Backstory to the novel I am planning on writing – I am planning on writing a love story, so I guess it would be classified in the romance genre (correct me if I am wrong as I am a bit unsure). The kind of love story is more like a One Day story or The fault in our stars, so very much a love story, but thats not the be all and end all of the novel. I have always pictured the story with a male narrator. My issue is that I am slightly concerned that the romance genre convention states that the story is usually told from the point of view of a female. I have researched this and found out that women are indeed the main readers of the genre, and that a female narrator is often expected and preferred. Then again, is what I am going to write actually classified as a romance?, this is something that I am yet to confirm. Please answer my poll and help me out! Any comments welcome! Thanks
I think Endless Love was taken from a boys pov and it did really well. I enjoyed the read. I thought it was much better than the movie. I like Brooke Shields ( I even enjoyed her in some of her stinkers ) but that movie was a snore. I think girls would welcome a boys pov if it's believable. I seem to recall Ann. M. Martin ( she wrote the Babysitter's club ) got flooded for requests for a story from Logan's pov.
I think you should definitely figure out if you're writing a genre romance or a love story. A male narrator might be okay in both, but it would be a harder sell in genre romance, I'd say.
Because it's new, fresh, unique. Not that it's never been done, but it's less common. As for harder to sell, I don't believe that. Women read more romance than men do, but I'm sure they can handle the male POV just as easily as a female POV as long as he's madly in love with a female. I do believe gay love has a different readership.
I'd say write it, and see what you end up with. I personally like the idea. Some of the romantic bits in my novel (which is not a Romance, as the love story is only part of the overall plot) are written from a male POV—and I've been told it works. Whether you can sell your story as a genre Romance remains to be seen. But if it's good enough, I can't see it being unsaleable. Just get it written.
I agree, it wouldn't be unsellable as a genre romance. But I disagree that it wouldn't be a more challenging sale. Genre romance has a lot of rules and traditions, largely because most readers LIKE those rules and traditions. I've read romances from the male POV (beyond m/m romances!) but I'm not sure I've read any from Harlequin, for example. Any of the really trope-heavy publishers are going to be a challenge, I'd say. Not impossible, but you might be limiting yourself to some of the smaller publishers.
A common convention in the romance genre is alternate back and forth from the two main characters. However, it doesn't sound like you're planning on writing a romance but a novel with romantic elements. Or YA fiction.
