Pen name troubles - I'm an artist (drawing), author, AND I write in different genres...

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Fantasy_trader

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Hi everyone,
I've got a bit of a problem and I need to solve it as quickly as possible. The situation is this:

- I've just had my drawings put onto products (iPad cases, iPhone cases, mugs, bags, T-shirts) for charity and I've just got some prints framed up which I plan on selling myself online and offline to make some money for myself.

- I've written a 30k word science fiction book for 10-12 year olds, a 50k travel memoir about a 550 mile hike I took, I'm 45k into a YA fantasy novel and I'm getting started on a new science fiction book for a 'grown up' audience.

- My name is Matthew Jones, which is way to common, unmemorable, is 'taken' by other famous Matthew Joneses and would be very difficult to rank in Google for.

So, what on earth do I do?

In an ideal world I'd prefer to use my real name, have one Website that sold all my books and drawings/drawing related products.

A level down from this ideal world I would have one Website with a pen name/pseudonym for the art and another Website under a different pen name for my books. But so far I've written in SF, fantasy, travel memoir and for different age groups. I expect to continue in these genres though it's possible I will expand into academic writing providing I stay intrigued by Philosophy once I've finished my undergraduate degree on it.

This has become important now because my art has just been put onto charity products here (http://www.cafepress.co.uk/TheLadybugProject - if you'd like to see it) and so I need to get a Website put together as soon as possible because they are giving me credit for the designs. In other words I'm launching as an artist and I don't have a Website ready and I don't know how to proceed because of also being an aspiring author who may need multiple pen names anyway!

What would you do in my situation?

P.S. Making Websites isn't a problem, I know how to make them and can do it quite quickly.

Thank you for reading.
 

frimble3

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As ianh says, middle name would be the way to go. Better yet, middle names. Make the one website you want, for everything, then break it down: Matthew A (for artist) Jones gets a page or more, as needed, Matthew W (for writer) gets a page, or more as needed. It's all under the same umbrella, so maybe the artist can lead people to a book, or someone looking for a book might like to see the art.
 

Fantasy_trader

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Unfortunately my middle name is Alexander which is still very common!
 

Ae1

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Well do you have publishing contracts for all your books?

Do one thing at a time. Right now, it sounds like you're biggest priority is finding a name for your art. You don't like you're own name. I get it, I have a horrible name, and certainly won't be publishing anything under it. But do you really need help thinking up a name? What do you like? Look for some baby name site; there's only about ten thousand of them online. Pick something you like the sound of, because you'll be stuck with it.
When you get an agent and a contract for one of your books, then come up with another name then. When you get a contract for your next book, if its in a different genre, then think up another name. But you know, just because you write in different genres doesn't mean you have to have a different name for each one. It's pretty important if you write, say, erotica and picture books. But it's not essential for most other genres.
 

latourdumoine

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How about picking a name related to someone that got you into art, writing, each respective genre? This way you'd be honoring them as well. And it would also mean something to you.

I can also relate to that in that knowing the name really does help you, even if you're only in the beginning stages of a project. At least that's what I found when I needed to pick names for various projects. I have three first names and different people know me under different names, and it always affected me.

When you said that your middle name was Alexander, it made me think of a girl whose name was Jennifer in high school. She went by Niffer because she hated her name, and we all thought that was way cool.

If all else fails, you could maybe play around with initials, maybe even use the initial of your last name and then make your middle name or first name the last name. Hope it works.
 

Carradee

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I got my penname ("Misti Wolanski") by taking a family surname and attaching a name I was already using online as the given name. …I was actually using that given name originally because she was a sort-of original character in a fanfic that I never meant to post online, then did, and it kinda stuck.

Several folks have commented that it doesn't sound like a pen name, and I'm comfortable with it. And I even know how it's generally mispronounced. ^_^
 
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