Writing in different genres

As I'm not in the publishing business, my opinion isn't worth a heck of a lot, but I suspect that genre-hopping isn't the best strategy for a newly published author.

I do know of some writers who have carried it off, but not many. Doris Lessing comes to mind, and Dan Simmons.

I think most readers who like a particular book will be expecting more of the same genre when they pick up the author's next book. My mother, for instance, loved Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga, but was outraged by the author's Chalion books that followed - because she doesn't read fantasy.

This is just my opinion, not based on any actual experience on the business side of things, but I think it works best when the genres or target ages aren't too far off. So writing multiple YA books of different genres might be okay, because they'll still be shelved in the same place-- though it still might be harder to build a fan base. And, despite some fans being disappointed that Lois McMaster Bujold is writing fantasy, many fans have been quite happy to buy anything she writes-- but again, shelved together, and many readers who read sf read fantasy and vice versa. But a thriller and a children's book are pretty far apart. Still, write what you're excited by and interested in-- even if it's not the best business decision, if you write one mystery and just hate the thought of doing another, it probably won't be that good, etc.

I think if you're rather prolific you can use pseudonyms to avoid confusion, but if each book takes you a couple of years to write, your publisher will look at you like this: >:0(

Hee! Yeah, what MelodyO said. It's a lot easier to write whatever you want if you can write quickly.

Melody is dead-on. If you write slow, you are best off sticking to one genre for a while. If you write faster, you might be able to build in two (or, if you are lightning-quick, three) genres. Essentially, figure that you'll need to produce one book a year in each genre you're trying to build in -- and now that you've been through the editing/copyediting/promotion cycle once, you know that you have to figure that into your "writing time" as well, to a degree.

I think I can be prolific enough to work in two genres, and that's what I'm hoping for now, but we'll have to see.

They were discussing this the other day in Novels.

I'm of the mind that a writer should do what she or he does best. Personally, I'm interested in other genres, but I don't think I could write publishable books in any but the one I'm in.

But that's just me. I like to make myself focus. Finding a style/tone/genre and settling into it was important to me, or else I would be "hopping" around all the time. Publishing my novel was an affirmation, at least to me, of what I should be writing. I took it as a sign.

If writing Sci-Fi is what you "do best," but for your next book, all you can think about is writing a horror novel, then if you instead force yourself to write ANOTHER sci-fi novel...it's not going to be you doing your best. You'll have the wrong thing on your brain.

Write what you need to. Maybe you can't sell it right away as your next novel, maybe you have to sell it to a different publisher, or under a psuedonym, but you gotta write what's making you want to dance.

Genre

Unless you're a fairly fast writer, it's best to stick to one genre until you get three or four novels out there. But if you can write novels faster than your publisher will take them, switching genres can be a very good thing.

Many writers do very, very well writing in multiple genres, others have no luck at all.

I think writing what you truly enjoy reading is important, but I really don't have a single, favorite genre. I read almost every genre out there, and love all of them. If you enjoy reading widely, I see no reason why you can't also write widely.

But speed is important. You really can't write in multiple genres if it takes you years to write a novel. From my experience, you need to be able to write two novels per year, minimum because each publisher is probably going to want a book a year in order to keep your name out there. (Blockbuster bestselling writers can be exceptions to this. If you make millions from each book, publishers give you all the rope you want.)

In fact, if you're really a fast writer, it's sometimes either write in multiple genres, or not write at all.

At any rate, I write western, mystery, literary, and MG novels, plus short stories in several genres, and the occasional article.

But it does come down to speed, and to writing in areas you enjoy.