In a recent First Draft Friday, I was joined by bestselling author Rebecca Zanetti. We discussed writing across multiple genres while maintaining a consistent brand. Rebecca is known for writing Paranormal Romance thrillers, Romantic Suspense, and now she is venturing into Dark Romance with thriller elements.
Here are some key takeaways from my conversation with Rebecca.
How Rebecca avoids burnout:
- Taking time off: When facing burnout, she takes time off, sometimes for a couple of weeks, to recharge and avoid pushing herself too hard.
- Incorporating breaks: She follows a writing schedule of one hour on and one hour off. During the one-hour breaks, she engages in activities away from the computer to prevent physical strain and keep her mind fresh.
- Setting realistic daily goals: Rebecca sets a daily word count goal that is comfortable for her. She aims for around 6,000 words on a good day but adjusts based on deadlines and workload.
- Spreading out contracts: To manage her workload and prevent burnout, she strategically spaced out her book contracts, allowing more time for each project.
- Listening to her subconscious: Rebecca emphasized the importance of trusting her subconscious to work on solutions. She takes mental breaks during the off hours, allowing her mind to process challenges in the background.
- Avoiding overcommitment: With multiple series and contracts, Rebecca resists the urge to add extra books within a specific timeframe. She acknowledges the importance of finding a balance to prevent being overwhelmed.
- Learning from past experience: Rebecca mentioned a past experience with arm surgery that forced her to take time off. Learning from such experiences, she now pays attention to her writing schedule and physical well-being.
- Writing what she enjoys: Rather than forcing herself into a specific genre, she writes whatever she’s interested in. Readers can sense authenticity, and enjoying the writing process is crucial for maintaining creativity.
How Rebecca keeps track of her different series and characters:
- Maintain a series bible: She keeps a series bible to track important details and continuity across different series. This includes character traits, settings, and plot elements to ensure consistency.
- Use music or scents to set the mood: She uses playlists for each series or even each book to help get into the right mindset. (Her kids complain about hearing the same song over and over!) Some authors use scents like candles to create a specific atmosphere associated with each genre or series.
- Write sticky notes for ideas: When inspiration strikes for a different book or series, Rebecca writes down the idea on a sticky note but stays focused on the current project. This allows her to capture creative ideas without losing focus on her current work.
- Stay organized and structured: While writing one book at a time, Rebecca remains structured in her approach. She sets realistic goals for writing sessions and follows a schedule to stay immersed in the world of each book without becoming overwhelmed.
- Maintain reader expectations: Regardless of the genre, Rebecca ensures that certain elements remain consistent in her writing, such as suspense, strong protagonists, and alpha male characters. This helps maintain her brand while offering diverse stories to readers.
It was a great discussion, one you won’t want to miss! Click below to watch our 30-minute recording and hear the questions we answered from the live audience. Keep scrolling if you’d prefer to read the transcript.
More info:
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Check out Rebecca Zanetti’s books on BingeBooks.
Enjoy the show? Check out our past First Draft Friday episodes.
TRANSCRIPT:
Alessandra: Hello everyone, and welcome to First Draft Friday, number 60. This is brought to you by Authors AI, and I am your host Alessandra Torre. I am joined today by New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Zanetti. And I am so excited for this topic because we’re going to be talking about writing in multiple genres or across multiple genres and how to maintain your brand over that transition or across that journey. So welcome Rebecca. It’s so great to have you here. Do you want to tell the audience just a little bit about yourself?
Rebecca: Oh, sure. And thanks for having me. Any books or novellas written and published – I write Paranormal Romance thrillers and romantic suspense. I used to be a lawyer and this is a lot more fun. I get a lot more fan mail as a writer than I ever did as a lawyer. If you’re thinking about making that change, I would recommend it.
Alessandra: Have you ever thought of – of all those genres you mentioned, none were legal, like legal thrillers unless that’s what your thrillers are in the vein of? Have you thought of writing legal fiction?
Rebecca: I have. I have a series called the Anna Albertini Files, but it’s more humorous. It’s like romcom humor and she’s a lawyer, so I get to add some of that background.
