You can't think about the percentages

The post about percentages and motivation is at Tote Bags n Blogs where I am blogging today.

Sometimes things don't change all that much

Among the things I received yesterday from Mills & Boon was a reasonably detailed history of the company. In it, it is made very clear that the company has ALWAYS been very keen to find new authors. BUT it has never been easy. There has NEVER been a golden age for unpublished authors where everything gets published. EVER.

In 1912, 1000 slush manuscripts were submitted, of that no more than 6 were actually published by Mills & Boon, according to a Charles Boon interview with the Daily Citizen. 75% of the manuscripts were by women and 95% by unknown authors. In other words, even way back then, it was not easy to become published with Mills & Boon. I think the statistics have become slightly worse for new authors but there again, the computer and other aids to writing have happened. I think about 1 in 1,000 is taken on. I know the editors would dearly like to find more new authors. There is always a shifting pool of authors -- because authors are real people and real people have real problems and sometimes their direction in writing changes. But every month, HM&B has to fulfil its promise to the readers.

The only thing a would be HM&B author can do is to concentrate on writing the best possible novel that fits the guidelines. And if you really want to know what the important part of the guides are: look at the strap line. For example Historicals is Rich vivid and passionate, brings the past to life. Modern Heat is sizzling, stylish sensual -- the ultimate temptation. Modern is glamorous and sophisticated, seduction and passion guaranteed. Desire is passionate, provocative and powerful. Intrigue is danger, deception and desire. And so on. Figure out what these words mean in the context of the novels and you will figure out the promise HM&B makes to its readers. It is all about fulfilling that promise.

M&B has known for a long time what their particular niche market is -- romance fiction. They do not publish guys with gear who go books. And as Alan Boon once explained to an agent -- we would, indeed, have to turn down Shakespeare if he sent one along. In other words, Mills & Boon publish Romance Fiction and if they are offered other types of fiction, no matter how good, they will not publish it. The Mills & Boon brand is Romance Fiction. The parent company may publish other sorts of fiction, but what is published with the Mills & Boon logo is Romance.

It is that focus that has made the company's success. Know your market is maxim that works well for writers.

It will help improve your chances of being published. Think where will most of my readers come from. Cross over books are fine, but they are hard to market. Ultimately, you are writing for a core market.

All the branding of the HM&B lines does is to identify the core markets and to state via the strap line what sort of promise the reader can expect to be fulfilled.

Latest Romance Stats

The November edition of the RWR has the latest romance reading stats. I found them interesting.
Romance had 26.4% share of all market categories. It was only surpassed by the religion/inspirational category. Romance fiction sales were $1,370 million compared to Mystery sales of $422 million or Sci fi sales of $495 million. You do the math. In my view the basic reason why so much more advertising is spent on mystery etc is that far fewer mystery books are published as opposed to the 6,400 titles of romance that were published.
In the new technology of ebooks, the trend continues. According to Peter Wayner writing in the New York Times last August, early ebook lists were dominated by sci fi and other genres favoured by men, but now the lists showed romance and women's fiction were coming to dominate. This fact should not surprise anyone as according an AP/IPOS poll, women read more than men -- nearly twice as much. On average women read nine books per year while men only manage five. Women are also more likely to read every major category of books. And of people who read books, one in five reads romance novels.
As a general rule of thumb, men are more likely to be early adopters of technology. The shift in the ebook lists could be interpreted to mean that ebooks are here to stay. BUT the amount spent on ebook, despite doubling in 2006 remains tiny at $24 million. Print is not dead yet.
The leading sub genres of Romance appearing on the best seller lists were suspense, historical and paranormal. Harlequin remains the top Romance book publisher, according to Simba estimates. The leading US romance novelists were Nora Roberts, Sandra Brown, Catherine Coulter and Debbie Macomber. All of whom started out by writing category. I think they were all with Sil, Debbie Macomber is the one I have a question about as I can't think of which line she wrote for. Super? Nora Roberts and Sandra Brown were SR and Catherine Coulter was SIM. Shades of my college free time reading...
If you look at romance books published -- 40% were series romance. 17% historical single title, 16 percent were contemporary. Paranormal accounted for 9%. This shows the massive increase in the paranormal romance market in recent years as not so very long ago it was under 5% of books published. The big unanswered question is how large is the paranormal market and has it peaked.
For 2007, sales of romance fiction are expected to hold steady. The projected increase in book sales (2.6%) is down to the last book of Harry Potter hitting the stands.
Anyway, I thought it very interesting.