Trouble publishing with genres

Just curious, have you actually had agents give you grief about this?

Fritz Lieber published in multiple genres. (One of his books, Conjure Wife, has been published as fantasy, as horror, and as romance.

Have you finished one or more works to the stage of publication? If there is one, pursue that one. When it is published you have leverage to get others published no matter what genre.

ok good to know. I used to hit a lot of bases but right now fantasy is working well for me so I'm sticking with it.

I remember reading somewhere and it could have been here, that it's best to stick to a certain genre especially when first starting out. I guess to form some sort of identity with your readers. Like Stephen King is associated with horror novels. I too have wondered how much of a problem it would be if all your novels sway in different directions.

I tend to write whatever the spirit is moving my pen to write. I could not classify my writings into one particular category. All probably have some sort of thriller aspect to them, but I'm not sure it would be enough to classify myself as a writer of thrillers. I've also wondered if this would be a problem if I'm ever lucky enough to land an agent. I guess if it happens to be a paranormal romance that sells, it won't be that hard to dig up another similar story to write.

There are agents who handle several genres. You could do your first submissions to those multi-faceted agents, making sure you pick one who specifically handles thrillers, since that's the one closest to completion.

Now, writing in several genre will not decrease your chance of making the first sale. You don't even have to tell the agent or publisher that your next work will be, not a thriller but a genre Romance.

However ... working two or more genre will affect your long-term sales. You will not be able to sign multi-book contracts, for instance. Your S.F. fans will have to wait and wait for your next S.F. book while you are off writing a Romance or Mystery or whatever. Those S.F. fans may forget you after two or three years.

So your agent may encourage you to stick to a single genre in which you are successful, at least until you build a reputation and a following. There are commercial reasons for sticking to one genre.

Many authors write in more than one genre. Within arm's reach is a J.D. Robb and a Marion Chesney.
Go for it

joyce said:

I remember reading somewhere and it could have been here, that it's best to stick to a certain genre especially when first starting out.

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I was told it would be hard to sell something like a horror sci/fi romance murder crime novel played out in the past, but written for a children's audience.

Also I think someone in AW writes erotica under a pen name (a feather pen?) so as not to confuse/put off her established readers of her other genre.

job said:

However ... working two or more genre will affect your long-term sales. You will not be able to sign multi-book contracts, for instance. Your S.F. fans will have to wait and wait for your next S.F. book while you are off writing a Romance or Mystery or whatever. Those S.F. fans may forget you after two or three years.

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You'll also find that your books won't be shelved next to each other in the bookstore so you'll look like a one-hit-wonder in each genre for an awfully long time...

Having said that, write what moves you and let the rest take care of itself...

Good luck!

Perle_Rare said:

You'll also find that your books won't be shelved next to each other in the bookstore !

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I get this with libraries. Some have my book in YA and some in fiction. I keep telling them to buy two, one for each classification but none of them have taken up my kind offer of selling them the extra book!

Hmm...I should take this to note as I have both a fantasy and an inspirational romance completed and pending submission....Although I may be the exception to the rule because the fantasy is being submitted to TOR and the inspirational romance is being submitted to a Christian Submission website.

Hmm...

runner4life said:

I have a problem with writing in all different types of genres. I write whatever I feel like and in whatever genre. I'm in the middle of revisions for 1 story (War Thriller) and working on 3 others (Law, Fantasy, and I guess 1 would fall under Romance). This makes it difficult for getting an agent or the possibility for publishing. So I guess my question is, is there a way to deal with this or if there have been successful authors that have done this?

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I second the advice to finish a book and sell it, and then worry about the genre question later. Even if you get an agent who says they may have a problem selling different genres, you always have the option of selling genre #2 under a pen name. You know--name 1, for the thrillers; name 2, for the sci fi; and so on.