I’ve gone a bit backwards from the trajectory of most authors’ careers. I’ve published two series but have yet to put out a standalone. I had five complete novels out before I ever sold a short story, and I’ve yet to put a short story in a magazine or periodical.
When you’re a series writer, as I’ve been, there is a certain pressure on you to “prove” you’re not a one-trick pony. A writer friend of mine who has only written one series so far was lamenting a critical response one reader had given to an anthology we were both in, where we’d each chosen to write stories set in the world of our respective series (which, for me at least, had been a deliberate marketing choice).
Her: “Look! She says she wonders if we can write anything else.”
Me: “Well, that’s silly. Obviously she hasn’t read my other series.”
(We shall leave for another time the endless paragraphs I might write about the disservice we do ourselves as writers by paying too much attention to random bloggers or Amazon posters who don’t even fact check their reviews.)
But I understood my friend’s response, and, had I only published one series, I might have had the same one. When you have been writing in a series, your readers get comfortable. You don’t have to sell them on new premises, new protagonists. They know your characters and world like old friends. They get suspicious if you stray, like you are somehow cheating on them. (Look at what happens to poor George R.R. Martin whenever he dares to write anything not Song of Ice and Fire-y!) And, thanks to this brave new world of the internet, authors can see them speculating as to the validity of the new work before it even hits the stands.
A not-insignificant part of my reader mail is requests for more books in my series. With the killer unicorn series, it makes sense, as those books are unfinished and I last left my heroine, Astrid, in a pretty tough position. But I also get a lot of mail begging for more secret society stories. What happened to Amy and co. AFTER they graduated?(My usual response: “They lived happily ever after.”)
When you write a series, you know what your fans love about it. “Hey, everyone loves Bonegrinder so I’m going to make sure I put more Bonegrinder in the next book.” You can play to expectations, and you can play with expectations as well. (Think of the fan frenzy surrounding Dickens and JK Rowling killing off beloved characters!)
But writing a series allows the author to have familiarity with the criticism as well. By the end of my secret society books, I had made up a veritable bingo card: “There aren’t any all-boys societies anymore” “I expected them to be really taking over the world and stuff” “Why do I want to read about elite Ivy Leaguers?” I had started on my bingo card for the unicorns, too. “I can’t imagine unicorns being killers.” “What does virginity have to do with unicorns!” After a while, you know what your detractors are going to say, and can shrug it off.
This week, my first non-series story hit the stores: “Foundlings” in the anthology Brave New Love (Fellow Genreality author Carrie Vaughn has a story in there, too.) This story is unconnected to either of my other series and it’s also unconnected to the standalone book I have coming out in June. Speaking of THAT book, thanks to an ARC giveaway my publisher did at ALA Midwinter, I’m starting to get responses to it as well.
And despite the fact that I know I’m not a one-trick pony, that I have published two series set in two very, very different worlds, I’m nervous. These upcoming books are not secret societies. They aren’t unicorns. I hope they’ll appeal to my current readership, and intrigue folks who haven’t tried me before. But because they’re new, I have no idea what people will like (or dislike) about them. I hope they like the things I liked — the things that drew me to writing these stories in the first place. But because they’re out there, and because they’re standalones, my part in the story is done. I can’t respond to readers the way I could with a series, giving them more of what they liked about the first. Unlike series, they don’t have siblings who can support and balance them. They’re only children, with all the benefits and drawbacks that status can bring.
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One of the easiest ways to avoid all that is to write under a different name … happens all the time … and even though the readers know you’re the same person, they equate different names with different series or genres … strange beings them ‘oomins!
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I think that might be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
There are many more problems associated with different pseudonyms unless you’re the type of writer who can turn out one or more books for each pseudonym per year. Otherwise you’re just going to lose market share in the name you’ve already established. It’s far more likely that your established readers will NOT discover your new pseudonym than that you’ll anger establish readers by writing outside of an established series.
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It’s definitely brave to forge ahead with new series or even standalones. I confess to being shocked when I found out that you (Diana) were writing about killer unicorns. But because I’ve always had a fascination with unicorns, it sort of worked for me. But what worked for me more in the KU stories were the characters and the choices – I feel like I’m one of the readers who is less drawn to the premise and much more drawn to the ideas (virginity, preservation of species) and the choices characters make because of the premise. That’s why I’m always willing to give your books a chance, even though every one seems like more of a departure from what brought me to the Secret Society Girl series in the first place. I feel like your readers will find that in every one of your books – a study of characters, choices, and themes that are mirrored in our lives.
So…not that you shouldn’t worry, but your fans will find you. And even if some of them don’t love one piece, that doesn’t mean they’ll leave you. Hopefully, at this point, just the trust in what you consistently offer in every book will keep them coming back for more. Have faith!