What does it mean to “pivot” an author?

Basically, it means to take an author from one writing category (say, YA thriller) to another (say, adult romance) in which they can have more success. This is different than authors who would like to expand their success and grow their existing audience by dabbling in new genres or categories, an endeavor that carries its own risks (and rewards, of course!). But in both cases, you are thinking about the “meta” story of the author, their work, and how they can be perceived and understood by a reading audience.

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Have you ever met an author and asked, “What kind of books do you write?” It’s a super common question, and its answer is the Meta-Story.

For most of my early career, I really ignored this Meta-Story. I wrote what I wanted to when I wanted to: YA; middle grade; a sci fi adult debut with a male pen name on it; an uber-dark grounded fantasy with a different male pen name on it. I caught the tail-wind of whatever story was in my head and surfed it to the final page.

Luckily, “YA” at the time was the blanket category that subsumed all my most successful books, whether they were grounded speculative fiction (Before I Fall); science fiction (Replica, Ringer); or dystopian romance (Delirium). But as I aged out of the market and the market simultaneously aged out of my books (as is very often, though not always, the case for writers targeting a YA audience), I had to face the question I’d long dreaded hearing from well-meaning strangers at cocktail parties.

What kind of books do you write, Lauren?

More and more, in this age of infinite content and fractured attention, I feel that people need Meta-Stories. They crave them. I know I do! And I have gotten comfortable with the idea that if I want to keep writing (I do) and being paid to write (please, God), I need to nurture and develop a new Meta-Story, one that permits me to write for an adult audience, hopefully doesn’t alienate my most devoted fans, and also gives me enough flexibility to tackle the kinds of worlds, conflicts, and characters that interest me.

And when I dug deeper into the question of What I Write, I realized that many of my existing books—Panic; Broken Things (one of my faves!); one of my middle grade series, Curiosity House; even that uber-dark grounded fantasy; my adult debut, Rooms—are either implicitly or explicitly structured around a mystery of some kind. That made sense. Because…

I LOVE MYSTERIES.

Have I not said this before? Well, allow me to repeat it.

I LOVE MYSTERIES.

I’m a freak for every book on a sliding scale from Cozy Mystery (was someone murdered with a poisoned cupcake? Was an egg cozy and an English manor house involved? Yes, please!) to a Gritty Procedural (Richard Price, Jussi Adler-Olsen and pretty much everyone writing in Denmark??); to twisted psychological thrillers (Gillian Flynn, Ruth Ware, and many others). Does this make me basic? Probably.

Does that matter? No.

So as I let WHAT HAPPENED TO LUCY VALE (also a mystery) find its way in the world, I will be pursuing my own personal pivot, deeper into the land of mysteries and psychological thrillers. In doing so, I hope to follow in the footsteps of my favorite authors and books, ever. These are the books I always want to read, even when I’m fried. The books I take on vacation and stash under my bed. The books I actually finish.

And if you, like me, are ever wondering What should I write?, it might be helpful to start with a different question.

What do you actually read?

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.