Do you use your Real Name Online?

[Zanzibar]

In thinking about publicity I have been looking into signing up for several different online networking sites. I just signed up on My Space last night and used my real name. This scares me! But how else are people who are looking for my book supposed to find me except by my real name? But I'm worried this could lead to trouble down the road - what, I'm not sure, but....

Just wondering what all your thoughts are on this.

Do you use your real names? Why or why not?

What problems do you forsee arising from using real names?

What benefits are there to using your real name.

Do the pro's outweigh the cons?

:confused:

[jacks girl]

Just wondering what all your thoughts are on this.

Do you use your real names? Why or why not? I always use Jacks Girl now and wish that I had never used anything but. I did have my real name on myspace but not I'm jacks girl over there too. Some times I use a part of my pen name Samantha Fury but right now mostly it's Jacks Girl.

What problems do you forsee arising from using real names? I'm not sure about this but i know since i have OCD I worry a lot when it's not necessary. I know there is identity theft. I mostly worry about some crazy person deciding they don't like me and hunting me down. LOL!!

What benefits are there to using your real name. I can't think of any.

Do the pro's outweigh the cons? I think this is a personal choice. I have started using Jacks Girl on everything now.

[Tamera]

I haven't always used my real name on line. Now, for the most part, I do. If it's a more personal forum such as this one, where I don't want every post I've ever made googled, I use my first name as a user name and my real name in the signiture. I'm establishing myself as a writer. The more I get my real name out there, the better my books will sell when they're published. As far as security, I don't give out my address, just my city, or my phone number and I leave the rest to God.

[Katharine]

I'm establishing myself as a writer. The more I get my real name out there, the better my books will sell when they're published.

I'm with Tamera. Although I enjoy the security of anonymity, I also don't want to mess with others' heads by letting them wonder too much about me. I've taken to using my first name (and bless those who spell it correctly!) as my user name, and have also used it in opening an email account for writing-related correspondence. (My main account's address uses more of my name, again so there's no mystery as to who's sending a message.)

When I make it to the big time, I want the world to be able to know who I am. (And then I'll change my name so I can hide from the paparazzi.)

Hmmm... the one thing I've neglected to do is get a signed release from Blackie to use her photographic image as my avatar. I'd better get some dog biscuits ready so I can approach her about this when she wakes up from her nap.

[Sheri]

I use my first name on sites like myspace and CW but now with facebook and linking things to my website, which has my whole name, I'm not worried about it. Also after having a few articles published my name comes up on Google anyway with the publications that have online versions or archives. This can work in our favor as writers.

[Tarin]

My real name is up on my web-site, so it really doesn't make sense to hide it. ;) I haven't encountered any problems as of yet.

[vpwriter]

Peter is my baptismal name (yes Im catholic) and I use it more because my real first name intimidates other people from saying it thinking I will be offended if they pronounce it wrong or they assume I don't understand English. I like using a pen name. It might just be because I have a very oriental looking and sounding name, but I like to give my persona to a certain name instead of being labeled as "the Asian guy" online.

[Tommie Lyn]

I use my name on CW and another writers' forum, on Author's Den, Shoutlife and my blogs. Name recognition is an important thing for writers.

Now. Given that I'd like to have name recognition working for me -- I'm considering using my name on some of my works but using a pseudonym on others.....and that sort of defeats the purpose of using my name on the forums, doesn't it.

[Keith Wallis]

I tend to use my name - cos I'm likely to forget who I am if I call myself something different. I do use 'wordsculptor' on some sites but it always seems a little pretentious.

[righter1]

Do you use your real names? Why or why not?

What problems do you forsee arising from using real names?

What benefits are there to using your real name.

Do the pro's outweigh the cons?


I do in certain situations. Sites like this, I use my handle. But, I'm on Facebook and most people here that are there know who I am. I guess it really depends on the situation. There's certain instances where anonimity is great, and others where it's not going to help your writing career along at all. I think you have to judge for yourself the situation and then decide how best to proceed in each individual case.

