Daily Whirling: How often?

Welcome to the new feature on Diana’s Diversions: The Daily Whirling, in which I will be positing a question that’s been, you guessed it, whirling around in my mind.

A few months ago, I received an agent rejection that went something like this: “Your manuscript isn’t paranormal enough to be what’s selling these days in paranormal, and as a straight romance, it doesn’t fit neatly into a genre like romantic comedy or romantic suspense.” I’m also reading a Blaze book right now that I’m not sure is sexy enough to be much like a Blaze.

So here’s my question. How often does a romantic comedy have to be funny? Every few lines? Every few pages? In a suspense, how often should the characters be in danger? In a paranormal, should a vampire jump out at least once a chapter? In a sexy book, how many sex scenes should I expect?

I freely admit that the agent’s assessment of my last book is a valid opinion. I don’t call it paranormal, and I don’t enter it into the paranormal category of contests becuase, frankly, it doesn’t perform well against the Feehanesque masses. It’s more like an early X-files than a Buffy — the paranormal element could be there, or it could not. The hero is not a vampire. There are plenty of jokes, but very few of the pratfalls and quirky, klutzy heroines that mark today’s “romantic comedies.” They are in danger quite a bit, but it’s by no means a romantic suspense, and the heroine doesn’t kick enough butt to make it romantic action. I think it’s sexy, but despite my best intentions, they only do the deed — onscreen — twice in the whole novel. They think about sex quite a bit, however, and it permeates the whole book. I’ve always thought of it as a straight romance, have billed it as such, and I’m only mildly worried that it’s not “really” enough in any of these directions to bypass the dreaded “unmarketable” or, worse, “meh.”

I’m writing a new books now, and it’s supposed to be flip and irreverant, and once again, there are jokes, but they aren’t yukking it up and hamming around for the reader. No one has tripped into the arms of an Adonis yet. Is that a problem?

How often do we need to demonstrate our subgenre in our manuscripts for them to count?