Worried about changing genres

[NightPorter]

I wrote an erotic horror series a few years ago that was pretty well received. The thing is, I got right up to the end of the series and couldn’t finish the last chapter. Horrible writers block. Got worse and worse the longer I went without publishing anything. All the emails asking me when I was going to finish it certainly didn’t help my anxiety.

Fast forward 3 years and I’ve started to write again. I'm 35k into a new series. I eventually got past my writer block by starting over from scratch. New Characters. New Genre. New Series. The problem is I went from Erotic Horror to Interracial and I’m a little worried about how my readers are going to react when I end up publishing it.

I plan on finishing the last chapter of the erotic horror series before posting this new IR series but I’m still worried about how my audience will react to the change in subject. I know that IR and Loving Wives are not always the best received around here.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Don't worry about it - only a tiny fraction of your "old" readers will find the new story, and your new readers probably won't care about the old story. Don't overthink stuff - three years is an eternity and you're targeting a new set of readers.

Publish for now in the most appropriate category.

 

[HordHolm]

Quite a lot of authors cross categories. There's more than one I like with stories in categories that don't appeal much to me, and that's ok - I read their work in the categories I do enjoy, and I ignore their work in those categories I don't enjoy. It doesn't detract from my appreciation of that work I have sampled, and I certainly don't expect an author to limit themselves to those areas that please me, specifically. In fact, I would think it rather arrogant of me if I did...

 

[TarnishedPenny]

The problem is I went from Erotic Horror to Interracial and I’m a little worried about how my readers are going to react when I end up publishing it.

Some will be annoyed and stop reading. Others, new ones, will be delighted and start reading. And, in due course, when you finish your EH tale, the first ones will come back.

Write for yourself. It limits the disappointment and criticism.

Good luck.

 

[SimonDoom]

What others have said. Don't worry about it at all.

Sometimes it can be a problem if you switch categories in the middle of a story, but that's not what you're doing.

What I've found is that my readerships for different categories are highly distinct. When I publish a new story in the Exhibitionist category, it boosts the views of all my Exhibitionist stories. But it has little impact on other categories.

When you shift to Interracial, my guess is your old Erotic Horror readers won't care a bit. Instead, you'll pick up a whole new group of readers -- and Interracial has more readers than Erotic Horror.

 

[Emirus]

Do readers care?

Worrying about “how my audience will react” to writing a story in a different category is, with all due respect, ridiculous. Readers of Erotic Horror are probably not into Interracial but does it matter either way? When you get an idea for a story then write the story, put it into whichever category is suitable, and hope people read it and like it.

Do you think J.K. Rowling agonised whether Harry Potter fans would like Cormoran Strike? Of course not. You can’t imagine every reader of one series will read the other one. So what?

It doesn’t matter if a writer has a thousand stories in just one category or a much smaller number in several categories. All that matters is writing a story good enough for a reader to enjoy. It’s never any good overthinking anything.

 

[KeithD]

After three years you have new/different readers. Write what pleases you and let the readers worry about themselves.

 

[NightPorter]

Thank you all. I guess I'm overreacting. It's just been way to long since I've published anything. I'm just a little nervous jumping back in feet first.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Thank you all. I guess I'm overreacting. It's just been way to long since I've published anything. I'm just a little nervous jumping back in feet first.

Jump in head first. It knocks sense into you quicker .

 

[PennameWombat]

<snip>
I plan on finishing the last chapter of the erotic horror series before posting this new IR series but I’m still worried about how my audience will react to the change in subject. I know that IR and Loving Wives are not always the best received around here.

Find a new audience. Great news finding anew your muse! Good luck with it.

I mostly publish in SF&F, Erotic Horror, NonHuman and E&V (and my E&V often has a strong undercurrent of those other three categories). But, my forays into Anal, Fetish and First Time have (mostly) been well received. And I’ve added followers. Do they all track me back to my more SF and Fantasy oriented stories? Do those who read SF&F and such follow me to the others? I don’t know. Unless they tell me via comments or feedback I can’t know.

I don’t worry about it.

I write what I enjoy writing - no one’s paying me to publish here - and the Categories in which I publish are ones I enjoy reading.

If an IR story has your juices flowing, write it and release it. Will horror fans come? Maybe… maybe not. But there are plenty of readers here who enjoy all of the categories.

 

[gunhilltrain]

It's kind of hard to avoid changing genres in a series. The first chapter will probably be in Romance, while subsequent chapters will probably be Erotic Couplings or BDSM or some such thing.

Then if there is a break-up, where does that go? If it's in Romance, most of the readers will dislike it. They want happily-ever-afters. The next time that happened, I put it Non-erotic, where it was well-received. Well, the guy does take up with his ex's best friend, so maybe it was a HEA.