*But then again, too few NOT to mention*
I’ve been aware for some time that I don’t have a fandom as such – I have multiple fandoms. Some number of fans read everything I write that they can locate, no matter under which name, no matter what the subject matter. They will as cheerfully tuck into Darkship Thieves as into Plain Jane. This is the type of fan I am for say… Heinlein or Pratchett. A variant on these fans are the ones who buy everything I write, because they’re fans of the sf, their kids read the fantasy, their sister reads the mystery and their spouse likes the historicals.
These fans are not a problem, of course, except perhaps for their scarcity. (Well, that and I live in fear of writing certain things, like erotica because some of you – you know who you are – would read it, enjoy it, and send me witty comments. And helpful pictures drawn on the back of napkins.)
But then I have fans – rabid, vocal fans – who read only my mystery, or my science fiction. I don’t know any who read only my fantasy, though there might be some. For all I know I might have fans who read ONLY my vampires, which would be sad, because I have only published short stories with vampires.
The publishing industry’s view of this is that this means I should write/market/brand only one thing – I should make sure I’m known only for science fiction. Or mystery. Or…
I’ve never subscribed to this. (Oh, I could be dramatically wrong, I guess.) First, because as a reader I read everything, down to and including, in a pinch, the classifieds or the instructions to assemble a machine I don’t even own. I enjoy almost all fiction and a vast array of non fiction. If you ask me which of those is my passion, I’d have to say “all of them!”
I mean, I’ll confess and openly too that I’m a LITTLE more prone to enjoying science fiction than the other genres, but you wouldn’t know it from my buying decisions. A riveting mystery beats a hum-drum science fiction every time.
So I fail to see why, as a writer, I shouldn’t write everything I have riveting ideas for.
Second because as a writer I find that writing something different is often as good as a holiday. In fact, if you try to make me write only one thing, I probably would stop writing after two books. (I had a heck of a time finishing my third Shakespearean fantasy because at the time it looked like I was locked into “literary fantasy” the rest of my life. And my mind doesn’t like a mono-diet.)
Third because I don’t understand how my writing several different things – at least in the business model quase ante, where most of what you bought came from bookstore shelves – can “dilute” my market. Sure, some people will know me for science fiction, some for fantasy and some for mystery, but absent some sort of prejudice among readers (which I, at least, don’t have) I fail to see what difference this makes. For one, books will be shelved in different areas. So, for instance, my mystery readers will never even see the science fiction.
That was the idea at least. now with the turmoil brought on by ebook publishing I’ve made slight revisions.
I still want to write everything, except maybe men’s adventure, erotica and children’s books. (No, not together. EW. You’re sick.)
However if the market is going to be even fifty percent electronic and split among several distribution centers, one has to take in account that some of the sellers are spectacularly bad at giving descriptions and/or samples of the book.
I would hate for someone who loved Darkship Thieves to download No Will But His expecting science fiction. (Okay, this is a very naive reader. And for the gentleman in the back leering at me, NWBH is the fictionalized biography of Kathryn Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII. That was her chosen motto.)
So, this late in the game, I’m thinking I REALLY need to brand, so people addicted to one form of my fiction don’t accidentally stumble into another. At the same time, I’ll have to remain absolutely open about my misdeeds under various pen names – I already have them on my first page, but maybe I’ll add them here – so those rare, eclectic readers will find all of them. (Sarah’s names! Collect all four
According To Hoyt 
Are you emulating John Creasey? He at least mostly stuck to the same genre, but most of his main characters had a particular author. I have been reading 2 of your aka’s but need to explore your other identities and their related works. I enjoy Hoyt and Hyatt and will give the others a try. It is not a problem because you are so open about them and it does protect the brand if your alternate identies do not appeal to some readers. For those of us with author addicton disorder it presents a challenge. It is wonderful to find a new author and explore their work. It is not often that 4 become one!
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Caveat — of the Laurien Gardner ones I only wrote Plain Jane. And I suggest you wait on Death Of A Musketeer — currently being edited — from Naked Reader Press, at least if you can read e-books. The others are out of print and I get nothing. Also, DOAM is first in series.
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How big a napkin can we use for those diagrams? I mean, the kama sutra alone has 1250 verses, and when the sacred bull starts roaring, we may need a lot of room…
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As I said, I KNOW who you are. And Mike, Mike, Mike — everyone always lies about the size of their bull. A cocktail napkin should do.
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Oh, no, I mean Nandi, the sacred bull, who is Shiva’s doorkeeper, and recorded the adventures of Shiva and his wife… now that’s a narrator!
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I am a SF fan primarily. I learned of you through Baen’s Bar. I think you are a fair SF writer and hope you continue to write in that genre. That being said, your best work IMHO is your cozy mystery series. I truly enjoyed the work you have done there so far and would like to see the rest of the work you snippeted about the lady working in a new age shop. I am not as big on the musketeers books but they are still readable, at least until you bring ot the vampire version:) So, if my opinion counts keep doing them all. I see constant improvement in your work and hope to be enjoying your multiple personalities for many years. Just don’t lose track of who is Sarah and who is the pseudonym.
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I suppose those same publishers would tell Dan Simmons to stick to horror, or SF, or crime novels, or whatever it is you call the last couple of books? Heck, if Dan Simmons decided to write a bodice ripper, I’d probably buy it and read it. And he’d probably win romance literature awards.
Of course there is a problem,which is why I understand the publishers to a certain point. With Dan Simmons, I had no idea he was writing non-SF/horror until one day in the mid oughts one of the ‘Hard Case’ books was misfiled onto the SF/Fantasy shelves. At which point I suddenly discovered that he’d not stopped writing, just stopped writing SF, and I had a few books to catch up on. But that’s not so much an issue today when I’m not shopping at dead tree outlets much any more.
