It’s been a long time since I blogged three times a week, but since my complete blog hiatus last December, my average was a new post once a week—until last month. In April, I blogged only once. I have a good excuse, though.
I’ve been busy writing. Almost every day. All day. I finished revising one novel and sent it to an alpha reader. And then I returned to working on a novel in a far different genre. What genre would that be, you ask? Well, it used to be called chick-lit, but that term is passé. Let’s call it romantic comedy.
If you’ve read my other books, you know I don’t usually write light stories. And neither my recently revised novel nor the other one still in first drafting are anything close to humorous. So writing romantic comedy is an experiment for me.
I’ve been having a lot of fun writing it, but I knew that was no guarantee anyone else would have fun reading it. And because writing time is too precious to waste, I decided to test my comedy writing ability by asking for a little feedback. The verdict is a thumbs-up. Yay! Now, I’ll continue my fun project with more confidence.
But since the genres of the revised novel and this one are both different genres from my usual serious women’s fiction, I’m revisiting the idea of author branding. I want my brand to be good writing, of course. But for marketing purposes it’s said to be helpful if readers identify your author name with a particular genre. In my case, that would be three author names.
I wouldn’t try to be three completely different people. For instance, I wouldn’t use different bios and author photos (two not mine.) Though I expect I’d need some presence in social media under the two new names. Even so, that might be more problematic than I think. So …
QUESTION OF THE DAY:
Are any of you writing under two or more author names? If so, would you share your thoughts on the pros and cons of that, please?
Linda Cassidy Lewis 
This is something I’ve considered since I write for both adults and kids. I feel really torn because a part of me cringes when I’m referred to as a “young adult author.” All my publishing experience, before my novels came out, was writing adult short fiction. I wonder if this might end up being a problem later on should I ever publish an adult novel, but then again, I feel as though my audience is mostly adults even though I write YA. Confusing.
I’m so glad to hear that you’re enjoying the writing process, Linda. I think we sometimes lose sight of that. I know I have in the past. And if there’s no joy in the writing , haven’t we lost the whole point of writing? It seems to me writing should be our passion, not simply the publication of our stories.
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My husband said the same things to me about joy and passion yesterday, Laura. 🙂 My blog post for tomorrow deals with temporarily letting others steal my joy of writing (and publishing.) I do it too often.
I think I’ve only read one of your adult shorts, so I plead guilty to thinking of you as a YA author. Forgive me. I’ll correct my thinking. If you should write an adult novel, you might be all right using the same name as long as you make the difference clear by the description and book cover. But I’m sure you’re publisher will advise what’s best.
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I think it is best to stick with the same name. Judy Blume wrote children and adult books as have many other writers who move from one genre to another. I think If I like a Linda Cassidy Lewis book, I would pick up another by that author even if it was a different genre. The only time I would use a pseudonym would be if I wrote erotica. (for all you know, I do)
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I didn’t know that about Judy Blume, Darlene. Actually, the question is probably moot for me because it seems that no matter what I write, including horror, there’s always a love story element. 🙂
But now you’ve got me wondering if you DO write erotica! I have one reader who consistently tells me to make my books spicier.
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