Alessandra: I would love – I bet there’s so much fodder with… I have lawyer friends who give me ideas all the time. Most of them though are incredibly complex. I’d never be able to fit them in a book easily. I have a police officer friend who also is always calling with like brilliant ideas, but I can already see someone from Facebook says, love Anna. And those of you joining us, don’t be shy as we go along, feel free to contribute questions and comments as we go. So which genre did you start off in when you started?
Rebecca: So I pretty much did everything that I was told not to do. So I started off with Paranormal Romance. 2009 was when I wrote it and tried to sell it. And I was told, you know, everybody was like, do not write about where you do, they’re dead. And so I wrote about vampires and so that’s sold, and it’s my Dark Protector series, which is actually still ongoing. I just turned. I started with paranormal and I kept trying to write a romantic suspense, but this hero kept turning into a vampire no matter what I did. So I was like, “Oh, okay, I’ll write it. Nobody will ever read it, it’ll just be my book.” And that was the big plan.
Alessandra: So your Paranormal Romance though, did have elements of suspense in it?
Rebecca: All of my books, no matter what the genre, has elements of suspense. I tried to write a series a while back without it and it ended up having suspense. So I think that’s a commonality no matter what my genre is.
Alessandra: And you are different than a lot of our guests because I believe you’re hybrid, is that correct?
Rebecca: I am.
Alessandra: You’re both, okay. So for those of you who aren’t familiar with that term, hybrid means an author is both traditionally published and self-published. So when you first started, did you start out traditional or self-published?
Rebecca: I started out traditional with Kensington, and I’m still with Kensington and I’ve written for other New York publishers on the way as well. I’m probably about 85% traditional and 15% self. So, I just started indie publishing a couple of years ago.
Alessandra: So you were able to sell Vampire Romance back in the day when I remember my agent saying nobody wants Vampire Romance, but you were able to do it?
Rebecca: Yeah, we did. But interestingly enough, right when my books came out is when Borders went bankrupt. It was kind of a rough time to be in trade paperback, but I kind of rode that self-published wave with a traditionally published book. I don’t know, the timing worked out well for the digital and the eBooks.
Alessandra: Yeah, I love that. So you wrote Paranormal Romance and then at what point did you make your first genre switch?
Rebecca: So what happened was since Borders went bankrupt and the print sales weren’t that great for those first few Dark Protector, Kensington was just starting an adult imprint, you know, an ebook imprint, and so they asked if I’d continue the series in digital, and I said sure. So I immediately then wrote a romantic suspense that my agent took and then a follow-up Blood Brothers and then that went to auction. So I was in paranormal and romantic suspense pretty quickly.
Alessandra: And did your audience, did you notice or were aware of if your audience followed you?
Rebecca: You know, it was really interesting. A few years back we did a test to look at and it’s actually, I have two different audiences with some crossover on top. So I keep trying to find that magic series or that magic genre that gets everybody, but so far they’re pretty distinct which is pretty interesting actually.
Alessandra: We do have one of the watchers from Facebook and they said they love all the genre you write in. And so, there is some crossover, but like you said, they are distinct and a lot of times paranormal readers will only read paranormal or you’ll have other readers that are like, I’m not going to read anything that is paranormal in any way, so there is that distinction. You said you did a test, can you tell us more about that and how you did that?
Rebecca: My publisher did it, so I don’t know a lot about it. Yeah, so it was just, you know, I just got results that they think – I don’t know, they probably looked at like who opened their newsletter and which book, you know, that kind of thing. I don’t know, I didn’t ask too much about it. It was just interesting and I do have those cross fans and it seems like people who read, like my paranormals will go read the suspense pretty quick, but the romantic suspense don’t go to the paranormal as often. And so when I can get him to the paranormal, they’re like, oh, OK, this, you know, this is –
Alessandra: This isn’t so bad.
Rebecca: Yeah. The vampires are the good guys, you know, they actually can go into the sun. So, it’s kind to try to tell them that.
Alessandra: I love that. And then you moved into thrillers, what year was that transition?
Rebecca: It was actually, after the romance dystopian romance, like a post-apocalyptic before the actual pandemic. And so, I ended that series, I mean, happily when I was done with it. And then I wrote a next series called Deep Op, which is still ongoing. And it’s got a little bit of humor in it with like an alcoholic dog, totally healthy, doc says. The dog’s good, and then I moved into thrillers. So I actually have several series I’m going, so I’m hopping between them quite a bit.
