Hi Everyone,
I did a search about this in this thread but the only relevant thread I could find was more about publishing in relatively related genres.
I've been writing in several different genres in the last years (contemporary women's fiction, but not chick lit, historical cozy mystery, and psychological suspense) and I enjoy all of them. I have several finished novels in the WF genre which are on hold for revision right now because I'm doing Nano this year (where I'm working on a new psychological suspense novel).
I've been really debating whether to try and publish under these different genres (mainly the WF and PS genres) because my writing style for both is quite different. Don't get me wrong, it's still my writing voice, but the WF fiction is a bit more offbeat, quirkier, and lighter in tone with more of an uplifting storyline and ending. The PS novels are more serious, darker, and more complex.
I read a while back in quite a few writing books and articles that if you're going the traditional publishing route, unless you're a big name, writing in different unrelated genres is iffy because readers do not readily accept a writer who is writing in different genres and traditional publishers don't always like it (because it's a big risk, of course, to allow a writer who has been making money for them in one genre to write in another).
But since this is self-publishing, I know that the "rules" don't necessarily apply. I would like to publish anything I write under my pen name rather than change pen names for different genres.
Have other people here self-published under different genres, especially genres that are unrelated? How do you handle this? And can this be successful for a writer or would it be a handicap (i.e., maybe make readers think that as a writer, I can't "make up my mind" as to what genre I want to write in so I'm just testing out genres? That's not the situation at all. I take the time and effort with every book that I write. I just like writing in different genres ).
Djuna
I did a search about this in this thread but the only relevant thread I could find was more about publishing in relatively related genres.
I've been writing in several different genres in the last years (contemporary women's fiction, but not chick lit, historical cozy mystery, and psychological suspense) and I enjoy all of them. I have several finished novels in the WF genre which are on hold for revision right now because I'm doing Nano this year (where I'm working on a new psychological suspense novel).
I've been really debating whether to try and publish under these different genres (mainly the WF and PS genres) because my writing style for both is quite different. Don't get me wrong, it's still my writing voice, but the WF fiction is a bit more offbeat, quirkier, and lighter in tone with more of an uplifting storyline and ending. The PS novels are more serious, darker, and more complex.
I read a while back in quite a few writing books and articles that if you're going the traditional publishing route, unless you're a big name, writing in different unrelated genres is iffy because readers do not readily accept a writer who is writing in different genres and traditional publishers don't always like it (because it's a big risk, of course, to allow a writer who has been making money for them in one genre to write in another).
But since this is self-publishing, I know that the "rules" don't necessarily apply. I would like to publish anything I write under my pen name rather than change pen names for different genres.
Have other people here self-published under different genres, especially genres that are unrelated? How do you handle this? And can this be successful for a writer or would it be a handicap (i.e., maybe make readers think that as a writer, I can't "make up my mind" as to what genre I want to write in so I'm just testing out genres? That's not the situation at all. I take the time and effort with every book that I write. I just like writing in different genres ).
Djuna