FINDING YOUR “NICHE”

Also known as my identity crisis as an author

It’s August of 2025, and I just finished and turned in my third novel to my literary agent. It’s completely different from what I’ve turned in before.

Previously, I’ve written a romance/women’s fiction split—heavy on the emotions, a little gritty, with some heartwarming, human goodness shining underneath. And always, always, a lot of smooching. I love that space. In fact, my second novel is still, to date, my favorite book I’ve ever written.

Then, I set out to write my third book, and I will be so honest. I floundered. I have so many ideas that fit into that same emotional women’s fic/romance space (one in which a dancer gets into a wreck, wakes up with amnesia and then can’t remember her dance partner who is also her husband), but every time I sat to write one it just didn’t come. I think seeing rejections on my previous books got into my head. A girl can only hear “it was lovely, emotional, heart-wrenching, atmospheric and haunting, but still not good enough, but thanks!” so many times. Even me, who is generally apathetic and spiteful (it’s the Aries in me) started to get….bothered.

So, I jokingly sent a pitch to my literary agent:

“What if I wrote a book like FLORIDA!!! by Taylor Swift meets PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE by Sabrina Carpenter in which a silly, unserious woman that everyone expects the least of….like Elle Woods in Legally Blonde robs a bank…but then, the bank teller is like…her ex-boyfriend who always follows the rules and gets drug along the journey as she escapes? But it’s like VERY unserious and chaotic and unhinged. Like she has a pet possum or a hairless cat or something she brings with her?”

I was waiting for the “um, no. try again.” Because, who is going to agree to that pitch? Also, I have a habit of sending her whackadoodle pitches just for fun sometimes. She always says no.

Only, this time…she said yes.

She said she loved it.

And encouraged me to write it, pet possum and all.

But what about the emotionally gripping, dark dance amnesia story I was working on? Maybe we switch to the grief camp but make it cowboy romance with a nurse raising her orphaned little sister?

Nope.
Pet possums and bank robbery shenanigans.

Even worse? Better? My friends loved the pitch, too. Everyone was hungry for something funny and out there and zany.

So, I decided to see what happened. I had time, after all. I’d just sent my second book out on submission in January. My first book was still fighting out there. Why not try my hand at a silly, little, unserious, rompy, romcom? Maybe it’s what my mental block needs.

Enter, STEAL IT WITH A KISS, also known as “the unhinged romance that has a pet possum.”

Dear reader, I wrote that book in like…three months. It was easy. It came to me willingly. Worse, it was fun, and I fell hard for unhinged shenanigans in the name of love.

I left nothing off. If I liked it, if it brought me joy, I did it. If I thought it was silly, or it made me giggle, or just seemed completely ridiculous, it made it into the book.

Pet possums? Check.

Alleged alien sightings? Got it.

Outlaw biker bars with funny nicknames? YEP.

You get the idea.

Then, at the end, I had a book. A book completely different from anything I’ve ever written. It’s not going to make you cry, but it will make you laugh and pick up a few new catchphrases.

I was nervous to send it out. What if this book just…doesn’t have a point? What if I’ve just turned into a vapid, no substance, can only be silly, romance author? Don’t I want to be serious, and emotional and gritty? That’s not this. Literally if “I’m just a girl!” had a book, it would be this one.

But this book also felt special. It felt me. It felt like something I enjoyed, just for fun. And isn’t writing just supposed to be fun? Isn’t that why we do all this to begin with—for the joy and love of writing?

To both my great pleasure and distress, everyone loved it. My beta readers say it’s my best yet—that my voice shines, and it’s “laugh out loud funny with my specific brand of sarcasm and comedy.” One said reading it felt like “you giving me a great hug the whole time.”

My agent said it was my official “niche.” Her exact words are

“My dear. You’ve found your calling. It’s not the deep WF with romance you’ve been writing. It’s this whackadoodle stuff. This is gold!”

It’s a little bittersweet. The perfectionist in me wants to be good at something. To have a brand or a vibe someone ties to me—when you pick up a Kelly Beck book, this is what you can expect.

Now, it seems I’ve found it, but there’s a part of me that’s a little sad it’s just something…silly.