Alessandra: So let’s talk about that from a writing craft standpoint. Currently, do you still publish in all of these genres?
Rebecca: Yes.
Alessandra: So how many books a year do you write?
Rebecca: You know, probably six and then at least one novella, sometimes two.
Alessandra: Yeah. And are you working on these multiple books at one time or do you focus on one book at a time?
Rebecca: I write, like actually write one book at a time. But you know, very often edits come in or page posts come in for another book. I’m in the middle of writing a book and major edits for a different book today, so I had to stop the writing and do the edits and go back. But I try to just write one at a time to stay in that world.
Alessandra: Yeah, I can’t imagine. I’m the same way. I mean, I can edit and deal with that. But in terms of that, your writing process, are you a pantser, are you an outliner? How long does it take for you to write your first draft? Kind of, can you walk us through your creation of a book?
Rebecca: I’m a pantser, which means I don’t outline. I keep trying to outline and then the minute I do, I have to go write it down. Get that first chapter and then you’re off and running. Sometimes I have no idea where the story is going. And sometimes I don’t even know, especially like in the thrillers suspense, sometimes I don’t know who the bad guy is when I start, which is fun because if I’m surprised I figure the reader will be surprised. And so then I just start writing. I’m pretty structured in that I’ll write for an hour, I do an hour on, an hour off, so I’ll write for an hour and do something else for an hour, meaning, leave the office and go do something and then write for an hour. And it just depends that when the deadline is in the contract.
Alessandra: Yeah, I like that. It seems odd that you’re the first author I’ve spoken to who does that. A lot of people write in 20-minute sprints or 30-minute sprints, or they take a five-minute break, but I like the idea of an hour on, an hour off. But during that hour off, you’re not returning emails or anything else, you’re actually leaving the computer.
Rebecca: I have to, or your shoulders start to hurt, your neck starts to hurt, you have to move. I mean, you really need to move. If I hit 1,500, the goal is 1,500 words for that hour. And if I hit it early, I leave early.
Alessandra: So if you write 1,500 words in 30 minutes, you get up?
Rebecca: And then I have an hour and a half off because I stayed to the schedule.
Alessandra: Oh, I love this. But 1,500 words in an hour really is no joke. I mean, that’s a good clip.
Rebecca: That’s a good number for me. You know, it’s not too hard right now anyway.
Alessandra: So when you don’t hit it?
Rebecca: If I don’t hit it, I keep writing till I hit it.
Alessandra: And then you have a shorter break.
Rebecca: Yeah, but to be honest, I usually hit it. I pick a number that I could comfortably write. So like if you can comfortably write 500 words, I would pick that number. I wouldn’t pick a number that would make you miss your hour off too many times. Every once in a while you do just because you know, the words won’t come out, but usually I hit it and so I’m out of here.
Alessandra: Yeah, we did have a comment. In case I ask you the same question more than once or seem to ask it to repeat yourself, your sound is occasionally going out. I don’t know that there’s anything you can do to fix it, but I just want to let you know, so you didn’t think that we aren’t listening to you. We had a question from YouTube and Kit says, why write novellas? Is it a reader magnet for a newsletter or is it an anthology?
Rebecca: There are different reasons. I look at novellas as marketing. So usually like if is an anthology with other authors, you know, you’re trying to get your writing in front of their fan base, which is usually why I do it, and that helps. Also, it’s fun. It’s fun being involved, you know. I do one with [unclear] and Alexander Ivy and we actually have a character or two that wind through the three novellas and that’s just fun, you know. It’s something different for the 1000 Dark Knight novella, that’s marketing. And that’s where a bunch of authors write [unclear] and they write a novella from their series only, but then we all advertise each other, we all market each other, so it’s a good way to cross promote. And every once in a while, you also get those characters that they deserve a story, but it’s not a story big enough for 95,000 words.
Alessandra: Yeah, I love that. I love just that they deserve a story. But like you said, I mean, you don’t want to force a story trying to fit them into a whole story. During your one-hour sprints, do you, your family or I don’t know your situation, but you’re left alone. Do you turn off your phone? Do you have any practices that you do that help keep you focused during that hour?
