Support for Indie Authors discussion

I have a pen name. I write in many genres - ChickLit, Romance, Fantasy, Urban Y.A, etc, but I also write Erotica. My day job–I'm a teacher of children and youth and I live in a very small town. My family is focused on 'respectability' and 'social status' (they are highly religious and are always concerned about shame being brought on the family). No one knows I write naughty stories and that I am self-published, except my husband. Hence, the pen name.

It just so happens someone married into the family (I have a big family) who has my pen name! My books could easily be traced back to, um, my sister-in-law, because of name and place/country, etc. I have since taken all my books down from all sites (it guttered me). I have adopted a new name, yes, Racy Wilde, and from scratch have started up a new author life on social media. It's been a year.

Now, I have all these books doing nothing (when they could be earning me money). Sure, I could simply retitle and "re-author" the books, but what about the people who have already read/bought the books under the previous titles/author? In the new books I can't say "previously written and titled" because then it could easily get traced back to my sister-in-law.

What can I do with these books? Do I just retitle/re-author and pretend nothing has happened? Or is there something else I can do? I understand I can't re-market these books with book tours and blogs, etc, but I'd at least want them up on selling sites to gain some financial value from the years of work I have spent on them.

Any advice is much appreciated.
Thanks.

One problem that may come up with retitling and republishing under a different name is that Amazon may require you to show proof of copyright. They have automated plagiarism checkers that may pick up the previous version of the book.

It's not hard to deal with the copyright issue, but it can be time-consuming.

I'm honestly not sure what I would do in your situation, but I hope you figure it out. Good luck.

If you retitle your books, you don't necessarily have to say your old pen name, imo. But you do need to get a new ISBN and say something with the gist of "This is a re-release of [previous title, ISBN]. " Hopefully even keeping the same cover. That way, people won't re-buy the book thinking they are getting something different.

I am currently following the advice that one should market themselves as an author, not by their book titles, which makes sense. You've got a great pen name and writing style so if it were me, that's where I would start :). So weird about your old pen name and family member though!

Thanks Ken. Good point about the copyright issue. I never thought of that. Maybe Amazon will understand it is the same person because of my payment details? I'm presuming a lot of authors with pen names have their legal name in their payment details to avoid any problems.

Thanks Marie. Yes, the ISBN is a good way to get around it.

I've also heard about marketing the author generally in connection with a single genre. But to me it makes sense doing so particularly when an author writes more than two genres.

I'm just trying to learn as much as I can so I can avoid the common mistakes of indie authors ;)

Once again, thanks guys. You've made a positive impact on my decisions.

Cheers

Hello,

I saw your predicament and honestly I would keep your pen name. Unless you are dying to start over I wouldn't give that up for a new arrival to your family. It was your name first and you started building a career out of it! The same thing would apply if your father remarried or your brother has a baby tomorrow with the same name. I wouldn't change it for those reasons either.

Honestly, just as we writers have to conduct some due diligence before picking our pen name, a person should probably at least Google the name they are planning to adopt it (like this new relative). It was her choice to adopt a new name, she is stuck with everyone who already had or used the name before she came upon it. She is stuck with the fact that there is a mysterious author that had the name long before she did.

This relative should feel lucky that she has suddenly acquired such an esteemed name. : ) Just because her newly chosen name happens to be in use already by an author should really have no bearing on her life whatsoever.

I seriously think that if she can't explain to someone that she is not the author of your books...that is her problem and a VERY silly one at that. And if she is embarrassed that she has CHOSEN to change HER name to the same name that is already in use by an established erotica author then, again, that is her problem and she can go change her name back or add back her maiden name as her middle name.

As Ken pointed out, you have copyrighted your work in your pen name and the way I see it is that name is YOURS. It is just like a fictitious business name in many ways. You have been "doing business as" this name and have built up that business. As Ken mentioned, there will most likely be legal ramifications and complications if you try to relist those books/change your name now and you might want to consult a lawyer.

And No, Amazon wouldn't see it as the same thing. Your work is published in your pen name, your legal name is private. You could actually get in to trouble if they think you are trying to do something fraudulent or you unknowingly violate Amazon's terms of service.

