- Joined
- Dec 30, 2006
- Messages
- 20,760
- Reaction score
- 2,707
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Website
- www.gallagherwitt.com
This relates to a pen-name issue I have.
My current WIP is decidedly erotic. But other stories I'm working on is set in the same universe/setting, but not of an erotic nature (hard sci-fi).
I can understand that readers may expext the same genre from one author, or even same world from that same author. But what if that's ot what I want to tell from that world? Add in some sex to satisfy those readers? Add a warning on the front page "Bevare, no sex inside!", Or maybe just write it all under one name, and warn for heavy sex in those titles it will occur in, and stay true to the world and characters? Or am I missing something here?
I write all over the place (erotic, sweet, suspense, romance, SFF, contemporary, etc), and use pen names for branding. The suspense novel I have coming out this week is definitely not one that I would market to a romance audience, so it's under my mainstream SFF/suspense pen name, BUT it's no secret that all the names are me. Same social media accounts, same website, etc. I use different names to signal to readers that while it's still me, they'll be getting something very different. For example, L.A. Witt writes gay male romance, usually with a fair amount of sex, but Ann Gallagher writes the same genre without any on-screen sex. Some of my readers read all of my pen names, some read only one or two.
If your books are within the same universe, make it a marketing thing. State upfront that both authors are the same person writing in the same universe, but that Author X writes the smuttier books. The only thing I'd recommend against is trying to claim you're really two different people. Unless you're doing something like children's books under one name and erotica under the other, it's probably best to be as upfront as possible that this is a branding thing to differentiate between types of content, rather than an author possibly misleading their readers. (Only because there's been a lot of backlash in recent years about a single author name turning out to be ten people, for example, and readers generally prefer that we just be straight with them)
So TL;DR - brand your one author name as heavy on the smut, and one less so (let your blurbs and cover art convey it rather than putting up a warning, IMO), and just be open and honest that you're one person writing different types of content within the same world.
Hope that helps!