Rebecca: It’s easier to do now that the kids are in college. When they had sports, I have to admit there were a lot of times I wrote in carpool lanes. I remember one time I was writing at basketball practice and we were in this old gym and this mom comes up, she goes, you are so good to take stats during practice. I was like, yeah, I’m great. I had no idea what was going on in the practice, but I was going to get that book done. So, it’s easier now that the kids are in college, to be completely honest.
Alessandra: Yeah, I love that. And Lucy Score, when I was talking to her, she has a big red light outside of her office door, and so when it’s on they don’t interrupt, her family doesn’t interrupt her. They know like, unless the house on fire don’t come in. And I was like, I love that. Like, I want to put that in my next house. I don’t think anyone would pay me attention to it, but at least they had to go “The light was on. What’s wrong with you? Go away.”
Rebecca: And so, one of my kids was already home for summer and so I actually just taped a note on the back of the door going, “Hey, I’m doing a Zoom. You’re going to be seen if you come in.” I don’t have a red light, but I do have a notepad.
Alessandra: I love that. David from YouTube says, how do you keep track of all the characters from one genre to the next?
Rebecca: They’re pretty well in my head, but I do keep a series bible. I’m not great at it. I have started, you know, as I’ve got — right now, I have I think five series right now, and so I do use that, especially for things like eye color and little things like that that I always goof up on. And also I use music, so I have a playlist for every series or even every book. And when you hear that different music, it kind of just pulls you into that world. I have a friend who uses candles, like different scents for different series. And so when she lights a certain candle in that world; for me it’s music.
Alessandra: Oh, I love the idea of a candle. And then I would, I wouldn’t feel so guilty about burning the candles, you know? Right. It’s at that point. So someone just following up on our earlier conversation, they said, so an hour on, an hour off. What’s your normal goal per day?
Rebecca: It depends entirely on when the book is due. A nice day for me is 6,000 words. An under deadline word, it could be 10 to 12,000 words, but if I can keep it at six and it’s usually six, I’m usually under deadline. I just signed four different contracts and spaced out the books more than we have in the past. So I may see, I don’t know. I don’t know if I could just do 3,000 a day. You know, once you get into writing for me, I just like to keep writing, so we’ll see. So, it just depends on when the book’s due.
Alessandra: And how many days a week do you write?
Rebecca: I write almost every day. But then again, then I’ll take a lot of time off. You know, I’ll take a couple of weeks off. Or with summer coming up, I’ll take weekends and go out to the lake, but even then I may write a little bit just because it’s nice to write at the lake.
Alessandra: When do you do other computer stuff like marketing and emails and things like that?
Rebecca: Depends. Sometimes I do it first thing and then return to it, but I’m not structured. You know how there are people who are, I just do them in the morning and I just, I’m not structured. When I’m writing I see it and I’ll reply if I need to. I don’t turn everything off like some people do, but that works okay for me.
Alessandra: Madison also from YouTube said, have you ever considered sharing your playlist?
Rebecca: I have, but they’re weird, you know, they won’t make sense to anybody. They don’t make any sense to me. Sometimes the music doesn’t have anything to do with the book. Like I’ll be writing the book, but I’ll hear a song and somehow it’ll attach to that book.
Alessandra: The feel of it.
Rebecca: Yeah. But anybody else who heard that song would be like, that’s wrong.
Alessandra: It’s a breakup song. What is this?
Rebecca: And this makes no sense. And sometimes you look through the playlists and the songs are so different and I don’t want everybody to know how weird I am, you know, how my brain works. So, I’ve thought about it. I think there was one time we did share them on the website but I don’t know if they’re still there, to be honest.
Alessandra: Yeah. I was writing like a really dark thriller series and I was listening to this odd, like, Swedish group. It was just like this melodic, and I listened to that eight-song album on repeat for three months. I don’t know, like it got me in the thing. And readers were like, share it, share, share it. And then it was the same thing. It was like, I don’t get this. It was like, you don’t have to, it’s just for me during the process.
Rebecca: I’ve had times, like when I finished a book, the kids have come up and they’re like, are you done yet? Because it will be the same song over and over. Like, we can’t take that song anymore, no matter what it was.
Alessandra: I love that. But then when you hear the song years later, it’s like, oh, you know. So just returning to our original topic. In terms of maintaining a brand across genres, are there specific story elements that are distinct to your writing? Is there anything that you do? Do you use characters from, you know, crossover characters? Is there anything you do that does maintain the Rebecca Zanetti feel no matter what type of book they’re reading?
