One name, multiple genres.

It's basically a question of brand. If a reader buys a fantasy novel from you, and really likes it, then do you think they're going to want to read YA from you? Probably not. That's not to say your YA work is better or worse than any other work you do, but if you put out stuff in really different genres, you'll have a confused brand. Of course, the ideal would be having a brand that people equate with great stories, not just within a genre.

I do know what you mean though, because it's something I wonder about. My first novel (which I'm probably going to scrub up soon because I've learnt a lot since writing it) is an adventure, and the current one is SF. Yeah, different genres, but to me they explore the same sort of themes and have a really similar tone.

I think you'd probably need two names. If your YA is also fantasy, you can write it under the same name. It's not that uncommon for authors to write both adult and YA fantasy within a given genre. If your YA is more of a contemporary and/or literary story, you could write it under the same name as the literary works.

The literary and fantasy seem to me like they should be written under different names. There's very little they have in common, and I wouldn't expect readers of one to enjoy the other just because you wrote it.

Iain Banks: high lit and space opera
Michael Moorcock: sci-fi, fantasy, high lit
Brian Aldiss: sci-fi, high lit
Richard Morgan: space opera, cyberpunk, sword and sorcery
Tim Lebbon: horror, sword and sorcery
Andre Norton: sci-fi, sword and sorcery
Poul Anderson: sci-fi, sword and sorcery
Fritz Lieber: weird fiction, sci-fi, sword and sorcery
G.R.R. Martin: sci-fi, sword and sorcery
Glen Cook: fantasy, space opera, urban fantasy
Gene Wolfe: fantasy, space opera
Kevin J Anderson: sci-fi, space opera, urban fantasy
Stephen Baxter: space opera, various YA
Robert Silverberg: sci-fi, space opera, fantasy
Tanith Lee: sci-fi; horror; fantasy
C.J. Cherryh: space opera; fantasy
Holly Lisle: space opera; fantasy, paranormal
James D Macdonald: space opera; fantasy, mystery
Nora Roberts: romance, cyberpunk

A friend of mine is published through Tor. She is experimenting with other genres, including erotica, and so she discussed pen names with her agent recently. Their response: DON'T use a pen name. They were not at all concerned about readers being turned off by the erotica. They said the pluses of readers of one genre discovering the books in the other genre outweighed the risks.

I think I'd isolate the erotica from everything else.

The other genres -- if you truly want to distinguish them -- why not do a JD Robb/Nora Roberts? Pick two, closely related forms of your name for the different genres.

dondomat said:

Iain Banks: high lit and space opera
Michael Moorcock: sci-fi, fantasy, high lit
Brian Aldiss: sci-fi, high lit
Richard Morgan: space opera, cyberpunk, sword and sorcery
Tim Lebbon: horror, sword and sorcery
Andre Norton: sci-fi, sword and sorcery
Poul Anderson: sci-fi, sword and sorcery
Fritz Lieber: weird fiction, sci-fi, sword and sorcery
G.R.R. Martin: sci-fi, sword and sorcery
Glen Cook: fantasy, space opera, urban fantasy
Gene Wolfe: fantasy, space opera
Kevin J Anderson: sci-fi, space opera, urban fantasy
Stephen Baxter: space opera, various YA
Robert Silverberg: sci-fi, space opera, fantasy
Tanith Lee: sci-fi; horror; fantasy
C.J. Cherryh: space opera; fantasy
Holly Lisle: space opera; fantasy, paranormal
James D Macdonald: space opera; fantasy, mystery
Nora Roberts: romance, cyberpunk

Click to expand...

Almost all of these, though, are publishing in different branches of the same genre (SFF is a big tent with many rooms, and lots of writers occupy more than one and move between them frequently). Iain Banks used different names for the 2 genres he wrote in - Iain Banks and Iain M. Banks - a subtle distinction, but significant for branding. So does Norah Roberts - her SFF is published under the name "JD Robb".

Sometimes writers who hit the marketing death spiral have continued writing in the same genre but relaunched under a different name (e.g. Megan Lindholm/Robin Hobb, Alis Rasmussen/Kate Elliott) - it was not uncommon in the 90s as a strategy to game the big chains' purchasing algorithms but the business has changed since then and I don't know if it's done as much anymore.

I think the basic broad advice is that if you're chasing the same or overlapping audiences for the different types of work, it's ok & possibly even advisable to use the same name for them. If there's not likely to be significant overlap, it probably doesn't really matter either way. If you actively want to separate them (e.g. if you want to publish middle grades fiction AND erotica), different names are best.

You don't necessarily have to write under separate names--Sherry Thomas writes historical romance and now YA fantasy and she writes under her own name. It's not like Ken Follett separates his spy thrillers from his historicals either.

But, yeah, I would say that if you're writing YA trying to appeal to that demographic and want to publish erotica, a different name is a necessity.

I write erotic romance under a pen name, but that name will stay exclusive to that genre. I'm currently writing a satirical crime fiction that will be subbed under my real first and middle initials and last name. It's likely that anything else I write will be under that same version of my real name or something very close to it.

If you're writing erotica and kid lit or religious fiction, a pen name might be a good idea.

Otherwise, it's not something I'd be concerned about. You can always have the respective editors or agent help you decide when the time comes.

I know an author who adds a middle initial for one genre but not the other. The subtle change is enough when people Google what they see on the book cover.