I joined up with several beta readers/romance writers to critique each other's work. A few of them are guys. I was leery of sharing my MS with them because I didn't think they'd get it. They gave me a quick education about men and romance novels.
I have learned that reading romance novels is a guilty pleasure for a lot of men. Which makes sense, given how many times I've had to move around the guys standing in my way in the romance aisle of my nearest Barnes & Noble. I admit, at the time it annoyed me and I thought to myself, "Why are there MEN in my way - they don't belong in this section!"
Men especially like it if there is some erotica (which there is in the second half of my MS). Their critique summary was they liked it, especially since there is also some action/violence incorporated into it.
I wrote the story from two POVs, the female's and the male's, which allowed them to identify with the main male character. It surprised me to find out that men long for romances written from the male POV. As one critiquer put it, "I'm tired of reading books where the male is nothing more than a hard cock. I want to read books with strong male characters who aren't afraid to act like real men." He also pointed out that guys need to be able to read and empathize with strong male role models.
When I asked what genre they thought it fell into, their answer was "Romance for Straight Men." Unfortunately, at this time there is no such genre. But maybe there should be. That would save me from categorizing my manuscript as "Cross Genre - women's fiction/romance" and it would be a lot less words, too.
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