[AnnieJ]

I use my real name online and a fake name in the real world.

Oh, okay, yes I use my real name and yes, I do it for promo though sometimes when I want to say what's REALLY on my mind, I wish I was anon.
BUT I use the real name tailored to the site - Annie mostly but on some places I use Luanne Jones - used for my more recent secular books. My current house does not care (probably because they've published me in both secular and Christian for years) but some houses insisted that if I ever signed anywhere or when to a conference I went as only 1 of my names so as not to confuse readers. Which was a hoot to me as they are Both my legal names and so I am both of them AND I don't think readers are that easily confused ;)

annie jones
also Luanne Jones
(also Natalie Patrick and Annie Flannigan)

[kshsj777]

I never use my name as a username on sites. Right now I have kshsj777 and now on all new sites I'm doing Susanna777.

[melw]

I use at least the first three letters on my name. I have my full (maiden and married) name on facebook and that is what i am going ot use when i get published, so that is on authors den too.

MEL

[Zanzibar]

Alright, well you all have made me feel better. I will continue to use my real name and, like Tamera said, trust God with the rest. It's just that I run a business online and I know what slime balls some people can be - sorry, but it's the truth! I can't tell you how many times people have tried to scam me and rip me off. One guy (the first one) succeeded - but God blessed me in that situation and eBay gave me back all the money he 'stole' and Paypal did too (long complicated story - but it made me leary of trusting strangers :( ).

If any of you are on MySpace and want to be my friend my name is Lynnette Bonner and I would be happy to add you to my list.

[kdawgs34]

I wouldn't worry too much about it. Whenever I have googled my name "Kyle Watson" it seemed like hundreds of other Kyle Watson come up. I was impressed by the ultimate fighter Kyle Watson.

Its probably the same for most names. A few years ago my name made it to Time magazine and I had hate e-mails a couple of times. Nothing negative ever happened to me. Trust in the Lord to protect you and your name. God Bless!

[lynnmosher]

I am who I am. Sounds too simplistic but that's me. If I want to build a platform with name recognition, I have to use my name. If I don't use it, I don't get anywhere. I stay hidden and unrecognizable in the closet.

[michaelsnyder]

I've pretty much always used my real name and haven't encountered any problems. I do think it helped some too when I finally got a publishing deal, although it's not like I'm rocketing up any bestseller lists either! When it was announced I had tons of old online acquaintances that I'd forgotten about looking me up and congratulating me (and buying the book too!).

The main 'con' I see about using pen- or nicknames is that, for people easily confused like me, I tend to gloss over pretend names (kind of like I did all the Russian names in that Tom Clancy submarine novel I tried to read about 15 years ago...in my pea brain, every Russian character was the same guy!). When I'm corresponding with a pretend name I always have this fear that I'm not going to remember who I'm talking to. Or that I've already forgotten who I'm talking to. Then I'll make some obvious gaff that makes it apparent that I don't really remember some earlier correspondence because I never cemented the 'name' in my head.

So let me offer a blanket apology upfront...I'm sorry for every dumb thing I say! (Even that last dumb comment about apologizing for saying dumb things!) (Maybe I should STOP using my real name?) (Never mind, I give up!)

Signed,
Suomy Non A

[Zanzibar]

LOL, Michael,

I'm glad you are around - you make me laugh.

[michaelsnyder]

"I'm glad you are around - you make me laugh."

Hah! My wife's been saying the same thing for over a decade!

(See? Humor doesn't always have to be a defensive mechanism...it can be a survival tool as well!)

Mike

[Zanzibar]

I say the same thing to my husband.

He made me laugh tonight as he described how he caught our 9 year old son with his own fireworks show going on - in the microwave! It was just chilli, thank goodness, but the inside of our microwave is all splattered and I'm sitting here on the couch waiting for the maid :p (or my son !thumbsup!) to come clean it up. Sadly, I think I will be here for awhile. :rolleyes:

[michaelsnyder]

There was one time I used pen names...

