Branding, or being a dual-boot author
Remember when you were eight and first read CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG by Ian Fleming? That was when I first read it, and I immediately marched over to the library (the low-tech book acquisition method in those days) to find more books by this wonderful author. Of course what I found were the James Bond books, completely different in every way except for the slightly tongue-in-cheek, twee, ironic tone that came across.
The librarian threw a wall-eyed fit upon discovering that I had been allowed to check out CASINO ROYALE, even though most of it went right over my head. Whenever I came across a word or concept I couldn't figure out, I simply BLEEPED over it and tried to press on, but the book seemed dumb to me at that age. I was sad that Fleming hadn't written any more "good" books about flying cars and tetched inventors.
Many authors can write in different genres and styles. Readers don't always appreciate both, and don't want to be misled about what they are getting. They want mysteries from J. D. Robb and romances from Nora Roberts, and that's that.
Thus was born BRANDING.
This is why I write my mysteries using my driver's license name of Denise Weeks, but continue to publish YA and fantasy novels as Shalanna Collins. Think of it as a Nabisco/Keebler divide. You can count on getting what you expect when you see the author's name on the spine.
Muse Harbor Publishing wanted me to have a separate Facebook presence for my APRIL, MAYBE JUNE series and other fantasy works. Thus I created Shalanna Collins Books to accompany the existing page Denise Weeks Books for my mysteries and literary/mainstream works.
This promotion stuff is a lot of work and takes up valuable time that could be spent writing, editing, polishing, or washing dishes. But it looks like my new publisher is knowledgeable and willing to help promote, which is exciting. Wow.
The librarian threw a wall-eyed fit upon discovering that I had been allowed to check out CASINO ROYALE, even though most of it went right over my head. Whenever I came across a word or concept I couldn't figure out, I simply BLEEPED over it and tried to press on, but the book seemed dumb to me at that age. I was sad that Fleming hadn't written any more "good" books about flying cars and tetched inventors.
Many authors can write in different genres and styles. Readers don't always appreciate both, and don't want to be misled about what they are getting. They want mysteries from J. D. Robb and romances from Nora Roberts, and that's that.
Thus was born BRANDING.
This is why I write my mysteries using my driver's license name of Denise Weeks, but continue to publish YA and fantasy novels as Shalanna Collins. Think of it as a Nabisco/Keebler divide. You can count on getting what you expect when you see the author's name on the spine.
Muse Harbor Publishing wanted me to have a separate Facebook presence for my APRIL, MAYBE JUNE series and other fantasy works. Thus I created Shalanna Collins Books to accompany the existing page Denise Weeks Books for my mysteries and literary/mainstream works.
This promotion stuff is a lot of work and takes up valuable time that could be spent writing, editing, polishing, or washing dishes. But it looks like my new publisher is knowledgeable and willing to help promote, which is exciting. Wow.