HE’S A (BLANK) WRITER
(Since we have not yet replaced the inestimable Dick Hill in the SU lineup, I have this extra essay penned by our own “Alienmotives” Bill Lindblad on hand for just such an occasion. Thanks Bill)
by William Lindblad
Pigeonholing happens. It’s easy for people to make categories and slip individuals into one of the slots or another. Whether it is a good thing or a bad thing is arguable, and the answer you’ll get changes depending on the person to whom you’re talking. In my view, as a bookseller and a reader, it’s great. It is easier to find new books by an author you like when you know where in the store they’re going to be.
In the view of an author, though, it can be terrible.
Writers work for a variety of reasons. The two most prominent among them are financial gain and artistic release, and often those two go hand in hand. A new author tends to concentrate on those styles of writing which interest them, and which they can do well, and with luck, effort, and skill they can build a reputation in their chosen fields.
One of the most effective skills an author can perfect is that of writing in multiple genres. It allows for a greater quantity of markets available at any one time, increasing the possibility for sales. It also allows an author to point to a history of sales in a particular genre should they find themselves wishing to escape the pigeonholing a successful career often brings. Lastly, because of the different focuses prevalent in the different genres, it develops the writer’s skills.
A thriller writer needs to know how to evoke a feeling of suspense; a horror writer, how to create dread or fear (or, in some cases, revulsion); a romance writer needs to create sympathetic characters; hard science fiction needs extrapolative thinking; mystery writers need to master the plot twist, historical writers need to learn research skills, playwrights need an ear for dialogue, poets need a comprehensive vocabulary. Invariably, most of the best writers in any of these fields have all of these abilities, even if they are stronger in some aspects than in others.
That won’t prevent someone from getting stamped as a particular type of writer. Harry Turtledove is a Science Fiction and Fantasy writer… so much so, that when he writes non-fantastic historical novels, he goes under a pen name of Turteltaub. Charles de Lint, Gore Vidal, Donald E. Westlake, Ron Goulart and dozens upon dozens of others have used pen names for the books and stories outside what is viewed as their “normal” work. The important thing, however, is that all of them are able to publish that external work, while maintaining their hard-earned reputations in their primary fields.
Even better, some people manage to develop dual reputations. Ed Gorman is highly acclaimed in mystery, westerns, and horror. Fletcher Pratt wrote and co-wrote some of the best fantasy of the pulp era, even while he was becoming known as one of the greatest nonfiction naval history writers of the day. The quantity of people who bounce back and forth between fantasy and science fiction is so great that nearly every bookstore simply combines the two fields into one section.
The longer you wait, however, the harder it becomes to branch out. That’s where the pigeonholing really comes in: publishers and editors don’t want a completely different work, they want the type of story their readers have come to expect from you. At that point, the real conflict comes into play between their own artistic desires and the monetary reward.
That’s not to say it can’t be done, even then. Charlaine Harris is a great recent example of someone who has shifted markets, jumping from a troubled mystery career to a top-level romantic fantasy career. The shift has brought a number of new readers in for her regular mystery work, as well. And one of the potential benefits is that it allows a person who has more or less mastered one aspect of writing to apply it in another; Janet Evanovich made a splash by applying the character-driven appeal of light romances to the mystery field. Shirley Rousseau Murphy used her experience in writing young adult fantasy and articles for cat magazines to produce the Joe Grey mystery series. Just because you’ve been in the business a while doesn’t mean you have to accept being assigned to writing only one type of book, it only means you’re going to have an uphill battle getting other things published.
Watch the markets. If something interests you in a call for Baseball Quarterly, or Ferrets magazine, or anything else, jump at it. The worst thing you’ll face is a rejection, and the best thing is a new pathway opened for your writing career.
— William Lindblad
Related posts:
- Cult of Personality: Traits of a Writer
- Touching the Puppet Head
- Marching Grimly Forward, Looking Straight AheadOrThe Lost Art of Cloud-Gazing
- The Syllogistic vs. the Situational
- Things I Think I Know
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Comments
Getting “branded” in one category is a tough chore. For every writer that has made his/her name a brand there are a hundred published wan-a-bees. With most brands, consistency is key to maintaining market presence. So, when an author changes genres using the branded name, he is introducing an inconsistency that can hurt the brand. If the result is a drop-off in sales there’s a good chance the writer will find it increasingly difficult to sell anything to the big name houses.
A good friend of mine writes in several (more than three) genres under his own name. Makes his living writing novels. My money, he should be on the NY Time’s list. My opinion, though, is that the multiple genres confuses readers. Hell of a writer, but his brand is unclear making his market appeal limited. And, each new book has a smaller print run than its predecessor.
Not the way it should be in a perfect world, but the way it is.
Frank
Aaargh. Intelligent essay, intelligent blog posts. So what the hell do I have to add? Going back to the last two days blogs that I posted, however, I still want to know if Wayne Allen Sallee went to Gayce’s execution!
– Sully (Thomas Sullivan)
Re: Sully’s quest. I vote we say nothing and make him devote his entire next essay to it.
On the topic du jour:
As one whose keeps expanding his interests and straying into new areas, I appreciate the insights here, and hope there are a few more. My new novel-in-progress doesn’t even come close to fitting with the horror and crime/suspense novels I’ve done already, and I’ve been wondering if it wouldn’t be wise to start with a clean slate there.
On the one hand, I’ll be proud of it, and will want my real name on it. Then again, I recognize the marketing realities that make that a chancy proposition. Tough call.
This is particularly hard when it comes to publishing contracts. I have a friend who is contracted for several books with a publisher. His first book was a particular type…his second was a bit different, and the publisher wants him to revert to form A: for the third book…while he leans more toward form B:.
Publishers like to be able to “brand” things because it makes marketing and planning easier, and gives them a solid base for promotion. It makes sense. What I have never really gotten was their stand on authors breaking the mold.
Sure, the new product will have to be thought through and tested, just like the old was, but what if the second thing they choose is actually their calling? Both publisher and author are limited by the initial choice while a wealth of potential lies dormant.
Good choice.
I had the danger of being labeled ONLY a tie-in writer for a while…tie-in credits just don’t carry the same weight with publishers that regular mainstream titles do…sometimes it’s even detrimental (which is just flat silly, experience is experience, and each work should be judged on its own merit …. yada yada…
And still…
DNW