As a young reader, I didn’t necessarily follow particular authors.
I’d pick up a book and read it (or not) based on the cover illustration and the description on the back cover. My mother once told me that as I got older, I’d start looking for books on the basis of their author, and she was right.
This was especially the case once I started reading Christian fiction.
I discovered favourite authors, and a lot of my early favourite authors also fell in the same genre, so I would read by genre. A lot of my early Christian fiction favourites were historical fiction or historical romance.
I then moved into romantic suspense, starting with Dee Henderson’s O’Malley series, then moving into Kristen Heitzmann, Susan May Warren, and Irene Hannon.
While I discovered Susan May Warren through her romantic suspense, I soon moved into her contemporary romances. The change in genre didn’t confuse me because it was subtle: her romantic suspense novels were an equal mix of romance and suspense, while her romance novels were heavier on the romance but still had a slight suspense thread.
But I did get confused with some of Irene Hannon’s novels, because the change was a lot more dramatic. At one point, she was writing romantic suspense (which I loved), and women’s fiction with a touch of romance (or perhaps they were romance with a heavy women’s fiction). Either way, I did get confused, and it took me a good while to start reading the women’s fiction.
Yes, sometimes. Adrian Plass is mainly known for his humour, but he’s also written some serious books. I bought a devotional book of his once, and I was looking for the laugh that didn’t come. I guess as long as you’re clear of expectations, it’s okay. He’s been to my town a couple of times, and we saw he and his wife do a funny performance on the Saturday night. Then he preached at our church the next morning, and it was a serious sermon. If that was people’s only experience of him, they wouldn’t have realised how funny he can be.
I’ve liked a number of Davis Bunn books, but he writes in a number of different genres. I’ve enjoyed a number of his suspense books, but I abandoned another one that was much more slow-moving and touched on history topics, though it was contemporary. The history part was fine, but I wanted something to blow up.
I guess if you write in different genres under the same name, you just need to be sure that readers know that and they go into a book with the right expectations.
That’s a good point about Adrian Plass. I’ve never seen his devotions, but I’d definitely have expected them to have that lighter side.