I’m Uncertain as to How to Market this Book

So, I have been silent for a while as I was busy finishing up the Fall Semester (teaching 8 courses) and finishing up a new (fairly dark) fantasy novel titled The Devourer’s Sonata. For me, it was an experiment in using the heroine’s journey structure in a fantasy novel, a structure I’ve never really used.

Here’s the current draft of the blurb:

Danika Sarkovski was born an outcast and an heiress, a Gloamblood monster hunter who walked away from her aristocratic bloodline. When her estranged father, Professor Cassian Struchmeyer, vanishes chasing a legendary musical tome, the Lamentata Nihilith, Danika is tasked with finding both the man who abandoned her family and the artifact whose song may unmake kingdoms.

She journeys with Elira Dimitriou, a sharp-tongued librarian and devoted student of Professor Struchmeyer whose magic eats her memories one spell at a time. In drowned ports and unhallowed markets, amid brain-sucking cephalopodian pirates and revenants guarding ancient tombs and temples, Danika must decide what she is willing to feed—her hunger, her grief, or the fragile trust growing between Elira and herself.

Because somewhere beyond the floating cities, snow-covered wastes, and crystal deserts, a man with a harp made of humanoid bones tunes the Devourer’s Sonata—and if he finishes the song, all creation will be fed to the Eternal Maw.

So, it’s a fantasy, what’s the problem I’m having with marketing? Simple: The novel dances on the line between “fantasy with sapphic romance” and “sapphic romantasy.” It’s not a novel where the romance is the primary plot mover; in fact, if the romance were removed, the novel would still work as a dark, heroic fantasy.

That being said, the sapphic romance subplot provides an additional example of the protagonist’s character development; thus, if removed, there will be voids needing to be rewritten so the emotional and physical stakes would still be at a comparable level.

This wouldn’t be such an issue if it weren’t that all of these things are important for marketing and potential backlash. If I market as “romantasy” and romantasy readers don’t feel it meets their standards for what they expect in romance, then readers could be upset over different definitions of the subgenre.

But I run the risk of people being upset because some people see The Lord of the Rings as “fantasy with romance” because, technically, there is romance. And The Devourer’s Sonata has a more developed romance than Tolkien’s work does—even though it doesn’t technically meet the accepted definition of romantasy.

For those curious, the romance is told primarily through subtle, silent gestures; through yearning and affectionate touches; and comments made by those around the two individuals. Were I to chart out the romance on the standard beat sheet for a romance, it has several of the beats missing, but it has enough to provide places for imaginative extrapolation.

So, I went from writing sins and tragedies in The Casquette Rose to dancing in the shadows between “Fantasy with Romance” and “Romantasy.”

That said, keep following along as I talk more about this book and watch how I market it.