Dear Susie,
Romantic fiction in the UK is worth a record £69m. The British Book Awards have (finally) introduced a Romantic Fiction category this year. Online, the question of whether men can – or indeed should – write romance has become one of publishing’s most heated debates. And yet the men actually doing it remain largely invisible.
Mo Fanning is a gay, Midlands-born novelist who has spent five books writing sharp, funny romcoms with female leads. His latest, ‘Lisa Doyle is Absolutely Fine’, published last month to strong reviews and even stronger sales numbers – reaching the top 2000 in the US Amazon Fiction bestseller list on its first day of publication. He writes in a genre that assumes its authors are women and its stories don’t quite count as proper fiction – and he’s challenging both assumptions.
I think there’s a compelling Telegraph Magazine feature in this: the male romcom author as an unlikely challenger to gender norms in publishing. It’s a genuine trend piece – Mike Gayle, the UK’s most successful male romance author, has just spoken publicly about navigating this space, and cultural commentators are predicting a “second wave of lad lit” driven by men willing to write emotional, female-friendly fiction. Which given women seem to be behind the m/m sports romance novels might be just fair play.
Mo is an engaging, candid interviewee. He could also write a first-person piece: what happens when a man enters the romcom world and discovers it’s designed to keep him out. When interviewed on BBC Radio Manchester, the first question he faced was: ‘Isn’t romance a bit of an odd thing for men to write?’
Happy to discuss or send a review copy.
Best,Adrian BedfordABC Book Marketing07881 925376