Does writing erotica look bad to mainstream publishers?

Jacob_Wallace

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Should I use a different pen name between my erotic romance and my science fantasy stories? I mean, if I publish erotica under the name of Jacob Wallace, would sci-fi/fantasy publishers look at that and look down on me if I tried to publish with them also using the name of Jacob Wallace?
 

V.W.Singer

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I cannot speak for the mainstream publishers, or speculate on how they view such things, it is a fact that both the authorities and non governmental players such as Amazon, VISA, Paypal, and so on have often acted to "discourage" many forms of erotica, so publishers might be reluctant to have their brand associated with an author who makes a name in that field, if only to avoid such resistance from others.

So I would say yes, a different pen name might be a good idea.
 

Maryn

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In practice, having erotic works under one or more pen names makes perfect sense.

Say somebody reads my heterosexual erotic novel and loves it (hey, it could happen!). They buy my next novel based entirely on seeing my name on the cover. And if it's gay erotica, or fetish, or science fiction, or a western, they're going to be pissed enough that they may never buy my work again. They'll feel I cheated them by using my name on more that one (sub)genre.

It's okay to use similar names and let readers who are paying attention figure out they're all you. Maybe Jacob Wallace published science fiction, J. Cobb Wallis does hetero erotica, Jake Walters does fetish erotica, and JayCee Walls writes gay erotic romance.

So even if your scifi publisher is totally cool with you also publishing erotica, they won't want you risking alienation of readers expecting something else altogether.

Maryn, knowing a number of people here who use two or three pen names
 

jennontheisland

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Eden Bradley and Eve Berlin are the same author, writing erotica for two different publishers. Even within a genre, publishers sometimes like to have an author to themselves.
 

Rechan

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A separate name for erotic and non makes sense, but I think Maryn takes it too far.

Say somebody reads my heterosexual erotic novel and loves it (hey, it could happen!). They buy my next novel based entirely on seeing my name on the cover. And if it's gay erotica, or fetish, or science fiction, or a western, they're going to be pissed enough that they may never buy my work again. They'll feel I cheated them by using my name on more that one (sub)genre.
IMO that's shooting yourself in the foot. You're diluting your brand. Creating a name every time you want to write something even slightly different puts you back to square 1 in terms of fanbase. You're letting your worry over a possible few readers being upset cause you a real setback by not allowing those that Do like you to find the rest of your work.

Even if you put this information on your blog or whatnot, that's a huge assumption that people will actually go to your blog and find it. There are a LOT of authors I like and I only go to the website of maybe 2 (and that's only to find out when their next book is coming out).

If you're writing a lot of erotica but of different TYPES of erotica, I think it's best to be up front and label it both with tags and in the blurb. The reader should know "this is gay, this is straight, this has monster sex in it" before they open the page. That way people who want x can actually tell that it has x in it, and people who don't want x can tell and avoid it. But then, authors should be up front what genre/subgenre a book is to begin with (I hate the marketing of a book or movie saying it's in genre x when it's not, it's genre y).

After that, any reader who doesn't look at what a book is about and instead blindly buys a book based on the author's name has only themselves to blame.
 
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Filigree

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Rechan, you would be surprised at the number of times I've seen it happen. There's some crossover in genre reading, but a lot of self-segregation, too. Angry readers lash out when they think they've been mislead. I have seen Maryn's hypothetical situation play out many times in review comments and blog posts.

A number of AW writers use different names for different genres. It's up to the writer to decide if dilution is worth the illusory 'shield'. Some folks have no choice; they must hide and compartmentalize their work.

For me, I keep the M. C. Hana name for Loose Id. Marian Crane is who I am in the art world. M. H. Crane is an older fantasy name that I used for one fantasy anthology. Crane Hana will be the name I use for non-LI erotic romance and SFF from here on out. That's for convenience, as well as not coddling readers. I've made it very clear on my blog, interviews, and other social media posts that I write M/M, M/F, F/F, gen, and asexual relationships in the same story arc. People who can't handle that, are probably not my readers.
 

Rechan

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A number of AW writers use different names for different genres. It's up to the writer to decide if dilution is worth the illusory 'shield'.
Of course it's up to the author. That doesn't mean I can't say it's a bad idea.

Some folks have no choice; they must hide and compartmentalize their work.
And the first thing I said in my post was that it made sense to separate erotic and non-erotic.
 
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KimJo

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I use the pen name Karenna Colcroft for my erotic romance (and non-erotic romance, for that matter), and Jo Ramsey for my YA (and some non-erotic New Adult I'm working on).

The only book I've had a major issue with was an adult urban fantasy novel that *I* thought should have gone under Karenna's name, but the publisher insisted belonged under Jo because there's no sex in the book. A romance and some kissing, and quite a bit of sexual reference and innuendo, but no actual sex. I think that decision was wrong, and the fact that the book has only netted me $6.74 in royalties over the past TWO YEARS despite promotion kinda bears that out, in my opinion. Once I get rights back, I'm going to have it redone under Karenna's name.

Under the Karenna name, as I said, I have mostly erotic romance but also a few romances with little or no sexual content. I have both male/male and heterosexual romance. I have a couple-few BDSM stories, and I have at current count 3 menages of various combinations, with another under contract and one in progress.

That might have burned me too; I have had readers of my M/M stuff complain about my hetero stuff, and vice versa. For the most part, I've delineated it by publisher, though a couple of publishers that mostly have my hetero stuff also have a couple of my M/Ms. But at the time I started writing M/M, after two years of only writing hetero romance, I was already struggling to juggle the two pen names I had, and I didn't want to add a third.