Rebecca: You know, I was thinking about this before today and I think that people know, who’ve read me, that no matter what genre or book they pick up, there will be suspense, there’ll be twists and turns, there’ll be a really smart protagonist female. I mean, because I’m surrounded by smart women. The hero will probably be a little bit alpha, and even if bad things happen, they usually happen off the page.
Alessandra: And so it’s not super gory.
Rebecca: Yeah, I don’t think so. I’ve probably gotten a little, a couple of times with fight scenes, but the bad stuff really does happen off the page. And so, I think people who read me know those things are going to be in a book. If you don’t like alpha males, you’re probably not going to like me. If you don’t like twists and turns, I’m probably not, you know. I tried to write a contemporary and it turned into a romantic suspense, just because I need that outside element.
Alessandra: You need that dead body.
Rebecca: I do.
Alessandra: I feel you. Speaking of twists and turns, someone from Facebook said, any advice on how to do twists?
Rebecca: Well, if you’re struggling with a twist, I would have a character do the exact opposite of what you think that character’s going to do, and then all of a sudden you’ve created a twist. Now you have to figure out how and why and when. But if you’re just looking to do something, you know, I really need a twist, have somebody do something or have something happen that should never happen in this world, and then you got to explain why. The twist comes, you know, if you’re writing a lot and sometimes they come pretty easy and if you’re struggling and I have found that your subconscious really will go to work on it — in my experience,
Alessandra: In your hour off, do you do a lot of thinking about like the next scene you’re going to write or an issue or your characters? Or do you take a mental break during that time when you don’t think about the book at all?
Rebecca: Mental break during that time when I don’t think about the book at all. In fact, I let my subconscious hit me if I’m not thinking about it, if I’m not concentrating or worrying about it, the process kind of…
Alessandra: You broke up a little bit. You said in fact you let your, and then something hit you. I couldn’t my,
Rebecca: My subconscious will take over so I’ll do something else and then all of a sudden a solution will hit me. I think you got to trust yourself. You have to trust that you’ll figure it out and not try to push it too hard, in my experience. And is that better? I have a microphone issue.
Alessandra: Yeah, you filled in the blanks. That was that. Also from Facebook, she said, is there a genre you haven’t written in that you want to write?
Rebecca: Well, I just sold a Dark Romance with thriller elements that’s different for me, so I will do that.
Alessandra: Dark romance with what?
Rebecca: Thriller elements. And so that’s a little different for me, but it’s the dark protectors, they’re vampires and stuff, so that’s a little different. Everyone always is surprised by this, but I think it’d be fun to write an inspirational story. I’ve thought about that and maybe a fantasy, like a big fantasy book would be fun. Obviously, I like to write, so it’d be fun to do middle school too, you know, series with softball players because I played softball, so I don’t know. Yeah, there’s a lot I want to write.
Alessandra: And in writing with these different genres and in signing these contracts, does it ever come up with the idea of using a different pen name or have you ever considered writing under a different pen name when you moved genres?
Rebecca: You know, I didn’t because I didn’t want to lose my fan base that I’d built. But interestingly enough, after I wrote the paranormal series and we went out on auction with romantic suspense, one of the publishers that was bidding wanted me to change my name if they won the auction. They didn’t win the auction. But it wasn’t because it was a different genre. It was because my last name starts with Z-Zanetti and they worried about being on the bottom shelf.
Alessandra: I didn’t even think about that.
Rebecca: Yeah. And I was like, Hey, pay for an end cap.
Alessandra: Yeah. I wouldn’t even think about that. And now I’m trying to think of like big authors, but there are a lot of, I mean there are big authors, Danielle Steele, I mean, there are big authors that have – but yeah, that is so interesting.
Rebecca: So I’m glad they didn’t win because I didn’t want to change my name.
Alessandra: Yeah, it’s hard to juggle multiple pen names. I get that question a lot. I have multiple pen names. But for the first few years, I hated having a second pen name because I was losing an audience. I thought I was losing an audience. And I still have readers day. They’re like, oh, I didn’t even know you had like all of these other 20 books under a different pen name. So Chris from YouTube said, can writing into multiple genres help you avoid writer’s block?
