To Pseudonym or Not to Pseudonym

I write in more than one genre.

My historical novels are the ones my agent had been pitching until I parted ways with him recently. I intend to write several more, although they have been postponed while I polish the fantasies we have completed. I have always thought that it would be best to publish the historical novels under a pseudonym or at least under my birth name which is identifiably Scottish. *chuckle* Who would have guessed that?

All of my other novels are fantasies. There is a very real concern when authors switch genres about readers picking up a different genre than they expect and being disappointed. Obviously, this is a bad thing. On the other hand, while the number of people who recognize my name and look for my work is small, it is growing and who wants to give that up?

It is something that I debate a lot. My historical novels are still under consideration at one market. If they don't sell there, I will probably decide to indie publish them. I am still debating whether it will be under this name or another. Having to do promotion under a totally different name is -- daunting.

However, my co-author and I are working on another fantasy. The working title is The Kazak Guardians but I'm not very taken with that title. It has a female protagonist which we frequently do, and this one is an Urban Fantasy. Of course, our last, Wings of Evil, is an epic fantasy. It's probably within the young adult genre because the protagonist is young, but it is a lot grittier than our last.

I hope the new novel will be ready to go online in March, but it has a lot of work yet to be done on it. It's still in rough draft form with no cover designed. There is a lot of work involved in getting from rough draft to something I would let people read!