New Genre, New Name?
Welcome to this week’s #TuesdayTip. A few weeks ago, (tuesdaytips190.html) I announced my newest book, The Aftermath, which I am self-publishing – a first for me. I promised to take you with me on this new and exciting journey. Last week we looked at the allure of the suburban domestic thriller. This week, I want to ponder the pros and cons of writing under a different pseudonym.
I’m not a publishing expert – far from it – but I have learned a lot over the past few months. If you have any suggestions or thoughts though, please feel free to comment here or on social media.
Much of what I have learned came from the brilliant resources available through the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi). Joining them was well worth the relatively modest subscription fee (which is tax deductible in the UK) (https://www.allianceindependentauthors.org/). Many of the indie authors I’ve spoken to over the years swear by them.
Should I change my name?
This was a question that I recently found myself pondering. My new book, The Aftermath, is something of a change of direction – a standalone domestic thriller, rather than a series of police procedurals. My previous DCI Warren Jones books were written under my real name, Paul Gitsham. Back in 2014, as I was considering publishing, I had to decide if I wanted to use this or a pen name.
As a school teacher, especially one with a slightly unusual name, I have to consider my public image. Pupils (and parents!) are pretty shameless these days about googling teachers, looking for gossip and therefore, just as in years gone by the local science teacher rolling drunkenly down the high street or openly conducting an affair may have attracted angry correspondence to the school’s governing body, these days one’s social media profile or other public activities can still garner negative attention.
And so I had to decide if the content of my books might attract similar opprobrium from ‘concerned’ parents.
In the end, I decided to peruse the shelves of the school library. I saw immediately that they carried copies of several adult Andy McNab thrillers. Those who have read the adult-aimed stories from the former-SAS operative will know that those books are told in the first person, with liberal use of colourful, often foul language, extreme violence and even occasional sexual content. Knowing that my Warren Jones novels are very tame by comparison, I decided that it would be hypocritical to castigate me, whilst stocking those books and other classics. Mercifully, we live in a country that doesn’t wilfully ignore freedom of speech and ban books because a few vocal parents want to cause trouble (yes Florida, I’m looking at you).
Now I am faced with a slightly different dilemma. Whilst The Aftermath is very much a crime novel, after 13 Warren Jones police procedurals (plus some free short stories – Link), readers have come to expect a certain type of book. The concern, voiced by a colleague at a recent talk, is that if you don’t make it clear that your new book is different to the old ones, then you run the risk of disappointing existing readers. So, should I change my name?
I am rather attached to my name. Gitsham appears fairly early in the alphabet, so readers looking for a new author are less likely to get bored and stop hunting alphabetical shelves. Furthermore, it’s pretty unusual. At the time of writing, nobody with my surname is writing crime fiction. (It still stings slightly when I search certain bookshop websites and the search engine helpfully asks ‘Do you mean Grisham?’!) But maybe I could change my first name or use initials?
Paul C. Gitsham was a strong contender – good enough for Iain / Iain M. Banks – he uses his initial to distinguish between his speculative fiction and literary fiction. PC Gitsham was a non-starter – I’m not a police officer and it would be disrespectful to those many former coppers writing really good crime fiction.
But is it worth it?
Reasons in favour of a name change.
I’m not a publishing expert – far from it – but I have learned a lot over the past few months. If you have any suggestions or thoughts though, please feel free to comment here or on social media.
Much of what I have learned came from the brilliant resources available through the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi). Joining them was well worth the relatively modest subscription fee (which is tax deductible in the UK) (https://www.allianceindependentauthors.org/). Many of the indie authors I’ve spoken to over the years swear by them.
Should I change my name?
This was a question that I recently found myself pondering. My new book, The Aftermath, is something of a change of direction – a standalone domestic thriller, rather than a series of police procedurals. My previous DCI Warren Jones books were written under my real name, Paul Gitsham. Back in 2014, as I was considering publishing, I had to decide if I wanted to use this or a pen name.
