I’m still basking in the glow of the Publishers Weekly review, but today, I want to talk about a couple of things that are mentioned in the review, namely this:
Bodies litter the pages of this first entry in Estep’s engrossing Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series … Fans of Estep’s humorous paranormal romances (Jinx; Hot Mama) may be taken aback by the gritty violence and steamy sex, but urban fantasy fans will love it. (Feb.)
In other words, Spider’s Bite is a different kind of book than the ones in my Bigtime series. Spider’s Bite is dark and gritty, violent and sexy — it is not a lightweight comic book spoof like the Bigtime books are. The main character in Spider’s Bite is an assassin, and Gin does kill people in the book — in fact, she kills a lot of people in the book. She wouldn’t be much of an assassin if she didn’t kill people, now would she?
So why am I bringing this up? Well, because I want readers — especially those who enjoyed my Bigtime series — to know what they’re getting with Spider’s Bite. Because it’s definitely a different kind of book, and those looking for a more lighthearted read may be disappointed.
We’ve all seen blog posts bemoaning the fact that an author has switched genres, and I’m sure that I’ll get some e-mails from readers telling me that they don’t like Spider’s Bite and that I should have written another Bigtime book instead. So why didn’t I do that? Well, there are a couple of reasons.
First, my previous publisher decided that they didn’t want any more Bigtime books. As much as I love writing the series, I have to eat and pay my bills just like everyone else. And in the book market right now, dark, gritty, urban fantasy and paranormal romance is where it’s at — that’s what editors are buying and that’s what readers are reading.
Second, I had been wanting to write an assassin story for a while now and penning an urban fantasy gave me the opportunity to do that — and really stretch myself as a writer. That’s important to me because I think that writers who write the same kind of book over and over again get stale. I know that I’ve loved the first few books in a series only to be disappointed by the later titles that just seem like retreads of those first great books (Janet Evanovich comes to mind).
But I hope that my Bigtime readers will give Gin Blanco and Spider’s Bite a chance. In the end, I think that Spider’s Bite and my Bigtime series have a lot of the same elements in common — a sassy, sarcastic, kick-ass heroine, cool world building, lots of fight scenes, and some sizzling romance. Everything is just much darker in Spider’s Bite, including the humor. In fact, I’m billing the book as dark, fun, sexy urban fantasy — we’ll see if my Bigtime readers and others agree.
What about you guys? Do you like it or loathe it when an author switches genres? Share in the comments.
