Romance can run as short as 60K, depending on the pacing and the writer

That's for Harlequin. Standalone romances are ~100,000, up to ~140,000.

Geraniums are scarlet. A Chrysler Imperial rose is crimson.

Good Buddy Tad, OTOH, writes boat anchors

No kidding. I loved Otherworld, and didn't mind that it had to be published in four volumes.

(My longest fic to date is now at around 120,000 words. Eep.)

Standalone romances are ~100,000, up to ~140,000.

Cool. I'm in the right ballpark, then. But it's a damn good thing I decided to put some sex in it. When I started I thought it was a trad regency, and they're about the same length as contemporary series romances.

Though now that I think about it, I'll be able to trim it some just because writing it out of order has led to a certain amount of duplication. For example, I have a tertiary character whom I introduced in a late scene just because I needed someone to fill out a dance set. I didn't waste much time on her, but I gave her a name, an age, a hair color, and a connection to the community. Then, last week, writing a scene that's chronologically much earlier, I needed a "filler" person again, so I brought her back and gave all the basic info again. I'll only save about twenty words by cutting the description in the later scene, but multiply that over the whole book and it'll be something.

It's a bit of a hassle, but I'm glad I decided to write in the order scenes impressed themselves on my brain rather than in chronological order. I'm sure I would've abandoned it long ago otherwise, since there's still a big chunk of the beginning remaining to write, and I'm just now figuring out what needs to go there.

It's a bit of a hassle, but I'm glad I decided to write in the order scenes impressed themselves on my brain rather than in chronological order.

Many do. Including me, which sucks, because dammit I want my plot NOW!

Betsy, thanks - could not for the life of me remember which line it was (Harlequin).

I'm always amazed at people who can write a book out of order. I think there's a section of my brain that's completely closed off, because my jaw sort of flops loosely if I try anything other the beginning-middle-end.

Harlequin

Harlequin isn't the only publisher; the official term is "category". A category romance is the sort that is on sale for precisely one month, and is sold by category rather than title. You have a standing order for, say, 10 Harlequin Temptations. In January you get ten copies of "Hamsters, Babies, and Lust" and put them in the stack. In February you get ten copies of "The Amnesiac Seal's Quadruplets", tear up the remaining 9 copies of "Hamsters" (everybody thought immediately of duct tape) and go on with your life.

Harlequins are Mills and Boon in Canada and the UK, by the way.

This is the first time I've tried writing out of order, and I don't think it's a coincidence that I've never gotten anything like this far before. In some ways it feels more like assembling a jigsaw puzzle or watching a construction site slowly grow into something recognizable than the kind of writing I did for school or do for work. Before I started, I had the opening, the heroine's background, and a few scenes from various points in the plot I knew I needed. The more I write, the more I see what needs to come before or next. But Chapter Two? Still not here. Which I'm taking as a sign that what I'd planned to put in it isn't really that important and can be rushed through to get to the meat of the story.

Betsy, again, yup- that's what I think of as "line". Doesn't AVon do runs like that as well?

Nope. Category romance doesn't just mean the publisher has guidelines, it means that the book is primarily marketed by publisher and line (hence category) and stays on the shelves for only a month.

If you look at Avon Romance's page, you'll see that the emphasis in the cover design is on the individual authors' names and titles.

[link]

Contrast the cover designs on these Harlequin Temptations:

[link]

The focus is on the publishing line, much more than on the author.

And if you want to buy an Avon Romance that was first published in 1998 and is still popular, you can. There is no way to buy a new copy of a Harlequin that was first published in 2002, let alone 2003. That page I linked to is the May books. They'll be gone by July.

Scary....