In terms of novel writing, I tend to avoid my own genre, at least for the most part. Some of the reasons why:
Genre Blindness / Genre Trap: Too much reading of your own genre blinds you to the tropes and clichés used by the genre which then pervade your own work.
Writing Style Influences Here your own writing style and language use subconsciously begins to take on elements often found in the genre making your work less unique.
Losing your Ideas Perhaps paranoia, but seeing ideas you have or even half-formed ideas fully can kill them. A new idea is delicate thing and needs to be incubated from such things. Avoiding your own genre avoids this danger.
However, not reading your own genre is also making a sacrifice in terms of exposure to what works and what doesn't. Particularly with historical fiction this also means missing out on the tacit research performed by others.
What do others think? Am I doing the right thing here?
Answer
Is what you're doing working for you? Like, are you achieving your goals following this method? If so, then I'd keep doing it. If not, I'd switch.
I know that's a bit vague, but I think it might be pretty accurate. I agree that there's a risk of becoming derivative if you read in your own genre, but I also agree that you're missing out, not only on research and seeing 'what works', but also on understanding the market and what different publishers are looking for.
So it's kind of hard to know what to recommend without knowing what areas of your writing you think you need to be working on. If you're having a tough time understanding your genre, I'd say you need to read more from the field. If you're having a tough time being original, maybe you should avoid it.
Personal experience: I write romance, but I don't read it. It DOES make it a bit harder to decide where to submit my stories (I guess this wouldn't be a problem if you work with an agent), but I think it keeps me fresh.
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