I finished up edits on the second Libby Fox novella last night. I sent it out to another beta reader to see if anything else needs changing. My working title was Secrets of the Wolf. But there are two or three other books with that same title. But I checked out some other books I’ve read recently, and one of them had the same title as six others. What do you think? Should I change the title or leave it?
Also, I have a dilemma about what to do about a photo that will show on all social media. Right now I use my book covers for a “gravatar”. I know that a lot of you have a picture of yourself. My problem is that I need to stay under the radar. I want my personal life and author life to stay separate. There are a number of reasons, some big ones, for this that I won’t go into right now. I actually took a photo of myself and converted it into a drawing. I’ve also asked my son if he thought he could sketch a pic of me. I just don’t know what to do. Using book covers seems impersonal for some reason. What do you guys think?
lauralynnelliott.com 
I’d suggest sticking with the title unless something else pops up unexpectedly. Sometimes, those little changes have to blindside you to really be effective and then you’re all, “Where have you been all my life?” I feel if you think about something too much, it just never ends up working quite right.
Right now, my gravatar is just a pretty picture of books. It works for me; it’s fitting to my interests and I’ve never really had a picture of myself that I’ve really liked much and I’m too lazy to put one together. So I kind of like the idea of using a book cover; it might not be as personal, but it’s not bad promotion.
I just like pretty pictures of books. *has a deep and complicated mind, yes*
I like the title. I friend of mine actually came up with it, and it just fits. There are many, many books with the same title, so it shouldn’t be a problem.
I don’t have a picture of myself that I like either. I actually have one on my personal facebook page, but nowhere on my author social media. I don’t want people to be able to connect the two of me. LOL
Mystery Author! Hee, I like it!
It’s a tough question, Lauralynn. You and I have commented back and forth on the pen name thing. I’ve rolled mine out, but it’s a little easier for me, in that I already have an audience for my real name that I don’t want to confuse.
I truly think that there are people with good reasons not to put a clear picture of themselves–and I think you are one of them. I think the book cover may be a little impersonal, but Kristen Lamb’s Twitter Tuesday yesterday here: http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2011/08/23/dr-twuth-the-twuth-about-twitter-pics said that the anonymous monikers combined with no pictures and no gender hints were a real problem. You’ve got a name attached–at least that’s my .02!
As for the title, if it really resonates, I’d keep it. There are only so many words in the language and sometimes a title just, well, fits.
All that said, someone with a lot more knowledge may totally disagree with me, and that’s okay!
My biggest reason for using a pen name is that some of my friends wouldn’t approve of my genre, and I don’t want to make it a hardship on my husband, who has a position in the church I attend. I feel perfectly comfortable writing paranormal romances, but it’s just easier on me not to announce it to everyone.
It’s really hard to have a unique title. I know for sure there’s another book called “See Me”, but it’s totally different from my novella of the same name. Like you said, there are only so many words in the language.
As far as I’m concerned, making life easier is more than enough of a reason!
I understand why you want to keep your lives separated. I do as well, although I have failed in some ways, and it is why I, along with you, use books covers.
I understand you have more reason than I to stay in your present state so I would recommend, but why listen to me I know, sticking with your current situation. You know what could/would happen if certain people knew who you were.
I keep praying and thinking good thoughts all the time about you but this is just how my opinion feels.
Peace,
Jon
Jon, I know you understand better than anyone my situation. I definitely don’t want to “merge” my two personas. I was just wondering if I could find some kind of picture of me that didn’t really LOOK that much like me. LOL. I think I’ll stick to book covers.
Oooh, two places where I’m opinionated. Here goes…
I would change the title. In today’s “Google age,” I believe search-ability to be a key feature of any title. I do have some suggestions, however, if you don’t completely want to scrap the title. Without knowing a whole lot about the work… 1. Could you change “the” to “a?” I don’t see many with “Secrets of a Wolf.” That also sounds more enigmatic: “I’m just a wolf… nothing to see here.” Might be weaker, though. 2. Could you use a synonym for “Secrets?” Being a fan of alliteration: Wonders of the Wolf is a fun one (that Google doesn’t immediately show as another book).
Those are just two off-the-cuff ideas. At the end of the day, you have to go with what you feel is right… Google-be-damned! (Blasphemy!)
As for a picture… At this stage of my writing career, I’m no James Patterson. I understand the concept of making your name a brand, but I also believe that early on in a writer’s career, the focus should be on the works, the books, the stories… not the person. That’s my opinion, though, and I don’t really claim to be an authority. It’s just a personal preference. I’d rather people focus less on me and more on my stories. To that effect, using a cover image is a good thing. I wouldn’t want people to be so distracted by my appearance that they forget to read my book/comment. (A bit of hyperbole, there; I’m neither a troll nor a beauty queen).
I read the “Twuth” article and only agree to an extent. I want people to be emotionally invested in my writing. Not necessarily me as a person, but me as an author. As a result, I roll with a picture of a book in the shape of a heart (because I love books, and it’s not distracting) and keep my authorial name consistent. I don’t feel a burning Emulating NYT Bestselling Authors is all well and good, but it doesn’t mean it’s the answer for everyone at every stage of the game. Besides, I’m not cool enough to have a glamour shot yet. 🙂
That’s just my two-cents…
Thanks for your input, Matt! You make some very good points. The only reason I even considered a picture was because so many of my author friends have one and I didn’t want to look like I was being impersonal. I think I’m just going to stick with the book covers.