At the end of last year, after some input from other authors, I came up with the "brilliant" idea of adding a third pen name for *paranormal* romance. That didn't work out; I already had several paranormal titles under Karenna's name, and I wasn't able to effectively manage three pen names with websites and social media, so other than one short story in one anthology, the third pen name has died a quiet death. I'm not great at promo as it is, and trying to juggle promo for two names stresses me out enough. I've now proven to myself that I can't manage a third.

However, there was never a chance in hell that I would do the YA under the same name as the erotic romance... I am well aware that teens have, watch, and read about sex, but that doesn't mean I'm going to encourage them to read Karenna's stuff or make it easier for them to find it. Nor am I going to shoot myself in the foot with potential school visits and library placement, and a few family members, if the wrong person finds out that I write erotic stuff.
 
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CrastersBabies

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I dunno, the only thing other writers might "see" in the erotica writer is a person laughing all the way to the bank. Erotica seems to sell like wildfire.

That said, I've heard a few agents say that if you switch genres (to-from any), it's best to use a different name. I don't know how true that is.
 

Lillith1991

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I dunno, the only thing other writers might "see" in the erotica writer is a person laughing all the way to the bank. Erotica seems to sell like wildfire.

That said, I've heard a few agents say that if you switch genres (to-from any), it's best to use a different name. I don't know how true that is.

See, I can see the wisdom in this when writing Erotica vs a mainstream genre. I'm not picking on Erotica, if you write MG and Scifi-Horror separate pen names are smart too. But say you write Dark Fantasy, Horror, Dark Scifi/Scifi-Horror, then that's just idiotic to me to have separate names. If your niche is Dark Speculative Fiction, then the same name for all is the most sensible. And even within Spec Fic, if you write both light and dark fiction I won't call it a stupid idea to have multiple names. Clearly the light stuff and dark stuff are sufficiently different, and have different audiences.

Within Erotica if you write stuff that is more vanilla and things that are extremely kinky, separate names can be a reasonable thing as well. Those who like the lighter stuff may be turned off if you write the publish darker stuff under the same name, but to separate all Hetero/MM/FF etc. I'm not entirely sure it's the best idea. As a reader, and someone who actually readers blurbs and pays atttention to what I pick to read, that feels like molly coddling. If readers are smart, they will look before buying.
 
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Maryn

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Many readers don't even seem to know such a universe, with all those wondrous possibilities, exists.

Maryn, hornswoggled at times
 

thethinker42

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...but to separate all Hetero/MM/FF etc. I'm not entirely sure it's the best idea. As a reader, and someone who actually readers blurbs and pays atttention to what I pick to read, that feels like molly coddling. If readers are smart, they will look before buying.

As someone who has a hetero name and an M/M name, I would *like* to agree, but the reality is....it doesn't always work that way.

Also, I have a lot of readers who auto-buy my books (which is great!), but they absolutely DO NOT read hetero, lesbian, or bisexual. Having separate pen names is simply a shorthand for people to know at a glance that it may or may not be something they're interested in. It's no different than having a separate shelf at the book store for "romance" and "paranormal" romance. It just makes it a little easier for readers to find what they're looking for.

In my case, it's no secret that L.A. Witt and Lauren Gallagher are the same person. I have one twitter account, one blog, one website. When I tweet "Now Available - General Misconduct by L.A. Witt" or "Now Available - Razor Wire by Lauren Gallagher", readers can tell in 140 characters or less if the book is even something that will cross their radar.

Call it molly coddling, call it what you will. Personally, in this highly saturated and competitive market, I'm not opposed to anything that shortens the distance between a reader and what s/he wants to read.

All of that being said, I would be lying if I said having two (soon to be three) pen names isn't a colossal pain in the ass. Having them share social media helps, but the primary way an author stays visible is to write books, and writing enough to keep both of them visible is definitely challenging. Do I regret going with two names? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It was a marketing decision made when I was still learning the ropes, and it's worked out fairly well, though I wish one name had sales that held a candle to the other name, but I'm working on that. Some days I wish I'd gone with one name, some days I think this works just fine. I really couldn't tell you if it's the way to go or not. It's worked out well enough for me.
 

Lillith1991

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As someone who has a hetero name and an M/M name, I would *like* to agree, but the reality is....it doesn't always work that way.

Also, I have a lot of readers who auto-buy my books (which is great!), but they absolutely DO NOT read hetero, lesbian, or bisexual. Having separate pen names is simply a shorthand for people to know at a glance that it may or may not be something they're interested in. It's no different than having a separate shelf at the book store for "romance" and "paranormal" romance. It just makes it a little easier for readers to find what they're looking for.

In my case, it's no secret that L.A. Witt and Lauren Gallagher are the same person. I have one twitter account, one blog, one website. When I tweet "Now Available - General Misconduct by L.A. Witt" or "Now Available - Razor Wire by Lauren Gallagher", readers can tell in 140 characters or less if the book is even something that will cross their radar.

Call it molly coddling, call it what you will. Personally, in this highly saturated and competitive market, I'm not opposed to anything that shortens the distance between a reader and what s/he wants to read.

All of that being said, I would be lying if I said having two (soon to be three) pen names isn't a colossal pain in the ass. Having them share social media helps, but the primary way an author stays visible is to write books, and writing enough to keep both of them visible is definitely challenging. Do I regret going with two names? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It was a marketing decision made when I was still learning the ropes, and it's worked out fairly well, though I wish one name had sales that held a candle to the other name, but I'm working on that. Some days I wish I'd gone with one name, some days I think this works just fine. I really couldn't tell you if it's the way to go or not. It's worked out well enough for me.

You make a very good point! And either way, what feels like molly coddling to me when it happens doesn't feel like that to the average reader. A lot of people click instead of reading blurbs, or don't pick up on key words.