Staying In Your Lane

There are authors I like so much that I automatically pre-order ANYTHING they publish.

Since I’ve got a serious thriller addiction, my iPad is full of John Grisham, Lee Child, Sue Grafton, John Sandford, Michael Connelly, Karin Slaughter, Jack Higgins and Tami Hoag to name a few.

But here’s the thing. I like these authors because they reliably give me a great story with interesting, relatably flawed characters. Every. Single. Time.

They stay in their lane.

So when one of them decided to write non-fiction, I was disappointed with the book. Not that it was actually bad, but that it didn’t stand up to the biographies I usually read. They weren’t of the high caliber I was expecting.

Did it make me not order his next thriller? Of course not—but I no longer pre-order without checking the description first.

What does this mean for your authority?

It means that once you define your lane—and it’s clearly working—you want to keep reliably delivering on your promise.

It doesn’t mean you can’t keep stretching that lane wider (with careful thought and strategy)—just don’t expect everyone to come with you.