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One of the first marketing decisions you will make is naming yourself.
Your parents hopefully chose you a good name, one that fit both the baby in their arms when they picked it and the person you grew up to be. But that name might not work for writing for a number of reasons – it is not unique, it is too unique, it is difficult to spell or doesn’t follow normal spelling rules for names, or just doesn’t match the genre (for example, if Rainbow Rowell wrote Horror instead of Young Adult).
In the “not unique” category. I have a funny story. Elisa Hansen ended up releasing The Company of Death post-apolocylitic fantasy within half a year of Elisa Hansen releasing The Days of Reign post-apolocylptic fantasy; the books ended up being linked to one person on both Amazon and Goodreads although they were two different authors. My Elisa (and if you have been following my blog, you know which one is mine) had to fight a quick side battle shortly after the release of her new book to get everything straightened up. Both books and authors, no doubt, were in the pipeline a year or two before publication with the names decided long before then.
Another reason for choosing a different name includes writing in a genre not appreciated by employers in your day-job field. An author I edited years ago had this issue, writing erotica while working at a Presbyterian university. (They have since stopped working at the university and writing erotica.) So for various reasons, it might be time to come up with your writer’s name. Your pen name.
Where to go for inspiration? Many people tap into their middle names and the names of their ancestors, especially their mom’s maiden name. Others are already famous with an online moniker for their blog, vlog, or fanfic writing and want to bring those audiences across to their new writing career. Still others use nicknames or favorite roleplaying characters. Having a name you will respond to at a convention when someone shouts it across the hall is great.
I should mention most women choose to use pen names. The primary reason is safety – people can’t causally google you back to your house. Some jerks might, but the average lazy asshole won’t. Nearly equal in priority is job security – many women work jobs where they will be fired for doing something outside of the normal. Similarly many men will write under pen names if they work in a field with tenure until they pass the years-in-service mark. Another reason, I think, why women are more likely to make the change is women were brought up to expect to change their names and men were not, so females don’t have a built-in aversion to the option. The end effect was when I asked a table of 20 authors with about equal numbers of men and women, all but one woman had a pen name and all but one man used his real name. This group was a mix of traditionally published, small press, and indie (self-published) authors.
Once you have decided to go with your birth name, or a variation of names you already use, or an entirely new name, you should test it out. At the end of the day, this will be your Brand. Market testing is a must.
First investigate to make sure it is unique enough. Run it through Amazon. Go to the book or kindle section and search on the name and see what comes back. Go to Goodreads or other review sites you interact with and see what happens which using the name in author searches. Next Google it, both by its self and with the word “author” attached – like “Erin Penn Author” – and see what comes back.
All good? No major hits? Great!
Now test market it. Bounce the name off of friends and family who you trust with the writer-self. What works and what doesn’t.
Finally, search on it as a dot-com (example: erinpenn.com). Does it come back already owned?
All that worked out well? Sit on it a bit. Have your friends call you by that name for a little while. Mix and match it with various stories you have written as the by-line. Print it off and put it on the wall for at least month, the one in the bathroom which you stare at while on the toilet. Do you still like it?
If so, put a ring on it. Buy the URL for the website so no one else can take it, set up a Facebook page, get a Goodreads account, and look at the other social media you might want to participate in.
Then start marketing yourself with the newly named (or reaffirmed) you.
WRITING EXERCISE: Play at choosing possible names to publish under. Choose two authors you like and go through the above process. How many places and ways were you able to find them? Did you find an Amazon author page, Goodreads page, Facebook page, Twitter account, Instagram, Linked-In, webpage, Patreon, etc? What is missing, and why do you think it is missing? (Remember each social media option is one more time suck the author is not writing.) Run through the same process with your given name and a pen name you’ve been toying with.