MarchRose,

The romance publishers in the US are very conservative when it comes to setting and time periods for historical romance. It's very difficult to sell an unusual setting and/or time period romance to a major publishing house. The most popular setting is, as you mentioned, Regency England. Victorian era, and Medieval set in Scotland and England are also popular. There is also a consistent number of historical romances set in the American Old West.

Any stories in places other than those are hard to sell to a traditional American print publisher. Many authors who do write in other settings/time periods sell their stories to epublishers.

When I was writing Celtic Fire, many people told me a book with a Roman hero/ancient time period wouldn't sell. The book was indeed turned down by five or six publishers who told me it was a good book, but "not marketable." The publishers give the public more of what they've already bought, because they don't want to risk that something new won't sell.

I was fortunate to sell my stories to Dorchester Publishing, which has a reputation for publishing stories that are unique and out of the ordinary.

All my stories so far have paranormal or magical elements, because I am fascinated with mythology and psychic phenomena. Also, the paranormal romance genre has become very popular in just the past ten years or so. More new writers were able to break into publishers writing paranormal fiction. Also, many traditional writers started writing paranormal books!

I would like to write in other genres in the future. Perhaps a non-paranormal historical, or a book for teenagers.

Joy