Genre Hopping? Good? Bad?

The discussion on a yahoo loop I follow deals with this very topic and prompted me to blog about it.  There is so much marketing hoopla these days to create a "brand" for yourself and stick with it, but...what about those of us who don't plot our stories or determine the genre?  I write what my characters dictate, and that has taken me in all different directions.

There's no doubt that I'd like be known as a famous western historical author, but when Cindy Johnson limped into my head and insisted I write Shortcomings for a YA audience, I couldn't refuse. Her message about bullying and how high school students mistreat those "different" than themselves packed quite a wallop.  When Hope Hastings, from Hope Springs Eternal, showed up, crying and distraught over the decisions she had to make as a middle aged woman, how could I deny her?  She was going through much of the angst I went through as a divorced woman.  Sarah had a journey to take and invited me along, and when Mariah commanded my attention, I couldn't stop laughing at the thought of two characters traveling through time and ending up with one another's husband.  I had to take that trip to see where it led.

To me, genre hopping is no big deal as long as you write each story to the best of your ability.  Chastity, Faith Ellie, Taylor and all the rest of my heroines shared stories with me that I couldn't deny writing.  I have no limitations thus I have a waiting room filled with heroines and heroes who will take me and my readers wherever their stories lead.

I think people might be surprised at how many authors do genre hop.  They just do it under different pen names.  One of the most prolific authors I respect, Madeline Baker, has written tons of western historical novels, but she also writes as Amanda Ashley and has penned a string of vampire hits.  Check out her website.
She doesn't need the promo from me, but I used her as an example because she was a role model for me when I first started writing.  Over the years, I've read the majority of her western historical novels and loved everyone of them.  I wish I had the nerve to approach her about reading one of mine and commenting to see if I did her proud.  *lol*

Since I do well to remember my own name, I'm steering clear of pen names.  I guess the point of this blog was to point out that I do genre hop, but I do it for very good reasons.  Maybe we should make this a dance.  We already have the "Bunny Hop." Let's do the "Genre Hop."

Meet Larion...uh, Larriane Wills... Two Name, One Author

Larion Wills, a multi-genre author, also writes under the name of Larriane Wills. From science fiction to western romances she holds up to her tag of ‘two names, one author, thousands of stories.’

 Born in Oklahoma, but raised in Arizona she feels a native to the state and has settled in the high desert country. In a quiet, rural area with a family who tolerates her writer’s single-mindedness, she presents us with a series of unique westerns while still producing contemporary romances, many laced with paranormal settings, all with strong characterizations and suspenseful plots, capable of dragging you into a story in a genre you thought before you didn’t care for. At her website, http://www.larriane.com , you can keep abreast of releases under both pen names, keep up with new releases through various publishers, and she invites you to contact her at larriane@larriane.com

What I like least about writing.

In a lot interviews, I’m asked what do I like the least about writing. Hands down my answer is promoting. Promoting interferes with writing. I’m an obsessive writer. When a story starts off in my head, I let it fester. On, yes, like a boil, it grows from the little germ that caught my attention. Sometimes it’s a person, a scene in a movie or book, something I witness, or something that just pops into my head. One scene, one idea has to have a reason for being. The people in it have to have personalities, likes, dislikes, a past that molded them, and a possible future to be whole. What led them to where they are and to what they’re doing? What happens after that? Where does the story stop? All of that gathers in my head until I have a beginning, middle and end. Then it bursts out, lanced so to speak, with a pen and paper. It’s flowing. Any interruptions are disruptive to my train of thought. If it were possible, I would shut myself away from the world, from all interruptions. I pull myself away only for the necessary which leads me back to the subject of promoting. 

When my first novel was accepted, I jumped into everything everyone told me I should do, primarily online. I joined loops, signed up for author spotlights, sent out a copy to every reviewer I saw a mention of. With what soon became over a hundred groups, my inbox overflowed every day. I spend hours sitting at the computer just going through them. How much good did all that participation do? I have no idea. I did know all the time involved took me away from writing. I suppose that’s the most frustrating part of promoting online versus book signings, book fairs and conventions, the difficulty in seeing results in book sales. I can, though, from experience give you a few pointers. 

Trim your groups to those that aim at the genres you write in. If you write para-romance, being on a historical romance group may bring you a few sales from those who read multi genre. However, by centering your time in groups that relate to your genre, you’re going to reach more who are interested and be more time productive. Many mult-genre groups are out there with a big following, also. For groups that have a lot of activity, use the digest method rather than emails. Considerable less time is involved in scanning though replies of only a few words like congratulations or welcome. You can also skip any subject that doesn’t interest you. You can scan, answer the few you’d like to and then delete once as a whole rather than open, scan, delete and return to the inbox for each and spend the time waiting for page changes between each operation. When there’s a chat you want to be involved in, it takes only a few minutes to change to emails and back when the chat is over. Generating sales is not the only benefit of loops. I want to be sure to mention that. I have learned immensely from others, promotion advice, technical tips, and let’s not forget friendships. The loops are a wonderful place to exchange thoughts with like minded people, to learn and promote. You just have to learn to temper them with those you feel the most comfortable in and that—even thought this sounds cold—that do you the most good.

You have to get your name out there, have to let people know you have a wonderful story they would enjoy reading, but you also have to leave yourself time to write them without putting yourself under the stress of trying to cram too much into too little time. 

You can find out more about the author with two names on her website.