As a school teacher, especially one with a slightly unusual name, I have to consider my public image. Pupils (and parents!) are pretty shameless these days about googling teachers, looking for gossip and therefore, just as in years gone by the local science teacher rolling drunkenly down the high street or openly conducting an affair may have attracted angry correspondence to the school’s governing body, these days one’s social media profile or other public activities can still garner negative attention.
And so I had to decide if the content of my books might attract similar opprobrium from ‘concerned’ parents.
In the end, I decided to peruse the shelves of the school library. I saw immediately that they carried copies of several adult Andy McNab thrillers. Those who have read the adult-aimed stories from the former-SAS operative will know that those books are told in the first person, with liberal use of colourful, often foul language, extreme violence and even occasional sexual content. Knowing that my Warren Jones novels are very tame by comparison, I decided that it would be hypocritical to castigate me, whilst stocking those books and other classics. Mercifully, we live in a country that doesn’t wilfully ignore freedom of speech and ban books because a few vocal parents want to cause trouble (yes Florida, I’m looking at you).
Now I am faced with a slightly different dilemma. Whilst The Aftermath is very much a crime novel, after 13 Warren Jones police procedurals (plus some free short stories – Link), readers have come to expect a certain type of book. The concern, voiced by a colleague at a recent talk, is that if you don’t make it clear that your new book is different to the old ones, then you run the risk of disappointing existing readers. So, should I change my name?
I am rather attached to my name. Gitsham appears fairly early in the alphabet, so readers looking for a new author are less likely to get bored and stop hunting alphabetical shelves. Furthermore, it’s pretty unusual. At the time of writing, nobody with my surname is writing crime fiction. (It still stings slightly when I search certain bookshop websites and the search engine helpfully asks ‘Do you mean Grisham?’!) But maybe I could change my first name or use initials?
Paul C. Gitsham was a strong contender – good enough for Iain / Iain M. Banks – he uses his initial to distinguish between his speculative fiction and literary fiction. PC Gitsham was a non-starter – I’m not a police officer and it would be disrespectful to those many former coppers writing really good crime fiction.
But is it worth it?
Reasons in favour of a name change.
- As mentioned above, a minor change such as initials can single a change in genre.
- A completely new name can allow you to write something entirely different without being burdened by reader expectations. (A surprising number of middle-aged, male authors write erotic fiction aimed at the female market alongside their thrillers or other genre fiction – a more female/ambiguous name tends to help sales…)
- A completely new name can let you relaunch your author brand. I know a few writers who have decided to do this.
- Hiding one’s gender by ambiguous initials/gender-neutral names. JK Rowling (first name Joanne, no initial) has done this twice. Once for Harry Potter and later writing the Cormoran Strike private eye novels as Robert Galbraith. Some male authors use initials, since the majority of readers are female. Some female authors do the same because it is believed that some men won’t pick up a book by a woman.
Reasons against a name change.
- You can lose existing readers who don’t realise that you have written something different (this can be mitigated somewhat by a minor initials change).
- I’m told that some big retailers (*cough* Amazon *cough*) don’t always link the two author names together properly. I already have issues where some readers of my Warren Jones novels don’t realise that there are also four shorter novellas, after Amazon stopped cross-promoting them, so why risk it?
- You may dilute your author brand. The hope is that readers who enjoy Warren Jones will be willing to try something new from me. Hopefully, at least some readers will pick up a copy based on my name, not just my character’s name.
Ultimately, I have spoken to friends and decided against a name change. At most, I am switching sub-genres, not genres. Furthermore, many big-name authors happily publish multiple series alongside standalones all under the same name. The cover for The Aftermath is very different to the Warren Jones novels, and it is tag-lined ‘From the Creator of DCI Warren Jones‘. The fact that it is mentioned regularly on all marketing that it is a standalone, should hopefully stop anyone claiming it was miss-sold as a Warren Jones.
What are your thoughts? Are multiple pen names a useful thing, or is it better to stick with one name? As always, feel free to comment here or on social media.
Until next time,
Paul
If you are a writer with a tip to share, or fancy writing a fictional interview between you and one of your characters, please feel free to email me.
