Conscience, schmonscience?

[danielmc]

Dont really know if this is a conscience thing, but its the best word i can come up with.

My first MSS (mainstream literary thriller) is on submission at an agent, and had nibbles off others for partials etc.

I jumped straight into my second novel once editing / submission was complete, and am now 40k into it after just a couple of weeks writing. Its mostly a memoir, with contemporary / literary / crime / satire / dark humour elements.

The problem is, i think i have now found my true writing voice, style, genre, whatever you want to call it. If the literary Gods smile and I get an offer for the first MS, i would have to think seriously about rejecting it, and pulling it from the open marketplace, which is what i think i should do now.
I dont want to be pigeon holed into that genre, that style, when what i'm doing now is so different.

The first draft of the first MS was 180,000 words, and after three edits is down to 121,000. All in all i wrote about 200,000 words for it, but now look at it as practice, as developing and sharpening skills i'd never used before in my life.

Have other authors had similar problems / dilemnas, and did it harm their careers by following a different path than the one they started on?

For example, i was reading about Chuck Palahniuk, and how he wrote a Stpehen King like 700 page gothic thriller before writing Lullaby then Fight Club. Brett Easton Ellis went through almost the same thing before Less than Zero.

I've had to stop myself ringing the agents concerned and pulling it back, but i thought i'd let it simmer for awhile, and see if there are any offers to reject!

Cheers in advance,

Danny

[sassandgroove]

First: What do I know?

But I would say, if you get an offer take it, and to avoid being pigeon holed, publish the two differing books under different names.

[NeuroFizz]

Don't pull it. See what the agent says. You can always publish it under a different name.

[Aconite]

It may be a mistake to decide your future writing career on the basis of the first 40,000 words of your second manuscript. It's not unusual for authors to find that different novels require different voices and styles.

[fallenangelwriter]

Why on earth would you pull a book because it didn't match your others?

if an offer comes, take it.

on the other hand, i don't consider it likely to be a problem. the the first book is so much worse that you wouldn't want it to see print, it probably won't.

[reph]

What's wrong with getting a reputation for versatility?

[emeraldcite]

i think there was an interview in writer's digest, or the like, with James Rollins. He publishes both thrillers under one name and fantasy under another. he publishes two books a year: one of each...


apparently he's doing well in both genres...

[Jamesaritchie]

This is why pseudonyms were invented.