Cut out the middle man

[seriousfic]

Just had a great/perverse idea for a YA novel: Put the heroine in an abusive relationship.

Female lead: La la 70% of all YA novels...

Male lead: Uh... I don't have a romantic interest in you because I am way too busy with my own mysterious secretiveness, but you can do better. Like, if you bought a puppy? That's doing better.

Female lead: But he loves me so much he can't control himself!

Male lead: Lady, due to the paranormal genre in which all YA novels must be set, I literally cannot control my emotions and I'm still doing better than that guy. Now if you'll excuse me, QUANTUM PHYSICS.

...maybe it'll sell if there's a picture of a pasty British guy on the cover?

Comments

[mcity.livejournal.com]

Only if his shirt is open.

[nonky.livejournal.com]

Whoa, whoa, whoa . . . who said anything about clothing? I think it's long past time there was a paranomal YA novel featuring a teen girl with an abusive boyfriend in the rather insular and exotic society of a nudist commune. "Blue Lake, Black Eyes."

Practically writes itself, I think.

[mcity.livejournal.com]

If he's wearing a shirt, it's arty. If he's not, people are just going to mistake it for a Harlequin romance*. It's like the rule with naked ladies and vases.

*Not that Harlequin romances don't often have shirted men on their covers. In a tangentally related note, did you know that HR has a NASCAR category? That's considered enough of a viable market for them to commission a series of books. They also have a paranormal category. I'm not even sure what "Superromance" entails.