An Author by Any Other Name...
A few weeks ago I received a letter from a young, pre-published author whose name is Lauren Stewart. She wrote to say that she'd Googled her name and had found that (oh no!) there was already an author named Lauren Stewart. Me. She decided to use her first two initials instead, so her books wouldn't get confused with mine. A great solution all around that didn't cost me a thing (not even the rare and precious commodity of time).
You see, authors can call themselves anything they want to and can title their books anything they want to. To my knowledge, the only restriction is that no two books from the same publishing house can have the same name. Therefore, if I were so inclined (and had a bit of a professional death-wish), I could use the pen name ‘JR Ward', ‘Stephen King', or ‘Karen Marie Moning', as long as the name isn't a trademark*.
Though I'd done a search for other authors with my name before I published my first book, I decided to do it again. So I typed ‘Lauren Stewart' into Amazon's search engine and all my novels appeared. First Hyde, then Jekyll, then No Experience Required, and finally, Second Bite. But the list didn't end.
‘Lauren Stewart' also wrote Sweet Tea and Burglary (Short Stories) and A View From Here (A Contemporary Western Novel). ‘Lauren Stewart' illustrated a book called Igniting the Sacred Fire, Reinventing Yourself at Any Age, and you can even buy a subscription to her blog that I believe is about healthy living.
And therein lies my dilemma. I didn't write those books. That's not my blog. I can't draw worth shit. And believe me, I'm the last person you should come to for advice on healthy living. And while I am sure they are all wonderful reads, I don't want my readers to pick them up thinking that they are getting my style of dark urban fantasy, comedic-mystery, or whatever I write in the future. Nor do I want the other Lauren Stewarts to get flack for not having enough cursing, sex, sarcasm, and violence in their books, just because my readers expect a bit (or a lot) of it. I also don't want their readers to pick up one of my darker books expecting something…nicer and more hopeful, and then be shell-shocked by page three. But I can't force those other writers to change their pen names, regardless of who published first. Plus, I'm a nice person and hate pissing people off.
So what would you do? Would you change your name to Lauren S. Stewart, get all of your book covers fixed, re-do the front and back matter of them all, and adjust your social media profiles? Or would you just ignore it and hope readers can tell from the books' descriptions which ones were written by you and which weren't? I like my name. I always have. But I don't want to confuse people. Advice and suggestions are welcome.
I plan to eventually have something published in almost every genre–UF, PNR, contemporary romance, fantasy, women's lit, YA, NA, mystery, thriller, even middle grade. And regardless of what I decide to do with my name, or how many new Lauren Stewarts there are in the future, you'll know my work by its edge, its humor, and its voice. But I don't do nice people leading happy lives, I don't do cowboys, and I don't do inspirational. I leave that to those who can do it better than I, no matter what their names are.
*Correction: A friend (who knows stuff) told me that I wouldn't actually be able to use King's, Ward's, or Moning's name and that it is actually a trademark issue, not a copyright issue. I stand corrected and chagrined.
Hey Lauren – you are one of a kind no matter what name you write under. I wouldn’t change a thing. The people who have read your work will recognize which ones you wrote.