A bit of unprofessional squeeing
Miku twirling by ~SkullRider123 on deviantART
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I saw this yesterday, and desperately wanted to run around telling my friends and family about it. But then I remembered that my friends and family would not see why it was such a big deal. (Probably because it really isn’t a big deal to anyone except me.) But it gave me such a thrill that I had to mention it:
http://scifi.about.com/od/Weekly-Book-Releases-2013/a/This-Week_Paperbacks_2013-04-01.htm
An announcement at About.com that Under the Hill: Dogfighters is out in paperback. Look at me, hanging out in a list of SF/F authors that also includes Mercedes Lackey, Harry Turtledove and L.Frank Baum. I feel like I ought to be twirling in a sea of stars, as per a Japanese anime character.
Got to say, though, that my ‘brand’ is clearly as disorganised and offputting as ever, since according to KZ Snow’s m/m hall of fame, I’m definitely settled in the minds of m/m readers as a writer of historicals. This makes me squee too. How could it not? Look, I get to keep such great company there too. Thank you KZ! 🙂
http://kzsnow.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/the-mm-romance-hall-of-fame.html?zx=64c01f71dedbdc4
But it does make me think that my branding life would probably be simpler if I got a new pen-name for the SF/F stuff. That way, people looking for Historicals (who wouldn’t touch fantasy with a bargepole) could continue looking for Alex Beecroft, while people looking for Fantasy (who wouldn’t touch historicals with a bargepole) could look for someone else, and I would avoid confusing and offputting absolutely everyone. And if I told everyone that was what I was doing, those who liked both would be able to find both.
Re branding – as a good example of how to do it, see L.A. Witt/Lauren Gallagher http://www.loriawitt.com
If you’re going to do it, probably better do it soon, and get someone techie to make sure that searches for either name will lead to the same website. And you would probably need to put Alex Beecroft in brackets after your new pen-name on the covers for books you’ve already published under that name, and have both names as joint authors in the websites for them.
I know nothing about sci-fi and fantasy, but do they count as one genre? – it would seem they do, but I’m a little surprised. (Just wondering if you need three names..)
Congratulations on the Sci-fi mention!
Yes, it’s the fact that I’m coming to the end of the second draft of The Glass Floor which is bringing all this to mind.
It doesn’t even contain the low level of Romance that Under the Hill did and I’m going to try sending it out to publishers like Tor and Angry Robot, and other mainstream fantasy publishers. So while it seems a little excessive to have a different name for different genres inside the larger m/m romance genre, this would be a different genre outside romance altogether. Which feels like a much bigger difference.
Science fiction and Fantasy are two different genres, but in practice they tend to be always shelved together in bookshops and read by the same readers, so it’s long been the practice to smoosh them together and deal with them as one thing. Not that they are one thing! Although I enjoy reading SF, I can’t see myself writing it. I don’t have the scientific rigour to do it properly.
Thank you!
I don’t know why they wouldn’t understand that it’s a pretty *big* deal! That IS a big deal! And it’s totally awesome. Super-congrats, and well-deserved.
Looking forward to hearing about further successes (:
*g* Thank you 🙂 Yes, they’re authors I read as a child (and am frankly a bit surprised to see still alive, now I’m so ancient) so it does feel like being among the greats. Now if only life would stop interrupting me and let me finish editing The Glass Floor this week, I would be a thoroughly happy bunny.