Authors Trying New Things
This week, over at Murder She Writers we are talking about Author Growth, and does the volume of work equal growth. It's an interesting conversation—hop over and join us!
For here, I thought I'd talk about authors who do take chances with their writing. When is that a good thing, and when does it turn the reader off?
Janet Evanovich had a mediocre career as a romance writer, and decided to go in a completely different direction with her Stephanie Plum bounty hunter series. That was a huge leap for her, but the risk was worth it. The world loves Stephanie Plum.
Nora Roberts took a chance when she created her futuristic "In Death" series, BUT she wrote it under the pen name of JD Robb. Nora was already hugely successful and I don't know that the series was much of a career risk, but I love the JD Robb series! It's so different from her work written under Nora Roberts.
I believe that Sherrilyn Kenyon wrote historical romances as Kinley MacGregor before she made the leap to her super sexy paranormal Dark Hunter Series.
Those are three success stories that I thought of off the top of my head. It's a really big deal when an established author decides to break the mold and do something different. Publishers are very conscious of reader expectation. And no author wants to disappoint her readers. But we all want to grow and see if we can write something different and better. Off hand, I can't think of any failures, but I know they are out there. Authors who tried something different and the readers didn't like it.
What do you all think? Do you like it when your favorite authors go in a different direction? Have you been turned off by an author who started writing in another genre that just didn't appeal to you?
posted by Jennifer at 8:41 AM
6 Comments:
Jen, you already know where I stand on this issue, because, well you can't hide from me. Ugh that is just down right scary. But I have a suggestion. The since I read Thrilled, I've read one Stephanie Plum book (#9) and am currently working my way through Full Scoop as story buy Janet Evanovich and Charlotte Hughs.
Jen you and Natalie need to do this. Ya gotta, you two would do sooooo much better. Honest you would.
Gracious what a mess of typos. I'd like to blame my sleeping medication...but I only just took it.
Cele - as an avid Evanovich fan I feel compelled to tell you that the Full series isn't nearly as good as the Plum series. First of all, I think the only reason Janet Evanovich's name is on the cover is because she wrote the very first book Full House. The rest are written by Charlotte Hughes (who I like) who definetely has a different writing style than Janet Evanovich.
I had never heard of Evanovich until I picked up the first Plum book. I found myself so engrossed in it that I read it in a matter of hours instead of days. I also found that I was laughing out loud so many times that my husband finally said "what are you reading??".
I have never read an author (that I know of) that has switched genres. Jenny Crusie says that she has switched since collaborating with Bob Mayer, but I read Don't Look Down and I thought it sounded just like her, so what do I know.
BTW Jennifer, I read Dark Lover and Eternal Lover and fell in love with the series. Thanks for the recommendation.
Hey Cele, Natalie and me write a book together? We'd have a blast, if we didn't kill each other, LOL! Sorry it took me two days to respond--I was having trouble with blogger for some reason. It seems to be fine now.
Ktzmom, I'm so glad you loved DARK LOVER and LOVER ETERNAL! Very cool books, huh?
I haven't read DON'T LOOK DOWN yet. So it sounds just like her?
I thought so, but I like almost everything she writes so maybe I'm biased. It was good though. You could definately tell that a man wrote the male point of view. It was enlightening.
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