Publishing Erotica Part 4 – Your Pen Name

Click here for Publishing Erotica Part 3 – What to Write

If you are like most erotica or erotic romance authors you don’t want to use your real name to publish your kinky stories. There are a lot of reasons for this from not wanting your friends and family to discover what you’re doing to the fact you might write more mainstream stories under your real name. Even authors who write mainstream, non-erotic fiction use pen names for their own privacy. J.K. Rowling doesn’t even have a middle name in real life. She threw that in to make her name more authorial.

So odds are you want a pen name.

You can choose whatever you want, though I recommend performing Google searches on your chosen pen name. There are two major reasons to do this. One, what if another author is already publishing under that pen name? You don’t want your books mixed up with his. I can’t publish under my real name even if I wanted to because someone already has beat me to it.

The second reason is a little more specific to erotica authors. This happened to someone where her pen name was the same as a sixteen-year-old girl’s. When said girl’s mother found out, she threatened to sue the erotica author. So, make sure if you are using a more common name that there are lot of people with that name.

Some authors in the erotica field like to make perverted puns or use alternate spelling of naughty words. You can have a lot of fun with your pen name and get creative, letting people subtly know that you are writing perverted things. Or you can just be boring like me.

Remember, your pen name is your brand. Don’t have a brand easily confused with someone else.

One last thing, writing erotica under a male pen name. There is often a perceived bias among erotica and romance readers against male authors. Now this doesn’t mean you can’t be successful writing under a male name, but I know more than a few “female” erotica and romance authors that aren’t quite so “female” in real life. The choice is yours.

Now that you have your pen name in hand, you’ll need to let people know about you, particularly other authors. Your fellow authors, unless their dicks (and those do exist), are your best allies. Many will be more than happy to give you advise and maybe a little free promotion. But first you have to meet them. So where do you do that?

Social media.

You’re going to need at least a Facebook and Twitter account under your pen name. Twitter is great place to meet other authors. There are plenty of hashtags you’ll see out there for tweeting about erotica books: #amwriting #erotica #EARTG #LPRTG #SSRTG are great places to start. Look at who’s tweeting under these hashtags. Follow them. On Friday, put out #FF (Fan Friday) tweets tagging authors is a great way to get their attention. On Wednesday do the same with #WW (Writers Wednesday) to get recognition. Follow everyone who follows you.

On Facebook, friend those authors you found on twitter. Many will have links to their other social media. Comment on their posts and make your own. Talk about what you plan on writing. Post sexy pictures (within Facebooks guidelines of no genitals or female nipples), interact with readers, bloggers and other writers. Join writing groups for erotica and romance (there’s quite a bit of overlap between these groups). The more you interact, the more people will notice you. Be polite and supportive. You’ll find yourself starting to make friends.

I’ve made some great friends that have helped me with my writing on social media. It is a great tool for reaching your audiences. Once you start publishing, try to get involved in Facebook parties to promote your writhing.

Reddit is another great place. Head on over to /r/eroticauthors. This reddit group is public and you can learn a lot about publishing. People will answer your questions, but watch out for the trolls. They exist so don’t trust any quick rich schemes or ways to game Amazon for money. You’re building a future, not trying to earn a quick buck that will get your in Amazon’s doghouse.

There are other social media sights you can use. Google+ has groups you can post in and Goodreads has lots of author resources and a great place to find beta and ARC readers. On Pintrest you can create image boards to attract people’s attention. You can blog on Tumblr and share even more explicit pictures.

The last component of your pen name and online avatar is your branding. This is important. Your pen name is your brand. Everything you do is a reflection of that brand. You want to make yourself stand out, but you also don’t want to ruin your reputation. Erotica is great because you can post naughty images without it being a bad thing.

Invest in making your own logos, something you can use on anything you do from your Twitter profile to Facebook page. People will see it and remember it. Use your branding on your covers so your fans will be able to stop your work from among the crowd. Catch phrases, logos, banners can make you be noticed.

With your pen name, online profile, and your brand sorted out, you’re ready to dive into the actual writing process. All this work won’t matter if you don’t have a story to publish when the time comes. Next time, we’ll talk about the writing process itself.

Click here for Part 5 – Writing Erotica

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