Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

50%
+0 −0
Q&A Series: How can I get my reader to not expect any one genre?

Other than an explicit "disclaimer" in an author's note or something, I really don't think you can. If I buy five books set in a dystopian fantasy (I might), I will be disappointed if the sixth boo...

posted 6y ago by Amadeus‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-19T22:13:31Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/38236
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T09:36:40Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/38236
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T09:36:40Z (almost 5 years ago)
Other than an explicit "disclaimer" in an author's note or something, I really don't think you can. If I buy five books set in a dystopian fantasy (I might), I will be disappointed if the sixth book is a romantic comedy.

My best suggestion would be to be explicit in a sub-title or something, and call it out. Call this the "XYZ Worlds" series and in the sub-title say "A Romantic Comedy in the XYZ Worlds", "A Dystopian Adventure in the XYZ Words", "A Murder Mystery in the XYZ Worlds".

Your better bet is to listen to Trout and Ries (Marketing Consultants for Fortune 500 companies) and not try to pile everything on one Brand, and thus make that Brand meaningless. Focus on one brand, this dystopian fantasy, and get published there, then invent again. Make a different world with with different rules, and write a story in it. Your **NAME** , as the author, will get your dystopian readers to try your new world with a new name without any expectations of dystopia, just because they like your writing.

Make a separate brand for each genre you want to write, just like Pepsi or Coke make a separate brand with its own artwork, music, commercials, websites and demographic targets for each product they sell. You can still see who owns the copyrights; but instead of just trying the easy way out by riding one brand name for everything and thus diluting the power of the Brand, they let each Brand acquire its own following. It's a winning strategy that broadens the market.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-08-09T18:03:48Z (over 6 years ago)
Original score: 19