Rebecca: You know, in my experience from where I’ve seen writer’s block I don’t think there’s this mysterious thing. All day you’re writing along fine, then boom, you get hit with this thing called writer’s block. I don’t think that’s what really happens. When I’ve seen it, it’s been just a symptom of something else. You know, like stress, anxiety, depression, illness. Where I’ve really seen it is in friends who have lost a loved one. I mean, it’s a grieving process. I’ve never seen it come out of nowhere without a reason. So I don’t know that you can avoid writer’s block because you can’t really avoid life, you know, life hits you with things a lot. I do think that writing in multiple genres can keep it interesting for you as the author. I get bored easily and I’ve had several careers before writing and I think that this keeps me entertained and engaged, so I feel like then an audience will as well. I think it just helps me stay interested and keeps it fun and challenging is how I would look at it.
Alessandra: I mean, you have a pretty rigorous, I mean, six books a year is a lot and writing seven days a week is a lot. Have you ever faced burnout?
Rebecca: I’ve definitely faced burnout and I take time off. I mean, I’ll take a couple of weeks off and not write. I also had an arm surgery. My ulnar nerve got pinched, so that kind of forced me to take some time. So after that, I’ve been really careful with my writing schedule and that’s why with the new contracts, we’ve spread out the books a little bit more. So the key is going to be for me not to add extra books within that time frame. I’m working hard on that. I want to take more time off, spend more time, you know, at the lake this summer. And that’s my plan, actually is not to write seven days a week.
Alessandra: I would also think the hard thing with four books under contract is that the shiny books are like calling your name. Do you have any problem when you’re writing of wanting to jump projects or when you get a great idea for a new book? Do you ever put down one book to work on another?
Rebecca: I don’t, but I will write a sticky note. I’ll make a sticky note of my great idea and I’m looking at my… And I have like 10 different sticky notes and they all have to do a different series or different books. And so, I will make a note of it, but then I’ll return to the book because I’m in that world at that time, and the book’s probably due.
Alessandra: Yeah. And you have a deadline. Yeah. I have to have a deadline. If I don’t have a deadline, I will never ever write the book. It just, you know, so I’ve learned, I write best under a deadline. Chris said, great points about writer’s block. Thanks so much.
Rebecca: Sure.
Alessandra: We only have two minutes left, so we are just about out of time. If anybody has any last-minute questions, now is your time. If they’re interested in reading one of your books, where should they begin and do you have any new books on the horizon?
Rebecca: If they’re interested in thrillers? I would start with You Can Run, which is my thriller series. If you’re interested in romantic suspense, I would start with Hidden, which is the first deep box. And if you’re interested in the paranormal, I would start with Vampire’s Faith, which is probably book eight of the series, but it’s a brand new series arc, unless you want to go back to the beginning and that’s Fated. Which I accidentally just for the record, just in case you, you know, all the time as an author, you know that. But on Twitter, I actually typed farted one time and my friends have not let me forget it 10 years. I was like, how is that first book of yours? I’m like, it’s great, thanks.
Alessandra: Oh, that’s so great. “You Can Run,” we’re actually doing a BingeBooks book club chat on that this upcoming Tuesday. So for anyone listening, now is a great time to grab that book, read it, and then you can join us again on Tuesday on the BingeBooks channel to chat over that. This was fantastic. Thank you so much. We do have one question, I think we have time to fit it in. So also from Chris, he says, if you write in multiple genres and sell a book in one, should you just continue writing in that genre or consider writing in multiple genres?
Rebecca: I think you write what you want to write. If you want to stay in that genre, then write in it. Readers can tell. If you’re forcing yourself to write something you don’t want to write, they know, and so it just depends on what you want to write. The wisdom used to be you stick to one genre and that’s it. And I think we’ve all seen that that’s not necessary. I mean, a lot of people write in different genres, so it’s whatever you want to write. And you know, every once in a while take a look at what’s selling too. And if, you know, that’s sometimes if you want to write both, see what’s selling. Write the one that’s selling the most.
Alessandra: I love that. Thank you so much, Rebecca. It was fantastic to have you here. Thank you to everyone for joining us. We’ll be back in two weeks with another First Draft Friday.
