Developing A Successful Career Even If You Are A Typecast Author

There are many authors known for specializing in certain genres. There are authors who specialize in horror like Stephen King, children’s horror like RL Stein, Science Fiction like Isaac Asimov and so on.

The saying: ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’ holds true for this article. If you write in a lot of genres, your readers may not be able to create a solid idea of your writings. For example, Stephen King writes in a lot of genres but mostly writes horror.

This may be the reason why his name has become synonymous with horror. Though his first few books were not really horror novels, he first became known for a horror novel and has continued to be known as a horror writer ever since.

Though he also had success writing novels which are not of the horror genre, many of which have been turned to movies and television series. His fans would tend to remember more his horror writings.

Shawshank Redemption:

I always laugh whenever I remember an interview where Stephen King tells the story of how his fans can sometimes blindly associate him with his horror writings only. He tells the story of meeting an old woman who claims that she has never watched or read anything written by Stephen King.

According to Stephen King, the old woman told him that the reason why she does not watch or read anything written by him is because she is scared of what Stephen King writes in his novels.

After hearing this, Stephen King was a little bit disappointed that the old woman does not know that he also writes about stories that are not of the horror genre. Stephen King tried to win over the old woman.

He asked her if she has read or watched Shawshank Redemption. According to Stephen King, the old woman smiled and told him that she has watched the movie and really liked it.

Stephen King then informed her that he was the one who wrote the book that she liked. According to Stephen King, the old woman got angry when he told her that it was he who wrote the book.

The old woman told Stephen King that he is lying and that he didn’t write the book. Stephen King repeated to her that he was indeed the one who wrote the book, but the old woman simply refused to believe him.

The old woman told Stephen King that as far as she knows, Stephen King only writes horror novels and nothing else. No matter how hard Stephen King tried to convince the woman, she refuses to believe that Stephen King actually writes novels that are not of the horror genre.

It was at this stage that Stephen King stopped trying to convince people that he was not only a horror author but a multi-genre author. He knows that as far his fans goes, he will always be known as a horror author.

The previous example of how Stephen King was typecast as a horror author is an all too common occurrence in many artistic pursuits. There are for example actors who are typecast as leading men no matter the fact that they want to play villain roles as well.

There are directors who are so known for their success in producing a certain type of movie like horror that movie companies always ask them to direct horror movies even if they want to do other movie genres.

The list of artistic pursuits where an artist is typecast is many. This includes being an author. As previously told, Stephen King is known for horror novels that most publishers would like him to do nothing but write horror novels.

One obvious advantage of being typecast is you get known for something distinctive. How does this start? You try writing a couple of novels in different genres. You get feedback from your readers that they really like your writing or stories from a certain genre.

Capitalizing on this strong response from your readers, you begin to write in the genre where your readers appreciate your writing and stories. The readers read more of the same stories and they learn to associate you with the particular genre.

As you write more stories for your particular successful genre, the more your readers associate it with you. The process repeats itself more and more until your readers associate you with that particular genre alone.

As can be seen writing in a particular genre, especially if you are successful at it is like a snowball effect. The more you produce novels of the same genre you are successful at, the more your following grows.

The obvious disadvantage of being typecast in a certain writing genre is that it narrows you down as an artist. You could find yourself writing similar novels over and over again with only minor differences.

This could stall your productivity. This could lead with your readers noticing that you are writing similar stories over and over again. As a result of this, your reader might not read your novels anymore.

The same goes for non-fiction books. You may be a writer who writes books about writing. But how many books on writing can you write without repeating your message over and over again?

This is the danger of writing on a specific genre alone. You may reach a point when you cannot think of new ideas and stories to write about that you just basically stop writing. The other choice of course is to rehash what you have already written.

But we get back to the original problem eventually. How many times can you rehash an idea or a story before it becomes just a repeat of the idea or story you have done before. In due time, your readers will notice this and they would develop a negative image of you.

