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Disclaimer: I’ve only published a handful of short things and haven’t really jumped into marketing, so this might not be the most helpful advice. 😛

I understand the reasoning behind the idea of writing only in one genre. It is, I’m sure, easier to market in only one genre and be able to form a coherent tone and style that your readers can associate with you. However… I don’t think that necessarily means that writing in multiple genres is a bad thing just because it’s difficult. I’ve always written in a bunch of different genres. I love trying different things, and there are very few genres I haven’t/won’t write in, and I’m perfectly comfortable publishing under one pen name in any genre. That said, I think that some limitations can be helpful. For instance, I primarily write in genres that fit under the umbrella of “speculative fiction,” which is anything that doesn’t take place in a completely fact-based world (i.e. pretty much anything but historical fiction and contemporary). I like making things up. I also have a limit to what sort of content I’ll include (clean romance unless the story demands it, and then only hints of anything more; extremely minimal language if any; etc.), and all of my writing is directed to a YA audience. In my inexperienced opinion, this is pretty sufficient, particularly if you write mainly in one or two genres (say, mystery and contemporary) and in others more rarely.

As far as genre-jumping… I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I can see how it would be helpful to mastering the craft to focus on or two genres and get really good at the skills that are emphasized in those genres. However, I think it’s also helpful to write in multiple genres and practice different writing muscles and different emphasized skills. (Emphasized skills like the worldbuilding in sci-fi or fantasy, or relationship dynamics in contemporary, or description in horror… things like that.) But how much you genre hop would probably depend on your priorities and on what works for you. If you can genre-hop and use that to develop mastery of the craft, and it also helps you to be more well-rounded in your skillset, go with that. If you’re able to master things more easily with a stronger focus on one genre and you want to just write short pieces in other genres to practice various skills, do that. But I think that’s something you’ll really only learn through experimentation.

Hopefully something in there was helpful and it all made sense. 😛 The older, more experienced authors on here probably have better advice.

@hope-ann @josiah @daeus-lamb @briannastorm