As far as the name of my book, I’m still not sure. I don’t mind having the same title as one or two. Like I said, many of my author friends have books with titles already out there. I would love to be unique, but I also want the title to fit and be something that feels right. I can’t use Secrets of a Wolf because it’s not just one wolf necessarily. The secrets are actually contained in a book, so I may try to incorporate the word “book” in the title. Maybe something like “The Book of the Wolf”, although that sounds a little lame to me. I have to decide soon, because I want to publish as soon as my last beta reader is done. I need to get that title to my cover artist. :0)
I have been thinking about changing my twitter photo to a photo of me. I kept the egg picture twitter gave me but changed because a couple of people mentioned eggs are often spammers! I only had a photo on my phone of my feet in a fish foot spa which says nothing about me, my writing, anything! It will do for now but I too tried to work out if I could take a photo of me that you couldn’t tell was me! I want to be anonymous and for now I will just find something nice to look at.
On the title front, could it be ‘Secrets of the wolves’ instead of wolf? Just a random suggestion!
Em, I like to use the word incognito instead of anonymous because I don’t feel like we’re really anonymous when we use our pen name. That’s who we are as writers. To me, anonymous has a bad connotation because of the hateful people who comment on blogs and who leave scathing reviews. Does that make sense? I do feel like we should have some kind of image that isn’t automatically set up for us, like some of those “monster” gravatars. I think I’ll stick to my book covers.
Secrets of the Wolves might work. Especially since the book contains the secrets of the wolves collectively rather than just one wolf. However, there’s a book by that name, too. Grrr.
I completely understand the need to stay under the radar. I’ve been thinking about shifting “personas” a bit and selecting a pen name to put more distance between my writing and non-writing lives. I have a romance novel in mind that promises to be fairly racy, and I DON’T want my professional self associated with it.
Honestly, I understand the rules that have been flying about in terms of personal branding and whatnot, but I really see them as guidelines, ones that should be flexible in terms of individual circumstance. In your case, a gravatar of a book cover should be perfectly fine. Your voice and your personality come through in your blog posts, which allows you to connect with readers and whatnot. The gravatar isn’t the be-all, end-all.
Good luck with choosing the book title, although even there, I would consider just keeping what you have, provided that there aren’t dozens of books with the same title. I dunno… I think I’m feeling a little curmudgeonly about Google and the internet and how there’s this push to make things searchable, blah blah. Maybe I am fighting against the tide of inevitability, but it does make me irritated.
Some of my stories are a little racy, although probably not by today’s standards. So it’s both the romance part and the paranormal part that might not go over so well with some of my friends. And I don’t mean to put them down in any way. They have their convictions and should stick with them if that’s how they feel. I know one who caught his daughter reading Twilight and threw the book away.
I’m waffling now between Secret of the Wolf and Secret of the Wolves. But I think I’ll probably keep one of those.
Name your book whatever you think fits. If people are searching for it, then it will rise in the google, amazon, whatever searches all on it’s own. Lot’s of books are named Hush Money and Susan did well.
Pictures are nice, but if you can’t use one, you just need to bring your personality out more. Susan and Zoe don’t have pictures up, but they’re doing well. I think because they’re so active with social media, people have gotten to know them and don’t care so much about a picture. It might be harder to go that route, but not impossible.
Thanks for your input, Andrew. I’ve decided to keep the name I wanted. That’s the overall consensus, anyway. I knew there were several books called Hush Money, and I know there are several called Kept besides Zoe’s. I was just a little cautious about it because I got slammed really bad in a review by someone who hadn’t even read my book, but had read the sample and accused me of stealing a character from another author’s books. The only similarity was that they had the same name and they were both vampires. And I had actually gotten the name from two people I know personally. Thankfully, Amazon took that review down. Zoe told me that readers are pickier about character names than they are about book titles.
I’ve realized that, apparently, people don’t perceive it as impersonal not to have a picture. And Jamila says my voice and personality come through. LOL. I just wanted everyone’s opinion, really. Besides, my book covers look MUCH better than I do anyway. :0)
Doesn’t Kait use a real photo with her pen name? If you did, are the odds good or bad that someone would stumble across your writing and recognize you? (I guess it depends how many paranormal romance readers are friends or acquaintances.) Although, I must admit that when an ex-boyfriend looked me up recently and complained that he couldn’t find a picture of me online, I thought that was a good thing. Someday, I may have to cave and have that author pic on the back cover of a book–maybe wearing a cool hat and some sunglasses 🙂 I think the book cover as an avatar is okay for now…
Michelle, I just don’t want to take the chance that someone might see it. There are already too many people in real life that know about my pen name. My mom is so proud that she feels like she has to tell everyone. The good thing is that we move in different circles. LOL. There are 4 or 5 people at church that know about it, and that worries me. Especially since one of them is 20 years old and prone to talking. I’m surprised she hasn’t let it slip.
I could use a picture of someone totally different. Wouldn’t that be funny? I think Stephen King did that when he was Richard Bachman.