What about all my social commentaries and societal expectations I smashed in my last two books? The heart and soul and pain and grit? The allegories and poetic prose? The author I said I wanted to be?

Am I really not good at those things and need to refocus on…unhinged shenanigans?

I mean, I love being good at something. I love getting praise for doing something well (hello, former gifted kid with an extreme fear of failure), but I wanted my niche/skill/gift/thing to be…deeper.

That’s when I had to do some self-reflection. Doesn’t something silly, but also heartwarming, and fun and clever deserve love and recognition, too? It’s not like I didn’t put substance into the plot.

Is STEAL IT WITH A KISS silly, and unhinged? Yes.

But there’s also depth to it. Maybe not as much as my last two books. You won’t be reaching for a tissue box mid-way through when a grandma dies, but it wrestles with the “dumb blonde” trope and turns it on its head. It calls out the way society dismisses the characters we deem “less than” (like Elle Woods and Dolly Parton). The main character, Stella, is a girl who grew up in a trailer park, left to her own devices, who no one expects anything better than a bunch of baby daddies and probably a prison stint…so she aims to prove them all wrong. She’s calculating, hiding under baby blue eyes and a really good set of boobs.

The characters aren’t flat (HA. Pun intended). They aren’t vapid (even if Stella pretends to be), and it hit me when I re-read this snippet doing copy edits this week:

“Folding my dress on the counter, I start the shower and pull my Dolly shirt over my head. Dolly always said love was like a butterfly, rare and gentle. She left off fragile and thin. Easy to break. I saw it with my momma over and over again—every man that would walk into our trailer, swoop her off her feet, and leave her broken hearted just like the last. Love never looked gentle to me. It looked destructive, until Max.

He was gentle.

I think the problem is I’m not. I’m loud and obnoxious and colorful.”

Right there, I saw reflections of my women’s fiction shining through the gaps of shenanigans and witty banter. There’s still depth to this book. There’s still the crumbs of the gritty, soul-filled women’s fiction I love.

Also, like a character, who’s to say as an author I can’t be silly and serious? Two sides of the same coin.

I can love STEAL IT WITH A KISS, and also love writing gritty women’s fiction at the same time. There’s space—and time—for both. I don’t have to be a one-trick pony, and so many authors are the same way.

Rebecca Yarros writes both contemporary and fantasy. Abby Jimenez has written some seriously funny romance books that straddle really deep, serious topics. Julie Soto recently branched out into new age groups and genres. Emily Henry wrote YA before she ever wrote women’s contemporary.

All this to say (getting to my point, I think): As an author, we grow and learn and explore. Just because we thought we were only good at one genre (women’s fiction) doesn’t mean we can’t write a funny romcom.

Just because everyone loves the romcom and says it’s my best yet doesn’t mean my women’s fiction doesn’t have merit. Honestly, the romcom should be my best book yet. It’s my third book. I would hope I’ve grown in my skill since book one and two.

And as a note to myself: it’s okay to enjoy writing silly, unserious romcoms. It doesn’t make me an unserious author. It doesn’t make me less-than someone who writes literary award-winning fiction. It makes me…funny. And who doesn’t love to be funny?

And to you, who maybe is an author struggling to find their “niche” or scared to branch out into the “silly space” the market enjoys for fear of not being taken seriously. Take a chance. Experiment. Explore.

Ultimately, write what makes you happy. Write the topics you enjoy, because that’s what makes it shine on a page—your passion and excitement for the story you’re creating.

Go write whatever makes your heart happy.

—K

PS: Here’s a sneak peek at the first page of the book that made my heart happy:

PITCH:
When a self-proclaimed trailer park beauty queen impulsively robs a bank to pay for her grandmother’s debts, she doesn’t expect the teller to be her straight-laced ex-boyfriend. Determined to stay incognito, she kidnaps him & forces him along her hare-brained escape. If they make it to the border, they may get away with more than just a literal felony—but another chance at a love story that should be (maybe, actually is) criminal.

STEAL IT WITH A KISS is an adult Bonnie & Clyde romcom combining the wit and zany characters found in THE PARADISE PROBLEM with the hijinks in THE BLONDE IDENTITY.