I have all of these great ideas, and I have been working really hard on all of them but I don't want to have to wait to completely finish one genre before I start another. Do authors bounce back and forth like that, or is it in the best interest for the re
This question bridges into the field of marketing, which, these days is a part of any successful writing career.
Over the years I’ve written in lots of different genres—from prayer journals and spiritual titles to educational books, fantasy, psychological suspense, conspiracy thrillers, young adult mystery and more. As we’ve spoken with marketing experts they always ask, “What makes you unique or different?” And then, they want to use that to create your brand.
So when I was speaking and performing children’s and family shows as well as writing about storytelling, my brand was “The voice of imagination” which encompassed all of my imaginative storytelling and writing. However, over the last decade, I’ve moved toward primarily writing intelligent thrillers with twist endings. So my brand has changed. (Although I don’t have a cool phrase to describe myself anymore. Suggestions are always welcome,)
Now, as far as writing in different genres, I’ve always believed in writing what you have the ideas for and moving on from there, but I can certainly see the wisdom in sticking to one genre and becoming known for that. Honestly, it is a little confusing when people see what I’ve written and they say, “So you’ve written books on how to tell Bible stories to preschool children and you write serial killer novels?”Yup. That’s me. But it’s a little hard to brand.
Many fiction authors do span genres (Heather Graham, F. Paul Wilson, Stephen King, Ted Dekker, etc.), so there’s no easy answer to your question. I personally believe in pursuing ideas where they lead and trusting that readers will connect with brilliantly told stories, whatever genre labels might be ascribed to it.
Over the years I’ve written in lots of different genres—from prayer journals and spiritual titles to educational books, fantasy, psychological suspense, conspiracy thrillers, young adult mystery and more. As we’ve spoken with marketing experts they always ask, “What makes you unique or different?” And then, they want to use that to create your brand.
So when I was speaking and performing children’s and family shows as well as writing about storytelling, my brand was “The voice of imagination” which encompassed all of my imaginative storytelling and writing. However, over the last decade, I’ve moved toward primarily writing intelligent thrillers with twist endings. So my brand has changed. (Although I don’t have a cool phrase to describe myself anymore. Suggestions are always welcome,)
Now, as far as writing in different genres, I’ve always believed in writing what you have the ideas for and moving on from there, but I can certainly see the wisdom in sticking to one genre and becoming known for that. Honestly, it is a little confusing when people see what I’ve written and they say, “So you’ve written books on how to tell Bible stories to preschool children and you write serial killer novels?”Yup. That’s me. But it’s a little hard to brand.
Many fiction authors do span genres (Heather Graham, F. Paul Wilson, Stephen King, Ted Dekker, etc.), so there’s no easy answer to your question. I personally believe in pursuing ideas where they lead and trusting that readers will connect with brilliantly told stories, whatever genre labels might be ascribed to it.
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Randall
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Apr 18, 2015 08:24AM
I think every author struggles with this question. As a newer self-published author, I can't say what really WORKS in branding, but as a reader, an example comes to mind. IMHO, J.K. Rowling would have fared much better with drawing fans to her new work if she wrote something that was either fantasy or YA, as something to branch out from her Harry Potter books. Leaping to an adult mystery novel was so detached from her HP series that, frankly, it didn't interest me. If she started with a related genre, then did something else to branch off from that, and so on, I feel I would have been more inclined to read them all. But that sudden shift makes me wonder if she can write such a dissimilar story well, or if I would want to read such stories by her. (All this has nothing to do with whether her other stories are well-written - I have not read any of them.) For myself, I'm trying to write & promote more thrillers now, so that no one ever again tells me, "So, you write children's stories, right?" I'll write those later, when people think of me as a thriller writer first. I think once we establish ourselves in the genre we like best, it's safer to branch out, one branch at a time, and bring our fans with us.
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