SA romance writers come out of the closet
South African romance writers are enjoying success thanks to ebooks, self-publishing platforms and the ease of submitting manuscripts to international publishers, writes Nontando Mposo
THE romance novel industry is big business, raking in about R13 billion in sales a year, and South African writers want to get in on the action. “Ever since the success of Fifty Shades of Grey and Twilight, the vampire-themed series of four fantasy romance novels, many have turned to romance writing in the hope of copying that success,” says Pretoria-based romance writer Marie Dry.
“Around 2010, when EL James published Fifty Shades of Grey, selfpublishing lost a lot of the stigma it had been tainted with. This meant that imaginative stories that a traditional publisher would never consider due to shelf restrictions could now be told,” explains Dry, who also works for the Department of International Relations and Co-operation in Pretoria .
“We live in exciting times, writing-wise. Any story you can imagine, you can write and sell, providing you do it well enough,” says Dry. “I remember a time when the only category choices were romance and historical. These days you have paranormal romance, historical romance, mystery/suspense romance, contemporary romance and many more.”
Romance writing trends are also frequently changing, she says. “Paranormal, my preferred genre, seems to be making a comeback.
Dry, who wrote her first story at the age of seven, is the author of two paranormal romances involving alien warriors set in a dystopian future – Alien Mine and Alien Under Cover.
“I wrote a vampire romance long before it was popular or possible to publish,” she recalls. “Because my stories did not fit the current market for a long time, I wrote mostly for my own pleasure. It took seven years and many rejections before I pitched Alien Mine to Black Opal Books and was published,” she says.
Dry gets her ideas from everywhere, including movies, books and “from conversations around her”, she says. A self-confessed slow writer, it took her more than a year to complete Alien Mine.
“I had to learn editing skills and story structure, etc. I write a book in a week, up to a month, but editing takes me a minimum of four months and sometimes longer. For me editing is where the magic happens, when I add the nuances.
“I am also a pantser, which means I write and have no idea where the story is going. Once I have the story down, I have to make sure everything makes sense to the reader and that the three-act story arc is in place,” Dry says.
Author Elsa Winckler’s passion for writing was ignited reading the works of Jane Austen, Elizabeth Gaskell and Henry James.
“There are now so many sub-genres – paranormal and fantasy seem to be favourites, historical is also very popular,” says Winckler, who writes in English and Afrikaans.
“I feel, however, that you should write the kind of story you like to tell – not because it’s popular, but because it’s the kind of story you want to share.
“I love reading contemporary romance and that’s what I write.”
Winckler, who lives in Betty’s Bay, says while there is no formula, studies have concluded that romance readers do expect certain things in their stories and have definite preferences. “These are things to keep in mind when writing.”
Her writing journey began after winning an Afrikaans magazine writing competition in 2008. Since then, she has published 17 Afrikaans romance books.
“After many rejections, Escape Publishing in Australia and Imprint of Harlequin published two of my English romances. Two more stories will be published later this year by Etopia Press in America. I didn’t have to pay to be published, but I spend a lot of money on advertising,” she says.
“The best part is writing the last word of a story and knowing all the pieces of the puzzle have fallen into place. And the worst part is the struggle to find a publisher,” says Winckler.
Getting a book published in hard copy is not easy and many writers are turning to self-publishing in print and in digital form on Amazon’s Kindle and similar digital platforms.
Fortunately, there are organisations such as the Romance writers Organisation of South Africa (Rosa) that provide support and networking opportunities for writers. Winckler and Dry are members of Rosa.
Founded by Mandy Verbaan and Romy Sommer, the non-profit organisation was started as a support group for the two friends. It now has chapters in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Durban.
“We felt as if we were the only romance writers in the whole country, so we decided to seek out other writers,” explains Sommer.
“In those days romance novels had a reputation as something almost shameful, since most people still equated them with the old bodice rippers of the 1980s, and most writers (and readers) of romance kept very quiet.
“We had big dreams of founding an organisation that would be a ‘safe place’ for romance writers to come out of the closet, and to help them become recognised and be taken seriously.”
Sommer, who is chairwoman of Rosa, lives in Johannesburg. She works in television advertising by day and writes romance novels at night.
“Women’s fiction in general, and romance in particular, is pretty much ignored by the South African literary society,” says Sommer.
“Rosa’s key role is to provide support and encouragement for writers, primarily women, who write books aimed primarily at women. Our mission is to develop romance writers in southern Africa, to raise the profile of South African writers among local readers, and to enable South African writers to compete in the global market, where romance is a well-respected and profitable genre,” she says.
With the rising popularity of tablets and e-readers, ebooks have become a popular reading standard, says Sommer. “Romance readers were early adopters of digital technologies and romance ebooks have done particularly well.
“But the greatest change for South African authors is that digital technology has made the world a much smaller place. It used to be incredibly difficult for local authors to be published abroad, but we are now able to submit to international agents and publishers just as easily as writers in the US and UK.
“We can reach a much wider audience, and market ourselves digitally, putting us on an equal footing with writers anywhere else in the world.”
About her craft, Sommer says good writers read and great writers read widely. “Though Jane Austen’s books are classics of the romance genre, reading her books exclusively will not help contemporary authors get published today.
“Writers should read the current bestsellers in their own genres to know what publishers are looking for today, and to keep up with the latest styles and trends in commercial fiction,” she says.
Her advice for a budding new writer is just to start writing. “You can read books on writing, you can attend writing courses, but the only real way to learn to write, the only way to find your own voice, is to sit down and write.
“Many new authors tend to focus on getting their opening chapters perfect, but it’s only once you’ve written an entire rough draft that you can get a feel for where the pace lags, where the plot holes are and how the characters need developing,” says Sommer.
Although she highly recommends self-publishing, especially for genre fiction or niche books, Sommer admits that it is not for everyone. “It means that the writer takes on the role of publisher, and needs to make all the business decisions: hiring sub-contractors to design a cover, to edit, and to format and upload the manuscript if necessary.
“The author also needs to be able to market and distribute their own books. Not everyone wants to do those things, but if, like me, you like to have control over your own books, it’s a very satisfying option,” she adds.