Saying you are writing a single-title romance novel is as vague as saying you are baking a cake. The first question most people will ask is, “What kind?” Indeed, the single-title romance market includes an array of subgenres, and hybrids, as pointed out in Chapter 2. This said, there are some commonalities that make up single-title romances.

First, and probably the most important element, is the romance. No matter what's happening in your book, be it a serial killer who is stalking your hero, or the heroine who discovers she has a genie living in her perfume bottle, the relationship between your hero and heroine is going to be more important, or at least as important, as any other element in your story. Many writers have been known to stick notes to their computers that say, “Remember, it's a romance!”

Another trait of single-title romances is they are what some people call the “bigger books.” (The term probably stemmed from the comparison of single-title romance to category romance.) And yes, single titles are bigger books. Bigger in page length, bigger in the complexity of your characters, and with what most would call bigger-than-life plots.

While publishers' requirements vary on the word count of their novels, most single-title romances start at around 80,000 words. Some will accept manuscripts with as many as 150,000 words. However, the average single-title romance runs anywhere from 90,000 to 100,000 words. With approximately 250 words per page, the average single-title novel would run 375 to 400 manuscript pages. (For tips on how to calculate your word count, refer to Chapter 3.)

Single-title novels are filled with characters that have layer upon layer of issues to resolve. They are the innocent man accused of murdering his wife who served five years before the real killer stepped forward to confess or the single mom who realizes the child she has raised for the last five years was swapped at birth. As children, they might be the ones abandoned, kidnapped, or raised by circus clowns. They can be many things, but most of them are fabulously flawed due to some traumatic or bizarre circumstance. They are not so flawed that the reader find them sympathetic — just flawed enough that the reader finds them fascinating. What they seldom are is perfect. Unless they are perfectionists, and that, in itself, is their flaw.

Plainly put, perfect people are boring. Complex characters with internal angst intrigue readers and are essential to the romance genre. Readers want to see them struggle through life. Readers want to see them confront their demons and win. Ultimately, in these books readers want to see them over-come their hurdles and fall in love with that one perfect person.

This isn't to say that category characters don't have depth or issues. They must and they do. However, with almost twice the page count of most category books at their disposal, single-title writers have that many more words to explore a character's psyche. Most writers of longer books understand the more complex the character, the more likely a reader is to keep turning pages, even if those pages equal 400. (For more information on creating complex characters, see Chapter 10.)

While readers of single titles are going to expect fascinating characters to fill the pages of the books they read, they will also expect those characters to do something after a while, or the readers' interest will wane and they will stop reading. That action, a string of related events that drives the story forward, is called a plot. And in single-title novels, the plots are varied. Generally speaking, a common denominator between these plots is that they consist of things that could have been ripped from the newspaper's headlines.

While some writers start their stories with a plot and others start with characters, the truth is it isn't important which comes first. What is important is that the string of events that make up your single-title plot are created in such a way that the reader is entranced by what may or may not happen next. And one of the best ways to keep the reader guessing is to make sure the plot brings out the best — and the worst — in your issue-laden characters.

And don't forget, you have to make sure the love story is a central part of the plot. See the two examples below:

• The husband, who had been accused of killing his wife, finds a dead body in the trunk of his car. Can he go to the police and risk being accused of murder again? Can he trust the sexy, female homicide detective to believe him, when it was her testimony that landed him in jail the first time?

• The mom of the child who was swapped at birth learns that her real daughter died in a car accident and the child she has now needs a bone marrow transplant — from a blood-related donor. Will saving her child's life mean she loses the child? When she discovers that the child's real father is a big-wig family practice lawyer, and that he's widowed and just the type of man she could love, dare she hope he'll offer his bone marrow and leave her with his child? And what about her heart?

Can you see how the romance is linked to the plot and as the story evolves so does the relationship? Making sure the romance is closely connected to the external plot is one way of making sure the love story is always in the forefront. (For more tips on plotting, see Chapter 8.)

A single-title romance and a category romance can have very similar storylines. What distinguishes one from the other is how the author tells the story. Single-titles allow the author to get grittier or darker with the details.