The romance genre categorizes its novels according to a "heat scale" and it's important to know where your novel lies.
One of the most important tools for romance writers is the romance heat scale. The heat scale is essentially a scale that you can rate your book on that tells the romance reader what type of romance level they can expect from your book. The levels are: Clean, sweet, middle, steamy, & spicy. Clean romance – Clean romance is the most family friendly you can make a romance book. Most of the time it doesn’t even have swearing and the couple might hold hands and kiss once. Examples of this type of romance are: The Warrior Maiden & A Return of Devotion. Sweet romance – Sweet romance is the next step up. These are the books that have a little bit of kissing, maybe some swear words. Examples of this type of romance are: The Fault in Our Stars & Pride and Prejudice. Middle romance – Middle romance is where things start to get intimate with moderate kissing happening and the couple getting to second base. It also may allude to sex but will never show it on the page. Now I don’t have specific examples for middle romance books because not many authors label them so if you know of any, let me know and I’ll edit them in. Steamy romance – Steamy romance is the first time you’ll see sex written on the page but it will never be anything intense or crazy. Again, I don’t have specific examples for steamy romance books because not many authors label them so if you know of any, let me know and I’ll edit them in. Lastly you have your Spicy romance – Spicy romance is when the reader will get to experience intense sexual scenes that could include kinks and fetishes. Yet again, I don’t have specific examples for spicy romance books because not many authors label them so if you know of any, let me know and I’ll edit them in. So the reason I don’t have examples for the last two is because there is a very fine between the romance genre and the erotica genre. While many people believe they are one in the same, they are not. So the important thing to take away from the heat scale is to remember that while intimacy is great, you need to make sure the book is romance forward and the plot does not focus solely on the intimate interactions. Have you written romance before? Where did your writing fall on the heat scale?