Book promotion under a pseudonym

Question · Jan 17, 2012

There are some things I'd like to write but I doubt my family and friends would see me the same way if they read any of it. It's not erotica exactly, but I'm thinking of including sex and masturbation in my novels (in enough detail that I'd rather not face my friends/family after they read it). There are also some other aspects that I'd rather my family and friends didn't read about, seeing as my family is fairly religious.

I know authors need to promote their books, so how do I do this under a pseudonym? I've thought about just doing all my promotion in places that my family won't go to, but the issue is the internet; even if I pretend to be someone else, people are bound to recognise my picture, especially if I ever gain some measure of success. All it would take is one person to go running to my family for them to discover I've written these books, and when they read them... *blush* :S

So... um... yeah? Haha

veinglory · Jan 17, 2012

To promote under a pen name that pen name has to exist in some sense. It has to have an email and be able to act, at least online, as a persona.

That is a fair amount of work so it is worth considering whether you really need to use more than one name, or whether promotion for this book is going to have to be limited.

Captcha · Jan 17, 2012

You don't necessarily need to have an author photo. I write under a pseudonym, and don't have a photo available anywhere. I use my book covers as avatars, and they're the focus on my website, too.

Obviously in-person promotion doesn't work too well, but for online stuff? No problem.

Question · Jan 17, 2012

Phew! Thanks

Isn't it harder to get people to know about your books, though?

veinglory · Jan 17, 2012

I don't think using a pen name is an issue. The only issue is running more than one name concurrently--which is also do-able, but double work.

Captcha · Jan 17, 2012

I don't know... I mean, there certainly are a lot of authors who find that face-to-face meetings sell enough books to be worthwhile, but there are also authors without secret identities who don't bother with in-person promotions.

I have more than enough to keep me busy just doing on-line stuff. There's no way I have time for anything in person, even if I DIDN'T want to maintain my pseudoanonymity.

merrihiatt · Jan 17, 2012

I use a pseudonym for erotica and have a separate author page at Amazon's Author Central, Facebook page and website. I have shared the pseudonym with only one or two people who I've known practically forever. No one else knows what the name is and I'm not telling. =) Totally doable.

Book promotion under a pseudonym

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veinglory

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Soon I will be invincible

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merrihiatt

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