I am working through some final edits of my (hopefully) soon to be published book and am currently receiving conflicting views from my beta readers, so I am asking for help.
My novel has a female protagonist, but the very important second character is also female. Most urban fantasy stories I read have an element of romance running through them even if they are not dark romances as such. This inevitably seems to be heterosexual (if it isn’t heterosexual then it seems to be emphasised as lgbt automatically, even if that element is incidental). During the first and second drafts, my female leads developed an intense sexual chemistry which I have been previously attempting to edit out so it is not off-putting to straight readers. Particularly straight female readers, I suppose.
Unfortunately, I think that as this series develops, by doing this I am going to be cutting out a strong element of the story, so am reluctant to do so. Of course, that could mean they ultimately end up together further down the line.
Would this turn off the average urban fantasy reader? Any hot girl on girl action would be (for now at least) incidental to the plot and purely character development.
I’d love it if you could fill in the survey below to give me an idea of which way to swing on this (every pun intended). If you don’t have time for that, a quick note in the comments section below would be awesome.
Thank you to everyone who takes part!
C.K. Martin / Cas Martin 
It seems to me that these characters are trying to tell you something about who they are, and to try to “write that out” will weaken the overall story. Don’t worry about your readers – write a strong story and you’ll attract the right ones. 🙂
That was what my gut instinct was telling me, but it’s good to hear it from someone else. Where it’s been edited out now feels really sterile to me as a writer, so I’m guessing it will to a reader too. Thanks so much for the advice 🙂
I’m not sure if going for the most generic audience is really worth doing. Artistically, obviously you shouldn’t limit yourself like that, but even from a business perspective — I thought the generally-accepted ‘winning strategy’ with self-publishing was to find a niche, loyal audience? It seems to me that anything that differentiates your book from the hundreds of other urban fantasies out there can only be a good thing…
I think the advice came because it isn’t the main focus of the story, so it was more a fear of labelling. The bits I’ve edited out do feel absolutely the same as the millions of others out there now, which didn’t make much sense to me. It’s good to have an objective opinion though, so I can stand my ground without feeling I’m just being too invested in the characters…
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