Westbow and World Magazine sponsored a Christian short story contest several years ago. The problem (as I saw it) was that they left the stories wide open for critique...some of it anonymous and much of it downright malicious. Folks were logging on and saying awful (and unsolicited and unpoliced and overly pretentious) things about the stories posted. That might have been okay had the contest organizers forecasted such responses and found a way to offer constructive criticism. So whenever I saw the destructive or hurtful or sometimes hateful comments on these unsuspecting writers' stories, I turned into a mother hen and openly chided the mean-spirited folks. You wouldn't believe some of the hateful e-mails I received as a result.

At some point I begged off. But then things got even uglier, so I logged back on using character names from the mockumentary film, This Is Spinal Tap and continued to hold folks accountable for saying mean stuff about other people's work.

(NOTE: I'm a big fan of honest and even harsh literary reviews and critiques. But I believe the artist in question should know before submitting their work that there's a chance for public skewering...er, um, scrutiny. I have full knowledge and understanding that ANYONE can log onto amazon right now and say ANYTHING they want about my novel. I know the rules and am comfortable with that risk.)

Mike

[Thebigguy]

I thought the big guy was appropriate because I'm very tall, I put my real name on my profile though. I think I'm more inclined to act like an idiot and say things on line that I shouldn't if no one had a clue who I was.
I considered a pen name for my stories but Brian Jones is pretty common, which is also a good reason to have a pen name I guess.
Or perhaps a pen name if I put my testimony in pen form because of past spiritual affiliations with certain cult groups, I'm not interested in bomb threats and threatening phone calls!

[Gravity]

I have different usernames for different sites, but I always put my real in my sig line (and my website). I dunno. I never really considered doing it any other way. Either I'm very confident, or "dumber'n a bag a' hammers" (as my Grandpa used to say!)

[michaelsnyder]

Gravity/John...I never met your grandpa, but he somehow described me to a tee!

Mike

[kdawgs34]

Hey, Michael

I thought I had thick skin from playing football and other sports. Working in a blue collar environment. Then I wrote a novel. I never wrote much of anything before in my life. Only in school when it was necessary. I did enough to get through class. So to make a long story short. I sort of back into writing a novel. I start out doing it for family, friends, and church. Before you know it I'm doing booksignings and media outlets. My novel is nominated for a writing award. A movie director reads and tells me its the best he has read on the Rapture. I should make it into a movie myself. But I don't know anything about making movies. So end of that possibility. Going good right. Wrong. Harsh criticisms and insults come up on amazon and barnes and noble. Then I come across a website that is trashing the novel and wants to do a Worst Book Ever Project to send to me. Then I come across some place called wordsmiths.com and the owner of this bookstore writes a blog "The Making of A Icon". He talks about how they have open mike night. This is when they mock the book. In his blog he says the book is so bad it almost turns around to be good. He calls it the Left Behind on crack. He trashes the book on and on. I think he is a part of the Worst Book Ever crowd. That is a sample of what I found when I did a google search of my name and book. I didn't respond to any of it. I actually laughed about some of it. I knew the book was a rough draft and some of it was written on purpose for quirky humor. I think the Christian elements is what really bothered them. Sorry, I got sidetracked.

To Michael

The difference between your name and mine. Under your name. You have a professional editor and traditional publisher. I wish I did. You have a known agent. I have zero agent. Last but not least. You have people buying and praising your novel. My name only got short attention. Your name is gaining staying power. Congratulations! God Bless you and your hard work.

By the way. Gravity. Looks to me like you're doing pretty good yourself. Congratulations to you. God Bless you and your work. I hope all the real or fake names on this website have writing success. Delight in the Lord.

[AnnieJ]

Kdawgs34 - My motto is - if everybody likes my books, then not enough people are reading them!

But a good thing to remember name on line wise is people don't always connect the dots (good to remember also when writing and you try to be clever to hide things from readers or from one character to another - you don't have to be nearly as clever as you think :)) I just opened an email not 10 minutes ago from someone I have been in a close knit southern writers group for 8 years with, we know all about each other's lives and talk writing all the time and today someone mentions one of my titles and she says - you're THAT Annie Jones? I have all your books.

of course mine is a common name but then there's very few people who have a singular designation.

annie jones

[Tamera]

Kdawgs34,

It sounds like your book generated a lot of controversy and publicity even if it was the bad kind. If it was that bad, why did they even bother with it. It sounds like you touched a nerve. Congratulations.

