Avoid That Pigeonhole

Don't pigeonhole yourself. The biggest thing that will help to sell your book is letting your fans know who the author is, knowing what they can expect from that person, and being willing to be a little bit surprised by what they see in the books. If you have this really great grandmother's thing going on in real life but your books happen to be really hardcore thrillers then you just found a really great sweet spot there: People expect the nice grandma and then get pleasantly surprised when grandma sucker punches them. You need to have a hook, sure, but you shouldn't let that hook limit you.

Making it more harder, however, is that some people like the darling, some people like the jerk. The jerk is great because you know this guy is going to say something interesting and it's not always going to be the most politically correct thing. Some like the darling becuase he's going to say what they want to hear, and sometimes the crowd needs that as well. But you also don't want to pigeonhole yourself as either: Sometimes you need to sweet, sometimes you need to be sour.

 The problem with some writers is that they want to be one of the two extremes and that ultimately hurts their marketing. Sure, you can sell books by embracing the extremes: You have some authors who write some of the most treacly romances out there and other authors who write gothic thrillers where no one survives, and they all do pretty well; so that shouldn't be seen as a problem. 

But..this always limits those authors. If the romance writer starts writing stories where characters start dying in droves, she's going to have to start at Square One, as does the more violent author; they're not likely to keep their audience. On the other hand, the writer who was writing romance into his gory stories and the one who was occasionally having romantic couples dealing with serial killers is more likely to start off with a decent fanbase. 

They are better able to pivot into new genres with a good part of their fanbase intact. Sure, they'll have to put some effort into growing their fanbase, but they start with one rather than having to start from scratch. 

But you can't do this if you fly into that pigeonhole and roost there. You have to allow yourself some room for growth. You need room to evolve; writing a few books in a particular genre may help you, especially if the genre is a great fit, but you also need to keep trying new things. So don't be afraid to base yourself out of a particular pigeonhole, but don't feel that you need to stay there; explore other genres. 

Just don't get so comfortable in a particular genre, in a particular style, that you're scared to try new things. Even if you fail, at least you tried; that alone is worth the effort. You need to always be exploring new territory; pigeonholing yourself is never a good thing, especially if you use it as an excuse to indulge your fears.