What makes paranormals successful?

Right now paranormal books are all the rage. Yey for us paranormal writers!

Lately I’ve been thinking about all the paranormal books that had really taken off and all the books that I personally enjoyed, I realized they all have something in common: A supernatural person doing supernatural things yes, BUT that supernatural person also deals with mundane, everyday issues that all of us ‘normal’ people have to deal with. I think this is the key to the success of a paranormal novel…ie, building a believable, fantastic world and creating the powers your hero or heroine possess, BUT the author should also incorporate…normalcy via characterization or external forces…ie add in a layer(s) in which readers can relate to and empathize with your main character.

Here’s a comment I received from a reader who’d read my vampire novels: “You make them so ‘real’ that I fell right into their world. I loved your vampires…and I didn’t think I’d like a vampire novel.” And this falls in line with how I try to write my novels. I make my characters ‘bigger than (normal) life’, but I always remember to ‘bring them down to earth’, too. Doing so makes for a balanced story readers will want to follow from book to book and character to character…at least, I hope so.