[Phy]

I use my real name, John E. Cook, as my professional career name as a technical writer and Help author, and have a Gmail account that goes with it, john.cook@gmail.

When I do my creative writing and editing stuff (for Ray Gun Revival and elsewhere) I use a variation of my name, Johne Cook, johne.cook@gmail. The distinction is simple but effective.

[michaelsnyder]

Annie said: "if everybody likes my books, then not enough people are reading them!" I couldn't agree more. I played in a pretty good band in my college days. My singer/co-writer and I used to say all the time that if everybody liked us, we were doing something wrong. That said, I much prefer the positive feedback to the negative. But truthful feedback is all that really matters.

KDawgs...man, I really, REALLY hate that for you. I just don't get people who think that just because they own a computer and can maintain a certain level of anonymity, that they then have license to say nasty things. That was my gripe with the contest thing too. Some of the stories in question really were pretty bad. "Awful" might even be a fair assessment. But in that case, the folks submitting stories had no clue that the potential existed for public ridicule or that they'd be made human pinatas for a bunch of smart aleck writer types. Many were beginners that probably never wrote another thing after that.

I hope in your case that you didn't let those mean-spirited folks get you down, that you can somehow turn that into fuel for more and better writing. I remember being a little kid and hearing people trash a song or a movie in childish and destructive ways. Obviously those songwriters and producers were mostly immune to that psuedo-slander, but I remember thinking: How you can stand there and trash something that someone worked so hard to create, to just bash them for sport? That's never made any sense to me. And trust me, I have NO problem calling them like I see them. I've watched bad movies, read bad writing, and listened bad music. But I think there's a level of responsibility and stewardship (and just plain old good taste) when it comes to talking about them.

I have written some really awful stuff. We all have. But I choose not to be embarrassed by it...just as I choose not to put it out for public consumption. Thankfully, it compelled me to try harder. The truth is I spend three hours last night correcting lots and lots of awful writing (of mine)...so I'm still working harder!

Mike

[kdawgs34]

Thanks Annie. I like that motto.


Tamera. The novel was a real roller coaster ride. I never understood how some notable people thought it was good and then others thought it to be so bad. I did come to the conclusion that I hit some nerve. The guy who trashed it the most. Seem to be obsessed with the book.


Michael. I did write another novel and its much better than the first one. I thought about sending the guy who trashed my book a signed copy of my published humor book and a copy of my new novel when it is published. I've never felt the need to trash a persons work.

[Zanzibar]

I'm glad you kept on writing, dawg.

Funny, I've had this fear lately. I just had my first novel accepted not too long ago - it isn't out yet, but I now have this fear of what people are going to think of it. :rolleyes: :o

I'm crazy, I know. Writing is nothing, if not a roller coaster of emotions.

And like Mike said, I like positive feedback so much better than non positive!

[kdawgs34]

To Zanzibar and anyone else.

Congratulations Zanzibar. If anyone thinks negative about your novel let it roll off you like water on a ducks back. Only listen to something that is really helpful to you.

The good things about hateful criticism. Now, nobody can ever say anything worse about my writing. If I ever hear or read something like that again it will roll off me. It helps your relationship with God grow more intimate. I'm a stronger person for it. I'm 43 years old now but when I was 23 I would haved confronted the guy and asked him what's his malfunction. It's funny how God works. My background in life had me mentally ready for this kind of thing. Most people I know got more upset about it than me. I really didn't get to bothered too much about it. To be honest I thought the guy was a moron to get that upset by a fiction book from a unknown writer.

