question about genres and publishing

[Coucou2021]

Hi all, I have a quick questions about genres. How narrow is the genre you write in supposed to be? If you publish a book, are you then expected to write your future books on the same topic? I don't mean switching from one genre to another, say crime to romance, but I mean within your larger genre.

I write historical fiction and thought this meant that as long as you have a great story, hooky plot etc., you could write books set in any era in the past, but I've recently been told otherwise. So if your first published book is set in say, Tudor England, are you then expected to set your future novels in the same time period? If you publish a WW1 novel, should you keep writing WW1 novels after that? I'd love to hear about your experience and/or thoughts, thanks!

I suppose most historical fiction writers stick to just one era: C J Samson, for example, or Georgette Heyer. But not all, Philippa Gregory has written about the Tudors and the Civil war. I think it must be a question of where your historical knowledge and interest lies … if you’re a Tudor scholar, you’re probably going to want to write about the Tudors! Personally, I would write whatever I wanted, provided I was confident enough to do it with sufficient accuracy. My first and thus far only novel is set in Anglo Saxon England, and I’m currently working on my second, which is set during the Second World War. But I don’t have an agent, which might make a difference?

If you have a publishing deal then there is an expectation that you will write in one particular era. That becomes your 'brand'. If you want to change era, or indeed genre then it is usual to use a different author name so as not to confuse readers who will buy a book expecting it to be a certain era or genre.

Ken Follett is a perfect example of a very successful historical fiction writer who has covered a wide range of periods. The earliest is 923 AD (earliest Kingsbridge novel) right up to present date. Dittto Wilbur Smith.

I would speak to your publisher. I have a fair few non-fiction books published through lockdown that are all in a roughly similar field. I’m now nearing completion of a novel but publisher wants three - books to run in succession. One is nearly ready to go, one is an outline and three chapters and the third is just a synopsis and plan at the moment. All very different. It’s a fairly big publisher with several subsidiaries but they’ve made no suggestion of name change or a need to be ‘of a certain type’.
They are very helpful in guiding and tweaking an idea towards a marketable book. They will also advise whether they want more of the same or are happy with a bit of a variety.

You need to work out your target market and know what they read. So, if your target market reads Regency romance but also reads medieval romance, it’s easy to publish both under one ‘brand’. But if your target market reads historical fiction set in Roman times but would never read fiction in Victorian setting, then it’s much harder to write both under one name, because you need to find a completely new audience each time you publish a book.

Publishers want you to build a loyal following of thousands of readers, who will automatically buy everything you publish. If you genre-hop too far for those readers to follow you, then your publisher will not be happy because they’ll need a much higher marketing budget for you. (That said - you can always self-publish or create a new pen name.)

It’s also important to remember why you’re writing. If it’s just to make money then you should probably write erotic romance or violent thrillers. If you’re writing to satisfy yourself and to explore ideas that interest you, then be careful not to let your publisher dictate what you write. Cos what’s the point of writing in that case?

Most writers I know who publish frequently have a bunch of different pen names, one for each target audience.

Thanks so much for your replies everyone, all very interesting! As some have mentioned, some authors seem to write in very different eras (Tracy Chevalier is another) but these seem to generally be very succesful authors. Maybe when you reach a certain level of succes you're more free to pick different eras under your own name rather than having to use a pen name?

I don't have a publisher or agent yet but one agent said they enjoyed what they'd read of my first novel, but they were already reading the full manuscript of another author set in the same era and, in their words, they did not want to sign two authors in the same genre. I wonder now too if my mentioning the book I'd worked on since - set in a very different era - hurt my chances, but in a way that's a blessing in disguise I suppose as I did not necessarily intend to write more novels in the first era I'd picked and am already working on another novel set in the second era. I do kind of wish I'd realised this sooner but as I've been learning more about writing with each novel it's still been very valuable.

All very good to know in any case! Thanks!

A successful historical novelist who does various periods is Bernard Cornwell. He does a lot of medieval books, ranging from Alfred (the Uhtred series) to the Hundred Years' War (Vagabond etc - some of these are distinctly bloody and also seriously upsetting in places), the US Civil War, the Napoleonic Wars and campaigns in India (Sharpe), a one-off Regency novel (Gallows Thief) and some set in pre-history (Stonehenge). Wide range but the dominant theme in those I have read is a dispossessed hero who makes good, which, I suppose, is Cornwell's real interest. His research is good but I occasionally get very, very irritated when he says he has moved an actual event to fit his plot. Good writer, though. So, no, you are not stuck with the period you first thought of unless you want to be.

As an aside, did you know The Winter King by Cornwell is being filmed? I'm very excited.