Sex doesn't always sell...

Know your audience.  Know who you are writing for. 

Sound advice.  Too bad I didn't take it.

I started out writing "Fame, Love" as a story about first love that also happened to be sexual---because quite honestly, when you are 19 and in love for the first time, sex is a very big part of the relationship.  However, the sexuality meant I couldn't classify my book as Young Adult.  I've read enough publishers guidelines to know that even though my protagonist is of age, and other books have college-age characters, YA is geared towards the younger readers in the 13-19 age spectrum.  OK, fair enough. 

But I didn't want to write "erotica", either.  The sex was neither gratiutous nor titallating, and quite frankly not that graphic.  Again, it was part of the story, but not the reason for telling the story.

So onto Romance.  The only problem was, this book doesn't really read like a Romance in the traditional sense.  Generally, virgins in Romance are firmly placed in the Edwardian era.  Virgins in modern times fall into two categories:  Young Adult, as in "Twilight", or Erotica, as in "Fifty Shades"...my book was neither, so around and around I went. 

I wrote the story I wanted, and only came across these issues when it was time to answer the all important question of which category this book would fall under.  I'm not sure I would have changed anything.  I MAY have made it less explicit to fall into the Young Adult category because these titles are so commercial.  But if I had, would I regret it now because Romance is such a consistent best seller?

What did happen is that my book has jumped from one category to another in it's short life.  Initially, I think I classified it as a Contemporary Romance, where it promptly fell into the black hole of all the Sex and the City-like books out there.  My character was not an urban, jaded, sexually adventurous woman in her late twenties on a quest to get married.  She was an innocent young woman in a committed relationship with someone who was just as crazy in love with her.  Clearly, this was a different story.  Because if the overarching conflict of most contemporary Romances is overcoming baggage from past relationships and learning to love someone, and if the question was whether the characters would wind up together, then...my book wasn't quite it.  As a Romance reader myself, I know there are specific elements I look for and I didn't want to annoy people because my book didn't deliver those elements.

Onto Fiction/Drama.  Initially, I felt better about this category because I liked focusing in on the "drama" of the story (celebrity culture destroying a sound relationship), rather than the will-they-get-together part.   However, I noticed that the book was getting returns, which didn't happen before.  Was this book was failing to meet expectations; or were the descriptions of sex were a problem?  I couldn't fix someone just not liking the book, but I could fix expectations.  When a reviewer addressed this by saying that the books was not for young readers, my suspicions were confirmed.  I had avoided any "teen" labels, stated "sexual awakening" in the description, and placed it in an adult category.  But without the Romance designation, was the book confusing people?   Again, for those who haven't read the book, this story is about two young people who are perfect for each other in every way, but because of their successes, are having a hard time staying together.  I kept the romantic and emotional elements in---but I certainly didn't use euphemisms when describing what happened between them. 

Now the final (or should I just say current) iteration of the book is that it is in the Sports Fiction category, and the very first line of the description states that it is sexually explicit, so the "Adult" designation is made clear.  The male character IS an NBA player, and the problems in their relationship are caused by the fame that this brings.  If found in a Chick Lit, Young Adult or Contemporary Romance category, readers may be disappointed at the role sports plays in the story (god forbid, I don't get into stats or anything, but if you "hate" sports, then it's probably too much).  Alternatively, women browsing the "Sports Fiction" category are probably women who like reading about the challenges that pro athletes face (fans of Basketball Wives?)  will find this book to be just what they are looking for.  Which is exactly who my audience is.

I may not agree with changing elements of a story to fit into a category, especially if done for marketing purposes.  But once the book is finished, I do see the importance of knowing who will love your book, who will hate it, who will be offended by it...and THEN market accordingly.