Real Talks (Part 3)

3 things I have learned in my first year of publishing

Photo by Sašo Tušar on Unsplash

All my life I have been that person that walks outside the line. I've been called the black sheep, a lone wolf, an eccentric person. Why? Because I am that circular peg that refuses to be jammed into a square hole.

Being an odd anomaly gave me some trouble in high school, hell, even in University. But being different isn't necessarily a bad thing. There is a reason that Sela kindly said these following words to Teddy: "Conformity is the poison of life, or at least in society. Be who you are, Teddy, and you will find your true friends then." My subconscious mind was reassuring myself that it is okay to be different.

So, where am I going with all of this? I wanted to tell you, the reader, that a valuable lesson I learned this past year is that it is okay to be unpredictable. There is this strange idea out there in the publishing world that you must stick to one genre. I have been advised that if I want to jump into a different genre that I must create another pen name. Let me tell you that juggling one pen name is quite enough for me, so adding another one would give me a headache. It is my belief that if a reader loves your work, I mean genuinely loves it, they will not be thrown off guard if you jump into a new genre. When I published "Cursed" I thought I would always be writing in the paranormal romance, but later on I realized I wanted to try historical romances as well. They left me in a state of confusion, as I continued to ask myself "How do I go from one genre to another? Will I lose followers? Will people be unwilling to try it?"

I have learned that readers are wiling to venture into a new genre. They will open up a new book if it has good reviews and they are familiar with the author's work. It is not 100% guaranteed that they will like it, BUT they will attempt to read it because they love the author and want to support their work. In conclusion, it is okay for an indie writer to experiment with different genres. You can be unpredictable, and throw your fan base off guard. As long as the work is honest and from the heart, it won't make a difference which genre you are writing in.

My next book "At Peace" will fall into the historical romance genre, much like my widely successful novel "Awakening." In the year 2022, I hope to publish the second part of "Far from Home: Book Two." I am also working on a dark, Gothic horror novel that is taking place in the isolated moorland of England in the nineteenth century, but those details are kept under wraps for now (yes, I am keeping a secret from you). What genre will I dabble into in the coming years, well, you will just have to wait and see...