Professional Email Address

Little Ming · Sep 9, 2011

Not sure where to put this, if the gods of AW deem it should be moved, then so be it.

Anyway, I've finally decided to get serious about my writing "career," so I probably want a professional email address to conduct my "business" from.

So a few quick questions:

1. So hotmail is out. :tongue

I've gotten way too much random spam from hotmail accounts, some from friends who are deceased. (Try getting an email from a dead guy.

) My current personal email address is @yahoo.com and I haven't had too many problems with it. Should I look into @gmail.com too? Any preferences? What are the difference? And does my email domain say anything about me as a writer? (Or am I being over sensitive?)

2. I plan to use a pen name for all my writings, so I can keep my "lives" separate. Can my email address be my pen name? [email protected]. If I (ever) get accepted I can tell them my real name later, right?

3. If my name is too common (probably is), how can I change it up and still make it look professional? Add numbers ([email protected])? A description ([email protected])? Other ideas?

4. Currently subbing shorts. Later subbing for novel. Same email address, okay... right?

Can't believe just setting up an email address is such a pain. I use to go through these things like candy, now I'm agonizing over if I should use an underscore or a dot between my first and last name. :tongue

areteus · Sep 9, 2011

You can have as many e-mail addresses in as many names as you want. They don't check if you are actually called whatever it is you claim to be called. Only issue is if your pen name is 'Bob Smith' because you may have to be called '[email protected]' as there are bound to be so many of them

I have had few problems with either gmail or yahoo (I use both). As for subbing shorts and novels, I would use the same address. It is you as a writer they are interested in not you the shorts writer and you the novel writer... you are the same person.

ether · Sep 9, 2011

All free email clients have issues. I've had the least amount of issues with Gmail, but I'm sure it's different for everyone. (Heck, I have a paid email client through my webspace, and even that gives me issues sometimes.)

If your name is common, I'm not sure I would use numbers unless you really can't think of another way to do it.

For my gmail address, kelleyyork and kelley-york were both taken, so I did kelleyork (see what I did there?

) instead. But it did end up causing problems when someone was trying to send me edits and didn't realize I'd tried being cute by cutting out one of the Y's. So...somewhere, kelleyyork has a copy of my MS. Whoops.

Jessianodel · Sep 9, 2011

I use yahoo and use my pen name, which is actually just my three initials but it's what I'm going to be writing under. I don't have too much problem with spam in yahoo - They're pretty good at keeping it under control.

Mutive · Sep 9, 2011

I've had good luck with zoho. It's also small enough that you can still get reasonably nice names...

FrederickCross · Sep 9, 2011

If you have your own domain name (.com), it's usually a breeze to create an email in the interface of your hosting provider.

But if you absolutely want a free service, I'd go with Gmail. Number are not really an issue if it's not something "weird" like 69, 1337 or whatever pop / sexual reference you can think of. When in doubt, you could use your birth year as opposed to you age (your birth year rarely changes ;p).

Psychomacologist · Sep 9, 2011

You could always try "Mr/Mrs/Ms" before your name with a combination of dots/underscores if you don't want to use numbers. I use a free email service called GMX (www.gmx.com) and I've been very happy with it.

My gut feeling would be to conduct your business under your real name, and that's what I do/intend to do in the future. I have an email under my real name that I use for anything professional like job applications etc. Since I consider writing a professional endeavour, I intend to use the same email and conduct my business under my real name. Even if I request to be published under a pen name I'd still do the same, I think.

Why don't you post this question in the "Ask the Agent/Editors" section and see what some pros think? They might give you different answers.

rainsmom · Sep 9, 2011

I wouldn't use your pen name for the e-mail address you use to connect with your agent. You need to conduct all business with your real name. Your manuscript with have "Real Name writing as Pen Name" under the title plus your real name, address, and contact info. When you e-mail your agent, you want the name on the account to match the name you're signing with, or it will get confusing.

Margarita Skies · Sep 9, 2011

FrederickCross said:
If you have your own domain name (.com), it's usually a breeze to create an email in the interface of your hosting provider.

But if you absolutely want a free service, I'd go with Gmail. Number are not really an issue if it's not something "weird" like 69, 1337 or whatever pop / sexual reference you can think of. When in doubt, you could use your birth year as opposed to you age (your birth year rarely changes ;p).

I didn't know the number 1337 had a double meaning. What does it mean? Do you think you can tell me?

backslashbaby · Sep 9, 2011

I do have a gmail account with my pen name. I sign my emails with my pen name, etc. I include my real name where I list my contact info in correspondence, always.

When I enter contests and things, that's under a different email addy completely. It's usually a different pen name, too

Sventh · Sep 9, 2011

I have a gmail account and it works fine for me no problems with spam either. I use my real name for it. so its golden.

Jamesaritchie · Sep 9, 2011

For business, your real name should be on your e-mail account. Don't try to fancy it up. It should be the same as the name you will sign on a contract, or that will be printed on a check sent to you by agent or publisher. The last thing you want is to confuse anyone who makes out contracts and writes checks with your name on them.

Save the pen name for e-mailing fans.

