I have a confession to make. After years of telling other authors not to use a pen name, I recently decided to ignore my own advice and began publishing under a pseudonym.
You might say that this article is me officially coming out of the closet.
You may have noticed some references in my newsletter to books by Lee K. Rogers. Yep. That’s me. So after six months of working with a split personality, let me tell you the good and the bad so you can use my experience to help you decide if a pen name I right for you.
I chose a pen name because I wanted to branch out and write some spicy romantic fantasy. I’ve wanted to write romance for a couple of decades but put it off. It was the spicy part that was the problem. I just got embarrassed thinking about people I know reading intimate scenes I had written. But the stories were in my imagination, and I finally decided that using a pen name was the best way to solve my embarrassment issue.
Another good reason was branding. I’d just finished my memoir, Hibiscus Strong, and I didn’t feel this family friendly Southern biography played well with dark urban paranormal romance. After six months of using a pen name here are some of the good and bad things that have happened on the way.
Writing anonymously freed me to let my imagination soar. I was able to be more creative at first because I never had to tell anyone I was the author. But you can’t write in a vacuum. I still needed editing, marketing, cover design, etc., to get my book out. I turned to the people I already knew to do this, and so my secret slowly started to get out. I needed some beta readers next, so who did I turn to? Again, I chose people I already knew who liked fantasy. Maybe they weren’t readers of paranormal romance, but they enjoyed the fantasy genre, so they were the next to be let in on my secret.
Then came branding. I’ve worked for many years to develop a following, including an email newsletter list of about 1,000. As Lee K. Rogers I couldn’t access that with being accused of spamming. What’ the point of developing a fan base if you can’t use it? Next, I realized I needed a new website, a new email address, and new social media pages. Again, starting from scratch. And not only that, it doubled the amount of time I needed to spend on my social media.
Now, six months later, I’m about to release book two, The Artificial Witch. I’m quite proud of it. Even the racy parts. So it’s time to let the anonymity of the pen name go. It’s served its purpose.
But there is still the issue of branding. Many writers use different names to write in different genres. And I still believe this is the right decision for me.