My brother married someone with the exact same name as me and she took my brother's surname. So she basically has my name which was mine 30 years before it was hers. She later moved into my parents' house and acquired the address which was my childhood home. No one confuses us with each other for anything of importance because we are not the same people, just have the same name. If anyone confuses her record with mine it is pretty easy to tell the difference since I've had the name for 30 more years than she has! My friends from high school looked at her funny when she first went to local bars and was carded but things were easily explained.

It was your name first. Your name and your books are your *product.* You have already spent so much time "making a name for yourself" under your chosen pen name, I wouldn't want you to waste one single ounce of the blood, sweat and tears you have put into building your brand.

I wouldn't change anything for a new relative. Unless she wanted to buy the name from you for big bucks. If Anne Rice's son married a girl named Anne, nobody would think the daughter in law was the writer and we wouldn't think of asking Anne to change her name.

If someone asks her if she is the writer she will say no- and that should be be the end of that. If anything, it will make her life more interesting. My goodness, if your books were already out before she married in to your family, then she obviously can't be the same person. If it makes you feel better, change your contact information i.e. get a registered agent in a different town who will send your mail to you, so that there are fewer links. Even so, what is the worst that could happen.

For your new books you could start to add a middle name (that your relative does not have) but that way your new books will have your new name (which is differentiated from hers) but it will also be linked to your earlier pen name. Something like, Jennie Priscilla Jones also known as Jennie Jones. You may want to consult a lawyer briefly on how to do it right rather than face problems later.

Anyways, I obviously have strong feelings about this but I just wanted to encourage you not to throw away your brand just because some person decided to change their name to a name already in use (that you have been building a writing career on.) Not to be even more cynical but she may decide to go by her maiden name in practice or heck, sometimes marriages don't work out. What if she decides to change her name to Racy? : )

I write erotica as well and speaking of pen names...I haven't come up with one. I do google my proposed names and it seems all are already taken or share the name of an apartment building in Namibia. And my husband hates them... Oh well. So if I had already established a pen name, as you have done, I wouldn't let anyone take that away from me! : )

I hope this helps...But you have to do what feels best to you. It just didn't sound like you felt good about removing your books and web presence. It felt kind of heartbreaking (or maybe I am projecting.)

I would love to know what you end up doing. Feel free to add me as a friend as I notice we have quite a few things in common per your profile page!

I know that was a really long response. I just happen to be thinking about this issue a lot because I want to publish anonymously but at the same time have sort of a SEMI-anonymous online brand. And since "Thinking Mom" doesn't really suggest erotic romance...well this is why I am still stewing over this. So, I envy that you had it figured out for a while!

I would republish as they were without changing anything.

If they trace it to your sister in law, she just has to say that they have the wrong person. I share Thinking Mom's point of view. And my brother also married a woman with my sister's name. So, I have two people with the exact same name in my friend list on Facebook. So what?

If you worry about it, make it clear it is a pen name without revealing your real one. People might tease your sister in law but that would be just funny in my opinion.

Adding to G.G.'s reply... If your sister in law decides to take credit for your books, you and your husband can just wink at each other and giggle. : )

I'm with G.G.; keep the pen name you had before.

I'm with the rest. As long as you can manage not to do blushing and giggling should any confusion take place then leave things alone.

You really aren't harming anyone, you know

I'm with Thinking Mom. Just because your new sister-in-law has your pen name is irrelevant. In my case, there is more than one Michelle Demers out there who is also a writer. C'est la vie. Unless your sister-in-law is a writer, what confusion could possibly arise between her and your books? Imagine how many Stephen Kings there are out there in the world -- there are 3489 Stephen King profiles on LinkedIn alone.

M.A. wrote: "I'm with Thinking Mom. Just because your new sister-in-law has your pen name is irrelevant. In my case, there is more than one Michelle Demers out there who is also a writer. C'est la vie. Unless y..."

Indeed. There are two Jane Jagos on Goodreads. I'm the old one...

My advice would be to keep your pen name. If anyone asks your sister-in-law about the books she'll just say no she didn't write them and that'll be the end of it. You shouldn't have to go through all that hassle just because she happens to have the same name as your pen name.