Romance set in the world of motorcycle clubs, featuring alpha heroes, loyalty, danger, and a tight-knit outlaw community.
Biker romance centers on characters in or adjacent to motorcycle clubs, with the MC (motorcycle club) culture providing both the setting and the source of conflict. The heroes tend to be fiercely protective, loyal to their club, and living outside conventional society. The romance typically pairs a club member with someone from a different world, and the tension comes from navigating the club's rules, dangers, and code of loyalty alongside a deepening relationship.
Biker romance has a dedicated and passionate readership, especially in self-publishing. It demonstrates how a specific subculture can become the engine of an entire subgenre, providing built-in conflict, community dynamics, and stakes. If you're interested in writing niche romance, studying how biker romance built its community offers a blueprint.
One of the subgenre's foundational texts, establishing many of its conventions around MC culture and alpha heroes.
The Reapers MC series that demonstrated the subgenre's commercial power in self-publishing.
Write a scene where an outsider enters a tight-knit, insular community for the first time. Through the community members' reactions (who stares, who ignores, who tests), establish the group's hierarchy and unspoken rules without exposition. Then have one member break ranks to approach the outsider. That tension is the setup.