I’ve hinted about this before, but over the coming weeks you might see a lot more of a new name around here: Lena George. Lena is my pen name for my fiction writing, and her first novel comes out this fall.
I went back and forth a lot on this decision. Now, as I lay the groundwork for promotion and eventually book preorders, it feels like very much a done deal.
Writers take on pen names for a lot of reasons: to get around potential readers’ cultural and gender biases, protect their privacy, or distance themselves from a problematic family name. Or, as in my case, to maintain separation of two different catalogues of work.
Since publishing Order from Chaos in 2018, I’ve become a bestseller and a somewhat recognizable name in my non-fiction niche. I guarantee you this has not happened due to savvy marketing or advertising campaigns on my part. Most of my books have sold based on organic word of mouth.
I consider this great news for any author. It means people are connecting authentically with your work. It’s also good news for Amazon because their algorithms learn more about your audience with every book sale. As much as I encourage readers to support indie bookstores, Amazon still accounts for a huge percentage of sales, especially in ebooks and audiobooks. Like it or not, most authors — myself included — will benefit from a symbiotic relationship with the Amazon algorithms. The more books we sell, the more Amazon will reward us by suggesting our titles in the “also bought” and “similar items” sections on other books’ product pages.
If you read popular romance or other genre fiction authors, you may notice some of them publish a series under a pen name. This happens when an author writes outside their usual niche. Genre fiction readers can have very specific tastes within a broad category like fantasy or romance. You don’t want them to buy your book expecting one thing when you’re offering another.
Enter the pen name. This creates two separate catalogues of work — two separate author profiles — on Amazon and Goodreads. It also keeps those AI-powered recommendations in Amazon’s “also bought” and “similar items” sections clean and focused. This is critical not only to get your book into the right readers’ hands — the people who will love it and recommend it to their friends — but to avoid getting it into the wrong readers’ hands. Targeting the wrong audience not only misses an opportunity to connect with your ideal reader, it increases your risk of returns and negative reviews.
It also muddies the waters on both catalogues of work, and can tank sales not only on the new book, but on a previously strong-selling title. Yikes! This makes my previous success publishing under my own name a liability for a new venture. Ironically, if Order from Chaos had flopped, I’d probably be considering a full pivot to fiction under my real name.
Do I love that authors have to base business decisions on Amazon’s algorithms? Not really. But I also understand, from a human perspective, the benefit of keeping things clear and concise. Sure, the algorithm wants to know how to categorize an author, but humans appreciate that, too. When I look up an author and find a cohesive list of books that give me a clear idea of what I should expect, I’m more likely to become a loyal reader.
All in all, I don’t mind using a pen name. I actually think it’s kind of fun. I enjoyed choosing the name (whose meaning I’ll share in tomorrow’s edition of my Write Life email newsletter), and I hope it’ll be easier to spell than my real one. Sometimes I worry using my real name as my website and email address makes me harder to find. Friends who’ve known me for years have inexplicably begun spelling my name wrong one day — I can’t expect any better from strangers!
Also, I’m a novelist. I love imagining characters and will confess to creating an alter ego or two in my (and the internet’s) younger days. While Lena is an open pen name — I will include my real name on my social media and in the author bio on my book covers — she will give me an opportunity to get a little more focused with her persona. As a real-life person I’m all over the place, and I sometimes bristle at the idea I need to be “on brand” or hew to my audience. As Lena, I already feel more authentic in creating a so-called personal brand. Lena doesn’t have to represent everything about me. Only everything about me as an author of a certain type of novel.
I’m sure I’ll have more to share about this as time goes by. For now, here’s where to find me if you want to follow along on social media:
- On Facebook, I’m Jaclyn Paul / Lena George, Author
- I post as myself as non-fiction author and creator of The ADHD Homestead at @jaclynpaulwriter on Instagram
- I post life and fiction updates as @lenageorgeauthor on Instagram
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