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Until a publisher pulls a gun on me and tells me I HAVE to use a pseudonym, I plan to use my name on SF, fantasy, nonfiction — everything. For all the worry about “dilution” surely there’s an equivalent amount of “crossover appeal,” right?
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that’s sort of what I assume — but they seem to think I’m wrong. My issue is more e-books and telling people “oh, boy, this is not…” :-P When you’re blessed with my mind, you need to WARN people. ;)
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Count me amongst the will-read-anything if I enjoy an author’s work (well, will TRY reading anything) cohort. Anthony Boucher wrote MYSTERIES? Cool, where can I find them?! Robert Heinlein wrote as Anson MacDonald? Can I get me some of that? C.S. Lewis wrote something besides the Perelandra Trilogy? Wow, this narnia stuff is good, too – Abolition of Man sounds like SF … oops. OTOH, I’ve noticed that none of Rex Stout’s books other than the Nero Wolfe stories has any particular charm for me.
Part of Pratchett’s brilliance is that his invention permits writing various genres within the Disc. A little late for Sarah to make that be. I recommend a two-fold strategy: use separate “Brand” identities for various genres (a common commercial ploy: you ever notice that Heath Bar and Skors Bars are BOTH produced by Hershey’s?) and use the “whatever the name for that inside page where the author’s other works are listed is” as well as the Web to list books written under pseudonyms using the “written as” form. Your author’s bio might also advise readers that you’ve written books in other genres under other names.
I have found that, once enchanted by an author I tend to Wiki them for information about other works and optimum reading sequence. Of course, once enamoured of an author I also tend to buy their books in bulk and chew my way through them at leisure, a trait which is seriously endangering various load-bearing components of my house.
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RES
You’ve hit on the main reason that, as a reader, I’m moving to ebooks when possible. See, I always thought the entire family could share one copy of a book, but it turns out not so. Because, you know, the kids hold certain books sacred and the other one might BREATHE on them. So we end up with at least three copies — sometimes four, if one gets signed — per book. And our average buy rate is a couple of titles a week. when I found myself putting little shelves between the slats of the stair railing to the attic I realized I had a problem (mind you, the shelves take tons of paperbacks.) To make things worse, we have a lot of windows in this house, and apparently I’m not supposed to put bookshelves in front of those. (Sigh.) Hence, ebooks.
I agree with your idea on names — problem is getting my publishers to put the other names inside the covers. ;)
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While I am a decidedly non-sensuous individual, for me the pleasures of a well-bound book, preferably hard-bound, with leather cover, spinal ridges, gold-edged pages of rich creamy vellum with glistening ink hovering on the pages ranks above dark chocolate. I just don’t see ebooks comparing.
OTOH, when I observe the basement’s buckling beams (well, actually it’s a garage, but we’ve never had it clear enough to park in there in the fifteen years we’ve been in this house and I’ve had a thing for alliteration ever since reading Stan Lee as a youth) I have to consider the advantages (okay, necessity) of converting to a less mass intensive. Either that or invert my reading matter acquisition rate from 5 words acquired for every 2 read … and then give up some of my precious, precious pages of paper- and hard-bound pleasures.
Several years back I triggered a mass Gollum-imitation in Baen’s Bar by asking whether participants “read and discarded” or “read and kept” their books. While ebooks facilitate mobility (carry a library in your pocket? In High School I had no trouble doing so although I admit my primary criterion for choosing a coat was its ability to hold at least two paperbacks in each pocket, including interior pockets) and movers charging by the pound adds up when you start packing books, they still seem to me a cold, hard substitute for the pleasures of caressing with eye and hand a beautifully bound book.
Besides, if the floor collapses it will give me the opportunity to reinforce its studs that we should have taken when we first converted it from carpet to hardwood.
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you know, I thought I’d hate reading ebooks. That it would feel wrong and “artificial”. The first reason to get the kindle was that I often get manuscripts from friends to read and there is no practical way to carry those around, even in three ring binders! So we got me a Kindle2. And then… And then… well, I got it a nice leather cover. The pages look so much like book pages, I kept forgetting I wasn’t reading a real book. I can carry a hundred books in my pocket AND I can cross reference them at need. I can take “clippings” to upload later… If it had an efficient method for annotating on with a stylus, it would be perfect. I have since bought… four for family and friends. The conversions have been almost as instantaneous. And my son who is a total ludite when it comes to his books, loves his sonny reader. So… Now, of course, I’ll always have my paper books for some authors. You can pry my Heinleins, my signed Pratchetts, my signed F. Paul Wilson’s and my leather bound Shakespeare from my cold dead hands, and not a minute sooner. But for the mass of what I call “bubble gum reading” (a lot of it mystery) the kindle is great. And I can always buy the paper form of those that impress me. In the future — I HOPE — there will be fewer paper editions but better. No more cheap paper and flimsy covers. I’d like either leather bound or, for my sf, cool, futuristic holographic covers and non-reflective paper for night reading.
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I think I’m with RES on this one. (Especially on the ” load-bearing components” – thank whoever for e-books.)
I have (in my dead-tree collection) a number of SF/Fantasy books by a gentleman by the name of Dean Koontz. It wasn’t until I was moving around the world a lot and was desperate for reads in airport bookstores that I found out he’s also written a good bit of horror/mystery and who knows what else.
Although I generally hate horror, I picked up a few of his books in that genre – and found them quite readable.
So, keeping your name everywhere isn’t always a bad idea.
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