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@mckinley Speaking as someone who has never been published or close to published and is not an expert on this in any way, I have an opinion.

I don’t think it would necessarily hurt you to work across multiple genres, but I think it will be harder to build your reputation as an author, as others are saying. It’s like multi-classing in a roleplaying game. Sure, you could be a level 1 Rouge and level 1 Barbarian and level 1 Wizard and you would get a benefit from that, but you also could have been a level 3 Wizard and fighting bigger monsters by now. If I read a fantasy book and wanted to look at your other books, I would look at your list and go “Oh… she wrote romance and mystery. I am not interested in those. I won’t read it.” It will be harder to get your readers to read your other books, which is a big part of how you succeed as an author.

Hypothetically, you might find it easier to get your dystopian novel published than a nautical book published, but I wouldn’t count that into your thinking. It’s not like nautical fiction is THAT rare. (At least in the fantasy genre, which is what I read, and there was that movie about being lost at sea recently.) Things may change by the time you finish and edit your book to perfection.

Futuristic nautical fiction? So like, sci-fi sailing? That sounds like an untapped story well, actually.