LGBTQ romance is a type of romance fiction that features characters of the same sex who experience love and form same-sex relationships. This genre has become more accepted and popular since the 1980s. According to Bussel in Publishers Weekly, as of 2020, publishers that focus on LGBTQ romance, major publishers, and booksellers are adding more books to their collections and including more authors from different backgrounds.
M M romance genre
This type of gay romance was first called "M/M Romance" (from slash fiction, meaning stories about men loving men that were not sold in stores). It is now often called "M M Romance" or "mm romance," and it features stories about gay men falling in love.
The term was used on fan fiction websites by 2004. By 2008, hundreds of such books were published.
A 2009 article in The Liberty Press, a gay newspaper, said the genre was growing: "Slash fiction has been around for many years. Women wrote stories about characters like Kirk and Spock long before the Internet existed. However, none of these stories were published by major book companies or sold next to other romance books." In 2009, the first major review of a book labeled "M/M Romance" appeared, stating that "male/male romantic historical fiction is the newest publishing trend." In 2010, magazines like Rolling Stone and Out named M/M romance one of the fastest-growing literary trends. In 2011, Library Journal described the genre as "male-on-male, or M/M romance" and noted that it was "mostly written and read by straight women." It suggested that shows like Queer as Folk and the movie Brokeback Mountain helped the genre grow, but its roots were in "slash fiction" from the 1990s, where stories about TV, book, and movie characters were shared online. Library Journal also mentioned that yaoi graphic stories, popular in Japan since the 1980s, influenced the M/M genre.
Since January 2010, the number of M/M Romance books on Amazon's Kindle Store has tripled.
As the genre grew, popular romance authors began writing M/M romance novels. The Lambda Literary Award for Gay Romance was first given in 2007. In 2015, M/M romances were nominated for RITAs for the first time.
Some subcategories include "gay-for-you" and "first-time gay." Some M/M romance books feature transgender or asexual characters. Others include Christian characters, Amish romance themes, or stories with three male characters (m/m/f) that explore polyamory, pansexuality, or bisexuality.
Authors who wrote M/M Romance fiction in the early 2000s include Victor J. Banis, Alex Beecroft, Rob Byrnes, Johnny Diaz, Erastes, and Marshall Thornton.
Later authors in this genre include Andre Aciman, Becky Albertalli, Jay Bell, Brad Boney, Jane Jensen, Rhys Ford, Andrew Sean Greer, Ginn Hale, Alexis Hall, Shaun David Hutchinson, T. J. Klune, Bill Konigsberg, Casey McQuiston, C. S. Pacat, Roan Parrish, Neil S. Plakcy, Rainbow Rowell, Paul Rudnick, Adam Silvera, and Rachel Reid.
Publishers like Dreamspinner Press (founded in 2007), Less than Three (2009), Running Press, Loose Id (now closed), Carina Press, InterMix, MLR (ManLoveRomance), and Riptide Publishing (2011) were created to publish gay romantic fiction. Others, such as Decadent Publishing (2010), started as traditional romance publishers but later focused on books with inclusive pairings, including gay romance.
Most M/M romance novels are written by and for women. The topic of whether women should write books about gay men has been widely discussed in both popular culture and academic studies. Foster suggests that the idea that all readers of this genre are straight may not be accurate.
Lesbian romance genre
This type of lesbian romance story was first called "W/W Romance" (from slash fiction, meaning female-on-female not sold in large stores), but is now often called "W W Romance" or "ww romance." These stories focus on women who identify as queer falling in love. Other names for this type of story include "sapphic" and "WLW" (women loving women).
Lesbian romance is a type of story found in gay literature and romance fiction. Studies about this genre began in the 1980s, but became more common in the 1990s.
Experts have described common elements in this genre: "Like classic Greek love stories, themes such as being sent to a faraway place, being captured, being alone, escaping, searching, and chasing are common in lesbian romance novels. Usually, the smooth development of a new romance is blocked by a problem. Separation or the risk of separation causes the lovers (and readers) to worry if their relationship will succeed. Once the characters overcome challenges like differences in age, class, or race and are together, they are said to live happily ever after."
Writers in this genre include Sarah Aldridge, Georgia Beers, Andrea Bramhall, Jae, Karin Kallmaker, Lori L. Lake, Beth Bernobich, Radclyffe, and Merry Shannon.
Some publishers, such as Bella Books, Bold Strokes Books, Regal Crest Enterprises, and Spinsters Ink, specialize in lesbian romance novels.