Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Pen Name?

My three published novels have been for the LDS market with LDS characters and LDS story lines. My current book, Aura, is not targeted at the LDS market. No LDS characters, no LDS situations. Nothing at all LDS. The story is clean, but it is not LDS. It is about a teenage girl who discovers she has the power to fight demons. That power is directly related to virtuous choices she's made (not cheating, not lying to her parents, doing things for others, etc) including being a virgin. Because she's made these choices, she has a great deal of Light. Enough Light to pose a threat to a nasty demon. The story has demons, explores evil, but does not glorify it, and examines the effect of good vs evil. Since my other books are for the LDS market and this one is a young adult urban fantasy targeted to the national market, I wonder if I should use a pen name for publication? Pros: A pen name would allow me to separate my LDS books from this one, would make it so readers wouldn't be confused and expect an LDS story but get something very different, and would allow me to write more stories for the national market under the new name and establish a new presence. Cons: I've worked hard to establish an online presence as Rebecca Talley. All of my online networks are through Rebecca Talley. I don't want to ignore the fact that I've published other books. It might seem like I'm trying to hide who I am, which I'm not. Trying to establish an online presence for the pen name would take a lot of time and take time away from writing. What do you think? Do you expect an LDS-themed story from me? Would it bother you to see that I'm writing an urban fantasy? Please, let me know what you think. Thank you for your help!

3 comments:

Tamera Westhoff said...

I think as long as it's clean, keep your name the same! I only get irritated by the LDS Authors who write both and don't change their name!

Lolawid said...

Write under your own name! I know some LDS authors that have used pen names and some that have not. For myself, it is easier to keep track of an author if they only have one name (I'm not talking about Cher :o), you know what I mean...)

Anna Maria Junus said...

I find when writers have different pen names it gets confusing. It's more author's names to keep track of. Plus it makes it harder to organize my bookshelf. I like keeping all the authors books together.