How I became a cozy romance author

I’ve found myself musing on how I became a romance author recently – more specifically, of cozy and heartwarming romances. Over on Instagram, I was talking about what I’d learned during seven years of rejection before landing a book deal, and how I always envisioned myself as a certain type of writer.

It reminded me of how unexpected writing journeys can be in terms of where we end up. I thought I’d share the story of how I unexpectedly landed in this genre.

It might surprise you to know that I didn’t initially set out to become a romance author (though I’ve always wanted to be an author in general).

As a child and teen, I read all sorts of things, from fairy tales to contemporary stories to teen romances. I have always had a soft spot for fantasy, though; it was one of my favourite genres. I reread Ladybird classics like The Magic Porridge Pot and The Magic Paint Brush. My favourite fairy tale was The Little Mermaid – the dark-ish Hans Christian Andersen version where she throws herself into the sea at the end. Later on, as an adult, it even inspired one of my self-published fantasy books.

I also grew up obsessed with Harry Potter (and was told off for reading it when I should have been sleeping). I loved Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom series and the talking cat, Mogget.

I tore through YA books like there was no tomorrow!

It was only natural that my stories ended up being fantasy, too. My first attempt at a novel when I was fifteen or so was a Kingdom Hearts-style story with doors to other worlds and angels.

Suffice to say, the first book I ever submitted to agents when I was an adult was a YA fantasy. It got a tiny bit of interest but ultimately, was rejected.

I switched to a YA contemporary idea I’d had, and sent that out. It got a lot more interest – I was even invited to meet with an agent! The process of submitting this was a rollercoaster of ups and downs that I’ve talked about on this blog before, so I won’t rehash it – you can read the whole story here.

My agent and I put three different manuscripts out on submission: the YA contemporary, and two more fantasy books for different ages. None of them sold.

By this point, I was having an existential crisis. I loved manga, video games, Korean dramas, fantasy books. I remembered when these things weren’t popular at all, because I’d been ridiculed for enjoying them, and I felt like I’d built my entire identity on enjoying these things that were niche. That was supposed to carry over into my writing career! I was supposed to write fantasy!

So I self-published some. I sold some books, and it was fun for a while. But I wasn’t happy. Self-publishing was hard on top of running an editing business and I was tired and wanted a publisher to do things for me.

My literary agent encouraged me to try something new. My beloved cat had passed away and I had a vague desire to write something cat-themed, or a snowed-in romance because they were my favourite type of Christmas movie.

I looked back at all my old projects and noticed a theme:

Badly written childhood novel: had a romance.
YA fantasy (submitted): had a romance.
YA contemporary (submitted): had a romance.
Two more fantasy books (submitted): one had a romance. The other one only didn’t because it was middle grade.

It turns out, I love writing love stories. I just hadn’t really noticed it before. It was buried under what I’d pigeonholed myself into.

I loved writing the developing bond between characters, those heart-stopping moments, the process of falling in love. Most of the stories I loved growing up had heart-wrenching love stories, too, even the fantasy ones.

Maybe I’d suit being a romance author!

I did what my agent suggested, and decided I could still write about what I loved even if I leaned into a more commercial genre. I wrote the snowed-in, cat-themed, cozy book I wanted to write.

That book was Snowed in at the Cat Café.

It changed my life. It went to auction and I signed a two-book deal. Within weeks, we had international deals coming in from all over the world. That book has now been translated into more languages than I can keep up with, and I’ve written more books about the cat café that have sold internationally, too.

My past self would probably be surprised that I wound up a romance author!

But really, genres are just marketing terms and how we categorise books based on their contents. Figuring out the elements I enjoyed writing, first and foremost, was far more helpful to me. If you want to be a writer yourself, I strongly recommend starting from there. Genre and marketing can come later, once you find out what you enjoy.

I still love fantasy books. I love cozy romance too. I’m even cooking up something that’s a bit of a blend of both, which I hope to be able to share very soon…