Juggling Multiple Genres by Jamie DeBree
[caption id="attachment_6094" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Three genres, one author."]
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First off, I want to say happy birthday to #Amwriting, and thank you to Johanna Harness for starting the whole thing two years ago. The #amwriting community has been an amazing thing to be a part of, even when I can’t actively engage much. No matter where I am, if I’m working on a WIP, I feel incomplete if I can’t post to the group that I’m working at that moment. It’s super-groovy-cool, and I hope to be a part of it for many years to come.
On to today’s topic – multiple genres. What is “genre”? A way of categorizing books according to what the main subject and style of writing is, so readers can find what they want.
I have no science to back it up, but I dare say that a large percentage of writers don’t really want to stick with just one genre. We’re a creative, inquisitive lot who thrive on new challenges and worlds to discover. So telling most of us to stick with one genre is like handcuffing us to the bike rack outside the library. A cruel and unusual form of punishment.
How then, can we juggle writing in more than one genre while still managing to actually sell our books? Well, let me tell you how I do it. I’m a self-publisher, so if you’re working with an agent, you may want to read this post by Rachelle Gardner. She makes some very good points, though it’s not nearly as much marketing work as she makes it out to be (in my experience, anyways).
The books in the picture above are all mine. I write in three genres: romantic suspense, erotica, and I’m working on my first thriller. I write drafts in each concurrently, so I’m not just switching off, I’m actively working in each one every week. One thing I find really great about writing this way is that all the switching pretty much eliminates any possibility of getting “blocked” on anything. I write 500-700 words for one WIP, then move to the next (normally a different genre) the next day, and so on. It’s a slower way to write than focusing on one draft at a time, but more productive for me and I love the challenge of switching my writing style every few days.
People ask me all the time how I keep my WIP’s straight when I work on them concurrently. Because I have a different voice and style for each genre, it isn’t a problem at all to keep them straight in my head.
But if you’re a person who prefers to work on a single WIP at a time, then switching genres when you finish a book will work too. That could be problematic for another reason too though – and that is your style and voice are likely to change at least a little depending on the genre you’re writing for. Spending enough time to finish a complete novel might make it harder to switch back to the previous genre for the next novel.
Choosing either completely opposite genres, or very similar genres is a good way to make switching between the two easier without putting your original writing voice at risk. It’s taken me a little time to find my “voice” for each genre, so I think it’s safe to say it will probably take most writers time to figure out how their specific voice fits/adapts to a certain genre. The tricky thing about genre is that it’s there for readers – they expect certain things from certain genres. And while it’s okay to blend them a little, it should still be recognizable as at least one main genre for categorizing. Otherwise, what’s the point?
In terms of marketing, each genre will need it’s own branding and backlist. Even if you write under your own name for everything, you’ll need a way for readers to distinguish between them. Branding becomes even more important in this scenario. Pen names really help with this, as you can establish completely different online personas for each if you want. Both of my pen names have web sites, twitter accounts and facebook pages, though I only use them occasionally. The good news is, if your pen names are more for “show” than anything else (like mine), you can still promote those titles with your main name branding. Honestly, I do little to no promotion for my erotica pen name, and sales are nearly as good for that as they are with my romantic suspense.
Clear as mud, right? ;-)
Writing in multiple genres is fun and rewarding, and the only time I wouldn’t recommend it is for those writers just starting out, who haven’t finished a book yet. To those writers, I say don’t even think about genre, just focus on finishing the book.
[/caption]First off, I want to say happy birthday to #Amwriting, and thank you to Johanna Harness for starting the whole thing two years ago. The #amwriting community has been an amazing thing to be a part of, even when I can’t actively engage much. No matter where I am, if I’m working on a WIP, I feel incomplete if I can’t post to the group that I’m working at that moment. It’s super-groovy-cool, and I hope to be a part of it for many years to come.
On to today’s topic – multiple genres. What is “genre”? A way of categorizing books according to what the main subject and style of writing is, so readers can find what they want.
I have no science to back it up, but I dare say that a large percentage of writers don’t really want to stick with just one genre. We’re a creative, inquisitive lot who thrive on new challenges and worlds to discover. So telling most of us to stick with one genre is like handcuffing us to the bike rack outside the library. A cruel and unusual form of punishment.
How then, can we juggle writing in more than one genre while still managing to actually sell our books? Well, let me tell you how I do it. I’m a self-publisher, so if you’re working with an agent, you may want to read this post by Rachelle Gardner. She makes some very good points, though it’s not nearly as much marketing work as she makes it out to be (in my experience, anyways).
The books in the picture above are all mine. I write in three genres: romantic suspense, erotica, and I’m working on my first thriller. I write drafts in each concurrently, so I’m not just switching off, I’m actively working in each one every week. One thing I find really great about writing this way is that all the switching pretty much eliminates any possibility of getting “blocked” on anything. I write 500-700 words for one WIP, then move to the next (normally a different genre) the next day, and so on. It’s a slower way to write than focusing on one draft at a time, but more productive for me and I love the challenge of switching my writing style every few days.
People ask me all the time how I keep my WIP’s straight when I work on them concurrently. Because I have a different voice and style for each genre, it isn’t a problem at all to keep them straight in my head.
But if you’re a person who prefers to work on a single WIP at a time, then switching genres when you finish a book will work too. That could be problematic for another reason too though – and that is your style and voice are likely to change at least a little depending on the genre you’re writing for. Spending enough time to finish a complete novel might make it harder to switch back to the previous genre for the next novel.
Choosing either completely opposite genres, or very similar genres is a good way to make switching between the two easier without putting your original writing voice at risk. It’s taken me a little time to find my “voice” for each genre, so I think it’s safe to say it will probably take most writers time to figure out how their specific voice fits/adapts to a certain genre. The tricky thing about genre is that it’s there for readers – they expect certain things from certain genres. And while it’s okay to blend them a little, it should still be recognizable as at least one main genre for categorizing. Otherwise, what’s the point?
In terms of marketing, each genre will need it’s own branding and backlist. Even if you write under your own name for everything, you’ll need a way for readers to distinguish between them. Branding becomes even more important in this scenario. Pen names really help with this, as you can establish completely different online personas for each if you want. Both of my pen names have web sites, twitter accounts and facebook pages, though I only use them occasionally. The good news is, if your pen names are more for “show” than anything else (like mine), you can still promote those titles with your main name branding. Honestly, I do little to no promotion for my erotica pen name, and sales are nearly as good for that as they are with my romantic suspense.
Clear as mud, right? ;-)
Writing in multiple genres is fun and rewarding, and the only time I wouldn’t recommend it is for those writers just starting out, who haven’t finished a book yet. To those writers, I say don’t even think about genre, just focus on finishing the book.
