There was a very nice post from a happy fan on the Darren Shan Discussions fan page on Facebook, after he'd read Lady Of The Shades, the last book for adults that I published under the name of Darren Shan, before switching to Darren Dash for my more maturely-themed stories: https://www.facebook.com/groups/839821919370288/

I've always loved the diversity of my work. Ever since I started out, my agent and publishers have tried to get me to pigeon-hole myself, to just write straightforward thrillers for adults, or just write horror books for children -- or maybe, at a stretch, do both of those things, but no more than that. And they're absolutely right to try and drive me down those paths -- it's very hard to get your book into shops, and to become a commonly known name, and to convince people to return and take a chance on your future books. Lots of readers like to know exactly where they stand with an author, and pretty much all booksellers like to be able to easily present a new work from an established author as more of the same thing. That's the way the market works, and if you want to be a bestselling author, who need to bend around the market, as the market will almost certainly never bend around YOU.

The thing is, I never worried about being a bestselling author. Don't get me wrong -- I longed for success, and I've enjoyed it immensely with those books of mine that have scored big, primarily Cirque Du Freak and its sequels. But I was never prepared to chase it at any cost. I recall a rejection letter from a very nice editor when I was still at university and sending out some early work. She said that she enjoyed the book, but it was too weird and unmarketable, and if I just toned down the weird stuff and wrote a straight-up genre book, I would get published. But even at that early stage of the game I wasn't willing to bend. I didn't want to be told what I should and shouldn't write. I just wanted to go where my imagination took me, and damn the rest.

By my mid-twenties, I was hopeful of being able to make a very meager living as a writer, of making just enough to scrape by, and I was happy with that prospect. Money's nice, but it's never been a motivating factor for me -- I was never inclined to go get a "proper" job with a guaranteed big wage. I wanted to tell my tales, hopefully find a small audience for them, and just bob along quietly through life.

Cirque Du Freak changed all that, and the Darren Shan brand became a juggernaut for a while. I was more than happy to ride with that particular wave, and sell millions of copies of my books, and travel the world. It changed my life and I loved every single minute of it. But even when I was at my most commercially successful best, I still wasn't writing FOR the market, which I think is pretty clear if you look at all the different places that the storyline went to, and then that The Demonata books went to. All the experimenting and different styles, even different genres -- although I got pegged as a horror writer with Cirque, I didn't write a TRUE horror book for kids until Lord Loss! And then I threw in fantasy and sci-fi and James Bond and all sorts of other stuff.

I'm in a bit of a commercial lull at the moment. I've been self-publishing my adult books for a while now, and have had to do that as well with my latest books for kids and teens, the Archibald Lox series. I won't lie -- I'd prefer it if all those books were put out by traditional publishers, who could reach a much bigger audience than I can by myself, and which would leave me free to focus solely on the writing, which is what I enjoy most, and what I'm best at. But if the cost of that is not being able to release a thriller like Lady Of the Shades... then a weird sci-sci novel like An Other Place... then a Shakespearean-themed comedy like Midsummer's Bottom... then en epic, slow-building fantasy saga like Archibald Lox...

Well, as my actions have shown, I'll take the off-road lanes of variety and diversity over the more run-of-the-mill safe and predictable lanes that run through the commercial middle of the book market. Because life is short, and money doesn't mean a thing at the end of your days, and I want be able to look back when I'm on my death bed and smile and whisper, "What a weird and winding road I took. Wasn't that a blast!"