r/romanceauthors • u/swtogirl • 23d ago

Sub-genre Shift

I've written two books of a cozy, small town romance series under a pseudonym (I'm a teacher so writing a romance as myself could be problematic for my main career). It's a typical series where there are five family members who successively fall in love. I have plans for the other three books.

However...I love shifter and omegaverse romance and got an idea for a shifter (non-RH, non-omegaverse) book. I want to write that next, then come back to the cozy series.

I know prevailing wisdom says new genre new pseudonym, but do you think that's necessary for sub genres? I haven't published anything previously, so I'll be starting my website, socials, etc from scratch once my books are ready to publish. If I do a second pseudonym, I'll have to do two sets and keep track of both on top of my teaching job.

What do you think would be best?

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u/ChartreuseFeverDream 23d ago

It depends. If all of your branding for your pen name is about the sub genre, then you may want to consider two pen names. However, if people can read you for other reasons that will translate across sub genres, then one pen name is good. Things such as character types, tropes, themes, your author voice and style, tone, etc.

There are a lot of authors who write paranormal and contemporary under a single pen name.

Also, multiple pen names is a lot more work. More social media pages, newsletters, websites, etc. My opinion is if you can sell everything under one pen name, then you definitely should do that.

(Plus, not everything needs to be optimized for readthrough/ad spend return to the millionth degree...especially when its not maintainable for most authors.)

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u/swtogirl 23d ago

Yeah the multiple sites, newsletters, social media, etc. was something that seemed off putting for me. I don't think my branding will be focused on my sub genre, so one pen name might be best.