What would you like to see in a published book series?

I have a unique opportunity to pitch a superhero romance series to a subsidiary of a big four publisher. I’m in the process of designing a couple of different pitches.

What sort of content would you guys like to see in a series like that? What type of character(s) would you most like to see in a series like that?

Also, do you have a preference for digital or print books?

wrote:

I have a unique opportunity to pitch a superhero romance series to a subsidiary of a big four publisher. I’m in the process of designing a couple of different pitches.

What sort of content would you guys like to see in a series like that? What type of character(s) would you most like to see in a series like that?

Also, do you have a preference for digital or print books?

Given you are talking romance novel,  the super heroine romances and quasi-romances I've read so far go way too lightly on the visceral and visual and power aspects of super strength. The power is there, but what I saw just described the use of super strength as if it was kind of minor deal. Part of the character but not a focus.

But romance books are famously/infamously full of when it comes to incredibly detailed intimate scenes. Maybe there is a way to combine the power into something that the romance world hasn't seen before. Perhaps a premier athlete who is madly into her strength and power, but not slavishly, and the superherooine totally loving her strength, but not letting that go to her head. Completely, anyway. Perhaps an implausible relationship develops, with the power ratios reversed from normal, but somehow finding a new way to relate intimately. Gotta be special moves, etc. 

A superstrong woman is not going to be the same in bed as an ordinary woman. There are hundred ways to incorporate that, many of them interesting. 

What role does narcissism play in the story. Hard to completely avoid that, except Wonder Woman could. 

Also, power warps personalities and ethical systems. Sometimes for the better, ala Supergirl, but usually for the worse. Or sometimes a little of each. It's that mixed middle ground that can be fun.  Maybe the man is a detective, and some of her activities are not strictly legal. A horrific crime pushes them together to solve it, only to have a simmering desire build between them, only to be consummated in slightly unusual ways of human and superhuman. 

Anyway, that's what I came up with by noodling the thin air...

Shadar



 

Hope I'm not being presumptous by suggesting you pitch Super Jaded to them

There could be an option of following in the footsteps of My Super-Ex with Uma (I know, the film was pretty lame, but it did have it's moments.)
It could be a platform for the quandary of whether she should tell her love interest of her true identity.
Perhaps passing on her knowledge would affect her powers ratio, so she tries to drop subtle hints that he may or may not pick up on (such as their first bedroom scene or the taxi cab scene in Super-Ex) without her telling him the 'Absolute Truth'. And should she be divulging her greatest secret to what could be just a passing fling?
Possibly an opportunity to run this from a slight comedy angle.

I would urge you to do some market research. These are books aimed at women who are bored and lonely and wish they were... well, superwoman! I would head to your closest Barnes and Nobel, grab half a dozen of the best selling vampire romances with a female lead, and review their plots.

Let that research inform your pitch. I agree with Shadar that usually these books barely mention the superstrength and other powers after a brief intro.
Most, thought not all, of the stories here hurry past that, but having all these powers all the time would ALWAYS be very complicated.

I believe a normal person would spend a lot more time imagining it was all a dream even after a few months. To say becoming a super would be surreal is a gross understatement. Testing powers and all of that would seem utterly bizarre.

You do a good job of that, but for publishers make the complications harder and the stakes higher. This audience loves you, but we are also pushovers. Be hard on your characters and you'll sell this project.