You Have Permission to Jump Genres and Categories, I Said So

Some authors who have done it well, and believe me, you can too.

Photo by Austin Neill on Unsplash

I love going to publishing conferences and writing workshops.

Traveling to other cities to talk to writers about the ins and outs of the industry, checking out manuscripts in progress to offer up whatever insight I can… it’s delightful. It makes me feel like a good literary citizen, and I think it makes the whole publishing industry feel a little less closed off.

Though I do recognize conferences and workshops come with a cost that isn’t always accessible. That’s one of the reasons I host free events, virtual (if you aren’t in my Philly-region Discord, you should ask for a link!) and in-person when possible. Please, do come hangout sometime.

There are a few big questions that come up at every single one of these, and I feel like I’m unpacking a lot of them in these substack articles. We talked about series last time. The big one I heard this month? It had to do with genre and category. It’s always from variation of this:

As an author, is it okay for me to want to write in a lot of different spaces? Books for children, historical adult fiction, sci-fi and epic fantasy, I want to do it all someday. But do I have to stick to a single genre or category to make myself a brand?

I understand the advice to build a “brand” as an author. Some people are just outstanding at it. You can tell it’s a book by a certain author just by picking it up (see Jeff Zentner or John Green), and know what to expect going in. I feel like that’s something you can see in my work, or at least, I hope so.

Don’t Read the Comments, You Can Go Your Own Way, With or Without You? They all exist in the same wavelength of Philadelphia-centric contemporary stories focused on awkward teens and their complicated families.

You can feel that “brand” dating all the way back to 2013 with The Geek’s Guide to Dating.

But this isn’t for everyone, and it shouldn’t be. I mean, I wrote an adult sci-fi horror story recently. You’re allowed to contain multitudes.

This month, I’m lucky enough in my agent life to see the publication of Nita Tyndall’s third Young Adult novel, Have You Seen This Girl, and M.K. England’s third novel in their Middle Grade trilogy, Player vs. Player: The Final Boss.

If we’re going to talk about jumping genre and shifting categories as authors, these two beloved clients are the perfect examples of that.

Nita debuted with their Young Adult novel Who I Was With Her, a heartbreaking story about a teen girl who loses their secret girlfriend, and since she isn’t out yet, finds herself forced to grieve alone. Nita’s followup? A World War II YA historical. The new novel that’s out this month? A YA thriller with a paranormal flourish.

Contemporary. Historical. Paranormal thriller.

That, my friends, is genre jumping. You don’t have to stick to one space. You jump genres and categories when you know you can stick the landing.

Now, about category jumping? Let’s take a look at my dear friend M.K. England.

We have worked on quite a few books together, kicking off with The One True Me and You, an absolutely delightful YA rom-com that read like a hug. Before that, and before we worked together, M.K. had published two YA sci-fi novels (The Disasters is a legendary favorite of mine).

But after The One True Me and You? M.K. kicked off work on their Middle Grade trilogy, set in the world of video gaming, followed by some I.P. work in Firefly and Guardians of the Galaxy. Recently, we sold their adult rom-coms, another YA rom-com, and currently have some adult projects on submission.

Middle Grade. Young Adult. Adult.

That, my friends, is category jumping. And then genre jumping in the mix there.

I could not imagine a world where I told these writers, hey, you need to stick in a single lane and write from there, because you are building a brand. No, we’re building a career, and often times you can do that by introducing yourself to new categories and genres, which introduces you to a whole new legion of readers.

Don’t feel like you need to box yourself in. You genuinely do not need to.

Now, this isn’t just limited to clients of mine. A number of my favorite authors are absolute masters of genre and category jumping, so if you want more examples than what I’m bringing to the table, I’d love for you to look up a few of my favorites here:

• Erin Bowman
  : I know I mentioned Erin in the last newsletter, but I’m a megafan, I’m sorry. Look at her Taken trilogy, her Vengeance Bound duology, and her Contagion duology. We’ve got sci-fi, a Western, sci-fi again… and she even has a Middle Grade, The Girl and the Witch’s Garden.

• Farah Naz Rishi: My neighbor and dear friend, take a look at their leap from YA sci-fi (I Hope You Get This Message) to riotously funny rom-com (If You’re Not the One) to adult memoir (Sorry for the Inconvenience comes out soon!).

• Mindy McGinnis: I bring up Mindy a lot when talking about genre jumping. Her duology, Not a Drop to Drink, is one of my favorites. Her novels jump from contemporary (Female of the Species) to historical (A Madness So Discreet) to epic fantasy (Given to the Sea), and more.

• Olivia Cole: Another favorite of mine, take a quick look at her backlist. Sci-fi space opera (A Conspiracy of Stars), YA contemporary (The Truth About White Lies), Middle Grade fantasy (Where the Lockwood Grows), etc.

• Tehlor Mejia
  : Quick note, Tehlor just launched a Substack, so please do go subscribe, they are brilliant (
  My Heart, Your Teeth
  ). But goodness, talk about someone who leaps genres and categories in a way that seems effortless. Sammy Espinoza's Last Review (Adult) was a huge favorite of mine last year, and they have a wonderful catalog of Young Adult and Middle Grade novels.

These are just five examples, but I hope they set you free a little bit.

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Alas, I’m not doing office hours this month due to traveling (see you soon, Michigan!) and multiple events, but they’ll be back in July. What I am doing is a panel featuring some absolutely astonishing industry people with the Broad Street Review on June 6th.

You can register for that here. While admission is $20, I do have a 50% off code that you can absolutely have. Please message me for it.

And please know if that’s still too much, reach out. I’ll get you on the list.

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Now, a list of things for you to check out:

• As you can probably guess by that image up top, Marvel revealed the cover for Mike Chen’s Moon Knight novel, and oh my goodness, am I hyped for it. Watch for it in October.

• People often ask me how to get into writing I.P. projects like that one, so here, a reminder that I have an article that digs into all the bits and pieces of the process.

• My dear friend Preeti Chhibber revealed the cover for her debut, Payal Mehta's Romance Revenge Plot. It publishes in September and everyone should preorder it, because Preeti is a perfect human and her writing is the best.

• My buddy Swapna Krishna’s YouTube channel, Ad Astra, is taking off. Highly recommend subscribing!

• Kayla Ancrum’s Icarus earned it’s FIFTH STARRED REVIEW. Working with her is an absolute joy, and please, check out that beautiful book.

• Kate Fussner’s gorgeous Middle Grade novel was named a Bank Street Best Book, and I recently named Kate Fussner a Bank Street Best Person. I’m not sure if that’s a thing, but it should be.

Okay, that’s all I got this time around. I hope the advice was helpful, I hope I’ll see you on Zoom sometime, and until then… go write good things.

Eric