that out-sex mine from here to Sunday with those percentages. The amount of sex in a book does not determine whether it's a romance versus a UF. Some romances have no sex, in fact. Romance does not automatically equate to multiple sex scenes, just like sex does not automatically equate to porn, or fantasy does not automatically equate to epic journeys in quest of a magical object

[antonstrout]

pretty much! Oh, the meetings I've been in as both an author and as a part of a publisher. Sometimes it makes my brain hurt.

[rkvincent]

I'm actually very confused/fascinated by the distinction. I consider my adult books to be urban fantasy, because if you take the romance (subplot) out, the plot still holds up. It's not the focus of the novel.

For reference, my Shifters books only have one sex scene each, and if I wind up writing one that doesn't need a sex scene, it won't get a sex scene.

If someone else read what I just wrote, I would assume his or her books to be urban fantasy, as opposed to paranormal romance. Yet mine are shelved in romance.

And I honestly have no idea why. I don't promise an HEA (either for individual books or the series itself, at least in terms of the romance), though I do promise a definite conclusion.

So, I remain confused.