The most popular and obvious way of avoiding being typecast is to use a pen name when you write. With a pen name, you can assign different aliases to the writing genre you write in. For example, Stephen King used to have a pen name when writing novels that are not of the horror genre.

But it not only Stephen King who is a successful author who uses a pen name when writing in a genre he is not known for. JK Rowling which is known for her fantasy novels Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts also uses a pen name when writing detective novels.

As you can see, it is perfectly all right to use a pen name. If well known and successful authors have done it, you can use a pen name as well. In fact there are many other authors who have tried using a pen name when writing in other genres.

Though pen names are a convenient and effective way of hiding your true identity from your readers when you are writing in a genre you are not normally associated with, it is not full-proof.

Stephen King for example used the pen name Richard Bachman with a certain degree of success until his readers began to have a clue who he really is. They somehow managed to compare and conclude that Richard Bachman is really none other than Stephen King himself.

And how did they found out? Did they ask the publishers of Richard Bachman’s book? Did they research it online when the internet was not even available back then? The answer is simple, they were able to determine that it was Stephen King thru his writing style.

This is right. Your readers can be so used to your writing style that even if you use a pen name they would still recognize who is the author behind the pen name. Even I am still amazed at how these readers where able to guess that it was Stephen King all along.

The lesson here is that you may be able to fool your readers by using a pen name, but ultimately you would be found out. This is how good some or many book readers are. They can recognize writing styles.

Returning to the story of Stephen King, after being found out that he is really Richard Bachman he decided to give up using pen names as a way to hide his identity from his readers. He just accepted the fact that readers would recognize his writing style.

And as the story goes, he wrote other novels which are not of the horror genre using his actual name, Stephen King. Although Stephen King is still mostly known as the king of horror novels, his name is also associated with other novels that are not of the horror genre.

In Stephen King’s case, the horror genre is his real bread and butter and he would never abandon it. It just makes sense. Why would anyone leave a job that they enjoy and people love them for doing so?

But of course, just like Stephen King, he also has a desire to write something different from what he normally does. This could be out of boredom. If you have been writing on the same story genre for a long time, you begin to get tired of it.

This is the reason why Stephen King also writes novels that are not of the horror genre. And lucky for him, even the novels he write which are not of the horror genre are also a success both in popularity and financially.

This is the advantage of being typecast that you can use to your advantage. Many people artist hate being typecast like authors. But little do they know that little fame is better than no fame at all.

How many authors languish for years even forever before they achieve a certain degree of success? If your initial success means that you would be typecast then why not grab it instead of rejecting it?

You could use your small typecast fame to be a bigger typecast fame and then use it over and over again until you can really afford to write other books without the concern that the new story genre you write for is not popular.

I know of an asian actor who was typecast as a villain for a long time. He grew old playing villain roles until he was known as the king of villains. Even though he is already known as the king of villains, he played all kinds of supporting roles from drama, comedy, action and so on.

In short, he became known as an actor who can play any role even though he is still known as the king of villains. The Filipino actor’s name is Eddie Garcia. To any aspiring artists, he is a good example of what it means to do everything until you get known for one.

He and many artists like him in all kinds of artistic fields may it be acting, writing, singing and so on are proof that you need to develop a niche that you would be known for, but do not be afraid to do other things beside the niche you are successful in.

It looks like the title of this article should be: ‘The Secret Of Stephen King’s Success.’ But honestly, Stephen King is the perfect example of an author who has been typecast but still manages to be a success in other story genres.

There are advantages to writing in the specific story genre you are successful in. As the saying goes: ‘Success breeds more success.’ You can take full advantage of the writing genre you are popular in to have a stable writing career.

Once your writing career is stable, you can try writing for story genres you are not popular or successful in. The more story genres you can write in, the more is your chance of a long lasting career as being typecast can lead you to a narrow career only which is not good.

Don’t Strictly Write A Book From The Heart, Write For An Audience As Well.