So, I have two novels, completely outside what I normally write, sitting on my hard drive. One was written purely as a learning experience, and the other as an internet argument’s thread drift transmuted into story. Despite not being in my normal genre (and one specifically trying to figure out how to write spicy romance, under the “the only way to get better is to embrace being terrible, and practice”), alpha readers have… not hated them? even liked them? Beta reader feedback has been sparse, but that’s what happens when you hand it to people with no clear “I need this back within (timeline).”
After a few months, I finally admitted that they’re not going to get much better, and I’m going to keep trying to tinker with them unless I do with them what I’ve done with every other completed story that’s actually good enough to show readers… kick them out the door and move on. Clearly, time for a pen name.
So, shortly before Libertycon, I got with Cedar Sanderson and CV Walter, as both have published under pen names before, and we started kicking things around. Another round of sickness delayed things, but not unreasonably, and now I’m finally at the point where I’m writing the first blurb.
One of the decisions I had to make is open pen name vs. closed pen name. When it comes to True Colours (the learning exercise), Day Job is remarkable unlikely to care if I write anything spicy, unlike, say, if I were an elementary school teacher. So, I don’t have a hard pressure to keep them separate, and an open pen name will let any of my readers who don’t mind less tactical (there’s only one firefight) and more spice know it’s out there, while drawing a clear line for the readers who don’t want that to be warned off. Same with Thread Drift, which isn’t spicy, but it is reverse-harem, played straight with economics. (Also, only one firefight, and the space marines get most of the fun instead of the protagonists.)
The next decision was actually “How serious do I want to be about this pen name?” This was something I had to decide before I could even come up with a pen name.
You see, I know I’m a hobbyist. I also like to do everything on a professional level. (The very first thing I published, I did so as a test bed for some of the marketing things we were looking at implementing in Peter’s books.) But I’m also dealing with a severe lack of time compared to when I started (I am now salary), and some health issues.
If I’m to do this on a fully professional level, then I should be researching for a pen name that hits the sweet spot of genre-savvy: one name common, the other unique, easily searchable, and memorable. I should be planning for a hard launch, with plenty of promotion, ad campaigns, building up buzz on social media, for weeks before a carefully scheduled launch on an algorithmically-optimized day of the week and the month. I should…
I should remember not to take myself so seriously, and that a soft launch isn’t the end of the world. It’s not even the end of my world! If these things never sell more than 5 copies total, I can just take a deep breath, laugh, and move on with life.
Buoyed by that realization, I started making horrible puns about some names being fishy, just to make my friends laugh. And one of them wasn’t bad at all… the next time we were in a bookstore, Cedar pulled out a romance book from an author who’s topping the charts and gave me a Significant Look with throat clearing. The author is following all the hottest tropes and trends right off the cliff: common female first name, last name of Lemming. I laughed; message received and understood. Even if I go with a terrible pun for a pen name, it’s already old hat in this genre.
So with that settled, we started looking at a multiple-month timeline and all the work and hours needed to do a hard launch… and I stopped, and went “You know what? I’m going with a pun for a pen name, as a reminder not to take myself so seriously! This is way too seriously!”
I may still do some advertisement and the things one should for visibility for a new pen name, but I’m not going to wear myself to a frazzle over it. The pages-long checklist is rapidly being lined out and tossed with the reminder that this is supposed to be fun, and we can play with things as do them just out curiousity because no one’s livelihood is at stake… my ego isn’t even at stake.
It may still take a couple months, because I’m lining up two covers, possibly some interior illustrations, likely also contracting the layout so it’s off my husband’s plate… but the slowest part, the decision to publish, is done, and so is the hardest part: remembering to have fun.
When I set both of them up and pull the trigger for the staggered publication dates, I’m going to remember to celebrate kicking them out the door this time, instead of being nervous about whether or not people will like them, and remember that it’s no reflection at all on whether or not they like me.
It’ll be an adventure!
Mad Genius Club 
18 responses to “The Initial Launch Inertia”
Chuckling at Ms Lemming! For those of us with writing as a side-hustle, there’s only so much seriousness/effort we can put into a launch.
Ms. Lemming? I’m always slow to the party so I guess the joke is being one of the herd?
A continuation of “following the tropes/herd off a cliff” joke.
thank you!
Yep, that the author is doing All The Hottest Things the group currently loves, full speed ahead. She’s also doing a really good job at it!
Thank you!
Please do share the details as they are released? I’ve enjoyed everything else you’ve released. I would prefer not to miss another opportunity.
Many thanks,
Robin Vinik-Jones
I will absolutely share details!
After all, what is this place if not a collective journey into “I tried this, so you can learn from it. Even if the lesson is ‘Don’t Do That!’…”?
Hopefully, either the publishing journey, or the stories, will amuse you as well!
Yay for publishing! Yay for taking economics but not one’s self seriously!
OK, so what is your Pun Name? 😁
There are actually three, because I’m leaving that for right before publication, so should someone else happen to take it, like a cat, I can claim I meant to choose the next one down the list all along…
Seconding blissful’s comment – please share details when you release!
About open v closed pen names – from a reader’s perspective, please make it open! I appreciate the heads up that the genre is different, but if I like an author, I’ll try their books regardless of genre. I really like your writing! I will buy your new releases. Please don’t hide from those of us who want to give you our money.
Will do, and your reaction there is exactly why I went with open. Thanks for verifying that I wasn’t headed down the wrong track!
I’ll add a ditto to Angeline’s statement, and add that I haven’t been disappointed by anything I’ve read from the Mad Genius Club. [Chuckles at “only one firefight”.]
I recommend — assuming you haven’t already done so — checking both Amazon and Google to see if anyone else is using your pen names. No matter how much SEO you do, if you choose “Elizabeth Taylor” (a real English author) you will NEVER compete with her or the movie star in showing up at the top of a search page.
No porn stars, no serial killers, no politicians, no atheletes; you want unique. You also don’t want to share a name with ANYONE else on Amazon.
Based on watching an author I know, don’t go with weird spellings of common names, either. Misspelling “Kate Taylor” to be unique just means you’re unfindable.
I ended up with “Odessa Moon” as genre appropriate, easy to spell, easy to pronounce, fits on a book cover nicely, unique, and then a singer from Texas began using my name!
I’m open about my pen name, but mainly because I use Odessa for fiction and my given name for nonfiction. If I wrote reverse harem werewolf bondage porn, I’d rethink that stance.
Do your best!
That’s part of the reason I’m not all “Hey, this is my pen name” right now… if someone else comes out with the same one before I get things out, then I’d have to retrench and rebrand. Things move fast in the romance genre, so I’m waiting to push until right before it’s comes out.
Yep. You want to have time to change things if necessary.
Just remember, no pun name you come up with will be able to compete with real life, when it decides to.
The PLAN pilot who smacked into an Orion while horsing around was Lt Cdr Wang Wei. They could read his email address off the canopy. It’s going to be hard to top that.