[hippokrene]

Like many hopeful authors, I enjoy reading and I enjoy reading lots of different things. I read the pre-industrial, alternative world fantasies, the contemporary fantasies, the dark fantasies, the epic fantasies, the space opera, the near-future cyber scifi, the dystopian scifi, the hard science scifi, and innumerable other stories that I don't know how to classify. I even read the stealth sf that creeps into the general fiction section of the bookstores like The Lovely Bones.

When I write, I tend to draw from any of these subgenres. This seems natural to me but I notice that most Real Authors(TM) don't do this.

The idea seems to be that if someone searches for your work, they expect you to roughly stay in the same subgenre and they certainly don't like you actually flipping back and forth between fantasy and science fiction. Naturally, there are exceptions, but if you want to play in more than one pool, the best thing to do is pick up a pseudonym.

With the possible exception of Young Adult, because teenagers don't fault you for crossing the streams.

The problem is that part of being a successful author is getting a following of readers who'll consistently pick up your work because it's your work. If you can put out a book a year of urban fantasy under one name, you'll do much better than a book of urban fantasy one year under one name, a book of alt world fantasy the next year under another name, and a book the next year of far future transhuman spy action under a third name.

My questions:

1. Would you generally agree with my assessment?
2. As I'm a writer who enjoys writing a little bit of everything, what would you recommend I do?

[Hereford Eye]

Off the top of my head, I conjure
C.J. Cherryh
Elizabeth Moon
Ursula K. Leguin
Mike Resnick
Larry Niven
L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
John Hersey
All wrote what they felt like writing and sold. I'll generally buy anything these authors produce. They know how to tell a story. Period.

[Jon Sprunk]

I agree with HE. First, you need to write what you want because that's where your passion is, and that will come out in the story. Second, with the internet readers can find you in any genre, and I believe most people are like you: they read a variety of things.

[Aether Monkey]

Follow your crazy, little, twisted muse; shack up with her; have an episode in Leipzig you don't like talk about even years later; let her break your goddamn heart; gamble it all.

Or follow guidelines, rules, and host of other tutelary snipes to untold riches while grinding ash into that precious small fire in the heart.

(just my two cents)

[KatG]

Like many hopeful authors, I enjoy reading and I enjoy reading lots of different things. I read the pre-industrial, alternative world fantasies, the contemporary fantasies, the dark fantasies, the epic fantasies, the space opera, the near-future cyber scifi, the dystopian scifi, the hard science scifi, and innumerable other stories that I don't know how to classify. I even read the stealth sf that creeps into the general fiction section of the bookstores like The Lovely Bones.

When I write, I tend to draw from any of these subgenres. This seems natural to me but I notice that most Real Authors(TM) don't do this.

The idea seems to be that if someone searches for your work, they expect you to roughly stay in the same subgenre and they certainly don't like you actually flipping back and forth between fantasy and science fiction. Naturally, there are exceptions, but if you want to play in more than one pool, the best thing to do is pick up a pseudonym.

With the possible exception of Young Adult, because teenagers don't fault you for crossing the streams.

The problem is that part of being a successful author is getting a following of readers who'll consistently pick up your work because it's your work. If you can put out a book a year of urban fantasy under one name, you'll do much better than a book of urban fantasy one year under one name, a book of alt world fantasy the next year under another name, and a book the next year of far future transhuman spy action under a third name.

My questions:

1. Would you generally agree with my assessment?
2. As I'm a writer who enjoys writing a little bit of everything, what would you recommend I do?

No, I don't agree. Big surprise, huh? :)

Traditionally, a majority of SFF writers wrote both SF and fantasy, or horror and fantasy or fantasy and mystery, etc. YA was a lucrative pool for mostly the fantasy writers to dip into, but YA was not a very large market before the book packagers, the development of the kids entertainment industry and Harry Potter blew it up in the 1990's.

What happened in the 1990's also is the Great Paperback Depression, which we've discussed before -- the shrinkage of the wholesale market. And at the same time, the big publishers got even bigger, consolidating with each other. So authors found it less easy to bop from publisher to publisher and project to project. They no longer had the wholesale market moving thousands of copies for them even if they weren't out there promoting, so audience building became key, and audience building can be a bit easier to do if you at least stay in one category so that readers can find you. Add to that a lot of authors who came right into fantasy and that was all they wanted to write, although as we see, they don't necessarily write one kind of fantasy.

So basically what authors do now is try to establish a beachhead with some sort of story that they want to do, build an audience and move out from there. So we have Cherie Priest, who started with a Southern Gothic contemporary mystery fantasy series, who has done several horror novels, then did an alternate history horror SF series with Boneshaker, and her latest is a contemporary fantasy with vampires, etc. We have fantasy author China Mieville next coming out with a SF novel. Richard Morgan does several SF novels, then does an alternate world fantasy series. Barbara Hambly does fantasy, horror and historical mysteries. Charlaine Harris started out in mystery and then moved over to contemporary mystery fantasy. Jim Butcher started with the contemporary fantasy series Harry Dresden, then did an alternate world fantasy series. Lilith Saintcrow started out doing paranormal romance, then moved into contemporary fantasy thrillers. Ian R. MacLeod writes SF and fantasy. Scott Bakker took a bit of time off from his alt world fantasy series to write the SF thriller Neuropath. David Anthony Dunham made a name for himself with historical fiction in general fiction and then wrote the Acacia series, an alternate world fantasy. And so and so forth.

It certainly helps if your interests are close together, such as horror and contemporary fantasy, or SF alternate history and historical fantasy, but it's not essential. Some of your audience may not follow you. There are many Stephen King readers who have never read his dark fantasy series, The Dark Tower, and many Dark Tower readers who never touch his horror novels, fantasy or SF. But then again, having multiple audiences to dive into is not a bad thing either. The likelihood is that something you write will be more popular than other things and you may or may not concentrate on that project. But there is room to move, especially when you have a publisher willing to buy other stuff. The reality is that a good chunk of the audience for SF, fantasy, horror, romance, mystery, and fiction in general likes to move around, so authors don't have to be stuck in one groove unless that's what they want to do. James Patterson has made publishing history turning himself into a book packager with his name on each book and deliberately concocting and having co-writers write stories in as many genres as he can get his hands on, from YA to romance, including SF and fantasy. This does not seem to have hurt him audience-wise.

As for the author names thing, that has a lot more to do with computers than it does with readers.

[Ramirez]

Write what you want. If you like a lot of styles, then by all means, blend them together. That's what makes you original. Otherwise you're just a tool trying to win some dead presidents.