On pen names

As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog entry my next book, Sapphire Blue is erotica.  Today I want to talk about pen names a little bit.

I am using a pen name, but that name is g.doucette, which it doesn’t take a genius to figure out is me.  That’s because I don’t really have a problem with people connecting Gene Doucette, best-selling author of fantasy sci-fi mashups, with g. doucette, author of a (really awesome) work of supernatural erotica.  But I do want the people familiar with my existing work to recognize that Sapphire Blue is a little different, and the easiest way to do that is by changing the name on the cover in a recognizable way.

Deciding on the best way to do this

Before settling on this, though, I went back and forth on pen names for a long time.  I changed my mind about six times and even thought up a real pen name I was set on using.  (I just spent ten minutes trying to remember what the name was before giving up.  I guess it wasn’t memorable?)

Here are some advantages and disadvantages.

PRO

• nobody knows I wrote these really graphic sex scenes so I don’t have to be embarrassed about having written these really graphic sex scenes
• lynch mobs won’t even know where to find me
• my family will definitely still talk to me
• my existing fan base will definitely still talk to me
• I can pretend to be a female author if I want

CON

• I would have to invent a new online presence from scratch which, while fun, is really time-consuming
• there would be no way to connect my existing readers to my new novel, and it would seem like an eternity had passed since my last novel came out
• a key marketing strategy would have to be set aside (established best-selling author writes erotica!)
• nobody would believe I was a female author
• if the book did as well as I hope it does my name would come out anyway

What made the decision for me

When running through the options yet again, a friend asked me if I was proud of what I had written.  That was a good question.

And I really am.  There are a lot of salacious bits, and there are going to be days–many days–when I look at something I put in this book and want to pretend I never wrote it and OMG-what-the-fuck-hide-me.  (This will happen about fifteen times during the edit, I guarantee.)  But at the same time, I didn’t just rush out a dirty book.  I put a lot into Sapphire Blue, and I like it a lot, and without giving away the ending here let’s just say that I really stuck the landing.

I’ll be rolling out descriptions in the next month or two and then we can talk a little bit more about what Sapphire Blue is about and what I think you might think of it, but for now all I want you to understand is that this is something I legitimately wanted to write and enjoyed writing.  So I’m proud of it, and I want my name on it, even if it means some of you are going to read it and not be able to look me in the eye for a while.

So follow me

If you read erotica and also my books, I have a feeling I don’t have to convince you of anything here, but for those of you that don’t read erotica (I don’t either… shh), I hope in the next few months I can convince you to take a look at Sapphire Blue anyway.  I’ll provide excerpts here from time to time just to prove I’m not completely off the reservation.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go work on Immortal 3 some more.

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