I’m working on a couple of writing projects right now that share little common ground with my debut book, Make a Move, and my initial instinct was to publish them under a pseudonym. However, as a self-published writer, I need all of the cross-selling opportunities I can get, and hiding those connections between books could well be shooting myself in the foot. While pen names are used for creative and personal reasons, I suspect that most are employed to satisfy a business need, specifically to allow marketing departments to keep their author brand clean, or to allow readers to understand the genre into which an author fits.
But which is it?
I ask because I’m not too bothered about my author brand. As a writer in control of my own output, I’ve no one telling me what to write, and I intend to exploit that opportunity to the point of abuse. I don’t, however, want to alienate readers by “conning” them into believing I’m only going to be one type of writer, when the next book could share no trace of DNA with the previous one. Yes, it’ll always be my voice, but is that enough?
Given the metadata surrounding eBooks – the myriad opportunities to communicate with a potential buyer before they commit to a purchase – do they provide digital-only writers with a blank canvas upon which to paint their career, or does too much freedom dilute the relationship between authors and readers, to the point that the readers lose trust and look elsewhere?
Tags: EBook, Indie, Make a Move, Pen Names, Pseudonyms, Readers, Self-publishing
I don’t particularly care for the use of pen names. If I like a book it’s probable that I would like other books (regardless of genre) by the same author. If genre is so important then make the distinction clear in the metadata. Usually the synopsis and the genre is enough for me to decide if I want to read a book.
So, if I debuted with an off-beat slacker-thriller spy book, then released a nasty, poisonous slasher horror, as long as it was clearly advertised you wouldn’t think that was too much of a stretch for general readers?
Yes. So long as it’s made clear then there’s nothing to compain about. Are you going to write a slasher horror book then?
Maybe. A friend asked for some ideas on a script he was working on – and I gave it some thought, but there was some confusion over the project, and what I came up with was completely incompatible with his plans. Thing is, it’s a great idea – original, as far as a slasher can be – so I’m tempted to write it for myself. I have one other project I’m researching (apart from Make a Move 2, of course) so I need to choose.