I do think Gmail is far and away the best of the free accounts, and I'd avoid Hotmail at all costs, with Yahoo a close second.

Odds are you already have good e-mail capability through whoever provides you with Internet, and this is often the best e-mail to use for business. The one big advantage Gmail has is that it will still be there should you change Internet providers. But all Internet providers I know allow you to switch your e-mail over, so this really isn't a problem.

Susan Coffin · Sep 9, 2011

fullname@good email carrier, which is not hotmail or yahoo.

Stacia Kane · Sep 9, 2011

*shrug* I queried from my pen-name gmail account and no one ever mentioned it.

Marzipan · Sep 9, 2011

I second Gmail. It filters spam fairly well.

LJD · Sep 9, 2011

Little Ming said:
3. If my name is too common (probably is), how can I change it up and still make it look professional? Add numbers ([email protected])? A description ([email protected])? Other ideas?

If your name is anywhere near is common as mine is, you might have problems. When I signed up for gmail more than four years ago, the only sensible combination I could find was Lastname.FirstnameInitial

And that was four years ago.

I also snatched up FirstInitialMiddleNameLastName just in case I wanted it.

Don't have any good suggestions though. Personally, I don't like numbers.

Jessianodel · Sep 9, 2011

Margarita Skies said:
I didn't know the number 1337 had a double meaning. What does it mean? Do you think you can tell me?

It spells "Leet" backwards and upside down in numbers. Gamer geeks use it as an abbreviation for elite, which bascially means you're really good at whatever game you're playing.

Susan Coffin · Sep 9, 2011

Stacia Kane said:
*shrug* I queried from my pen-name gmail account and no one ever mentioned it.

Sounds good to me.

I've always had my first and last name on my email. Don't know why.

Polenth · Sep 10, 2011

I don't think an agent or editor is going to critique whether you used the exact combination of your name they'd use if they were creating an email address. You're going for sensible and namey, rather than fluffysnugglehippos, so it sounds fine.

Mr Flibble · Sep 10, 2011

Stacia Kane said:
*shrug* I queried from my pen-name gmail account and no one ever mentioned it.

I've queried from a hotmail account with the name of a Monty Python character...in fact I still use that address when communicating with my editor at Carina, lol, because that's the one on her list from when I first subbed to Samhain, so she knows it's me.

Although I do have a pro address now (actually two one for this name another for the pen name) - linked to the website so it's 'name'@'name of website'.co.uk. I also have gmail in each of the names - I use those for signing up to yahoo groups etc. I have outlook set up to pick up all of them and feed into the one inbox.

areteus · Sep 10, 2011

To be honest, in terms of the e-mail address, it is not what the address is that causes confusion but what name the address is linked to in thier contacts list (and what you send with it).

For example, my main one is a yahoo account with the name balor_99 but when I send e-mails, because my yahoo account is registered under the name David Lascelles, what they recieve is 'David Lascelles <balor_99@...> which means they see my real name before they see the e-mail address.

So you could have anything you want as an address (but yes, for a professional one I would avoid anything controversial

) so long as the address is linked to a name which travels with it.

Carrie in PA · Sep 10, 2011

Just throwing in here that I ♥ Gmail.

1337? Huh. I would never have known that had any sort of "meaning" to it...

scarletpeaches · Sep 10, 2011

Jamesaritchie said:
For business, your real name should be on your e-mail account. Don't try to fancy it up. It should be the same as the name you will sign on a contract, or that will be printed on a check sent to you by agent or publisher. The last thing you want is to confuse anyone who makes out contracts and writes checks with your name on them.

Save the pen name for e-mailing fans.

Oops.

Can't imagine how I've managed to sell seven books using my pen name, then.

BenPanced · Sep 10, 2011

Yeah, and I got my first contract using an email with the same handle as my AW screen name.

scarletpeaches · Sep 10, 2011

BenPanced said:
Yeah, and I got my first contract using an email with the same handle as my AW screen name.

Yeah, but there was no need to add "PS: I like chocklit meelk," Beep.

Professional Email Address

Little Ming

areteus

ether

Jessianodel

Blessed by the AW Gods

Mutive

Blissfully Clueless

FrederickCross

Psychomacologist

The Sarcasm Fairy

rainsmom

Feeling like an old timer

Margarita Skies

backslashbaby

*

Sventh

Jamesaritchie

Susan Coffin

Tell it like it Is

Stacia Kane

Girl Detective

Marzipan

LJD

Jessianodel

Blessed by the AW Gods

Susan Coffin

Tell it like it Is

Polenth

Mushroom

Mr Flibble

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble

areteus

Carrie in PA

Write All The Words!

scarletpeaches

BenPanced

THE BLUEBERRY QUEEN OF HADES (he/him)

scarletpeaches

Professional Email Address

Blessed by the AW Gods

Blissfully Clueless

The Sarcasm Fairy

Feeling like an old timer

~~~~*~~~~

Tell it like it Is

Girl Detective

Blessed by the AW Gods

Tell it like it Is

Mushroom

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble

Write All The Words!

THE BLUEBERRY QUEEN OF HADES (he/him)

*