The real reason I mention the experience is hoping it can help any writers that come on this website. Because from what I've read on many threads is a fear of something like this happening. As I said in a previous thread because of a quote by me in Time magazine about the apocalypse. Its the issue about the end times it mostly talked about the Left Behind series. It was the front cover. Nancy Gibbs wrote the article. Anyone can look up the story on the internet. Its a interesting article. Some guy e-mailed me from Virginia and told me if I'm ever in Virginia he will come to where I am and knock me on my ---. He asked if my dad dropped me on my head as a baby. I wanted to e-mail back and say bring it on. But I just left it alone.


For some reason I feel lead by God to say this. My message is have no fear. Satan just doesn't want any of our writings out in public. Because it might help someone. He wants to steal and kill our joy. Make us fearful, stressed out, and miserable. As writers who are Christian we must have no fear. Most fears never come true. Fear paralyzes the mind and heart. God will overcome any fear for anybody. Trust in the Lord. Don't worry. I hope this helps anyone struggling with a fear. If anyone is having a hard time with fears involved with writing. Start a new thread I'm sure myself and other writers maybe could help you.

AnnieJ is a very experienced writer. She is way above my level of writing. She said it best. If enough people read your book somebody will hate it.

So prepare yourself now before anything may or may never happen. Overcome the fear by plunging into it. I hope this can help someone. God is with you.

[Thebigguy]

Well I thought it sounded like spiritual attack right off just because it was suddenly so widely accepted and then to have an opposite crowd so viamently stab you like that.
If it had really stunk I think there would have been less critical or at least it would have probably gone down with a whimper instead of a celebrity roast. If it gets published you ought to send it over to the bay area they love controversy.
That's how the passion became big in the bay area, Christians wouldn't sign my friends petition of getting the Passion to come here. But then there was a rumor if the Passion being antisemitic and the San Francisco and the North bay simply had to have it!

[Michael Scott]

Kdawgs34, don't let the critics get to you. They only criticize because it's easier than creating, and they lack the mental capacity for that.

You must have struck a nerve with your book, which is something. Remember, even bad press is press. What people will remember is your name. That will help you in the future.

Paul talked about people preaching Christ even from envy and spite, seeking to cause him harm in his imprisonment (Philippians 1:some verse I'm too lazy to look up right now). He said he'd rejoice anyway, because Christ was being preached.

Some people will pick up a book just because somebody said it was bad - and they want to see for themselves how much of a train wreck it really is. That's why the DaVinci Code did as well as it did. I thought the writing in it was just okay. The story was fun, but not fantastic. But the bad press it generated caused it to sell millions! The Christian Church did the same thing for The Last Temptation of Christ. When will we ever learn, I wonder?

[Zanzibar]

Dawg, What was the name of your book and where can we buy it?

[kdawgs34]

Thanks Michael Scott. You are correct about the critics. I admit that I was writing for the commercial fiction crowd. I just wanted to entertain with a Christian message weaved into the story. Many readers don't even care about literary style. They just want to turn the page. I decided to see what would happen if you put a raw rough draft out in public. It sure would be different and quirky. I'm not sure what hit the nerve button. Maybe it was too hard hitting for them. I never did understand how my novel could be nominated for the prestigious Atlanta Townsend Prize Fiction award and at the same time be the worst writing in history. I just want to do God's will for my life. I felt God wanted me to write the book and I did it.

Thanks Zanzibar. My name is Kyle Watson and the novel is "Apocalypse South" it should be available most anywhere in the world. If you go to amazon for some reason recently they made a typo by putting another title next to my title and the wrong publisher. But the description and product of the book is correct. You will probably find the story more like a movie.The Fugitive, Con Air meets Left Behind. I hope you enjoy the book. If the writing is too horrible for you just take a deep breath and start back over. I would love any positive feedback.

[GTafuro]

I used a cover until I realized how much the anonymity of the internet creates situations where people will post to hurt, to be dishonest. You'll see less of that on a site like this one, but on more secular sites it is apparent.

So, I'm GTafuro. It's unique enough that anyone who cares can find out where I live, which may be a little scary. However, because my name is on my thoughts they are my own, and I am made responsible for them. I think it makes you a more careful participant.