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What's in a name?
You know the old cliché about not judging a book by it’s cover? Well, how about not judging an author by her pen name?
Ah, you’re wondering who’s been judged. That’s easy: I have. See it’s all in my name. Jess Dee. Sound simple enough? Sigh. It’s not. Wanna hear a secret? My pen name hasn’t always been Jess Dee. Not two months ago, it was Jessica Dee. So why the change you ask?
Sit down, grab a coffee, and I’ll tell you the whole sorry story.
There I am, ordinary old me, suddenly an erotic romance writer. It simply won’t do to use my real name on my books. Gasp What would my in-laws do if they saw their family name connected to steaming-hot love scenes?
So I give it a bit of thought and come up with an appropriate pseudonym: Jessica Dee. It has a nice ring to it, don’t you think? Then I hit a snag—the website I want, www.jessicadee.com is already taken. Ah, well, no worries. I’ll just change that to www.jessdee.com. It’s close enough.
Now you’d think at this point, I’d actually Google Jessica Dee and see who she is? Nope. I’m an innocent starting out in this business. I’m all too excited about the prospect of a pen name and a published book. Genius that I am, I wait until my website is uploaded, and my first book released—and then I Google the name.
Lo and behold, there are thousands of search results. Thousands. And there I am, at about search result no 10 000. The first 9 999 results all pertain to another, more famous Jessica Dee.
A porn star!
ACK. An erotic romance writer with the same name as a porn star. What are the chances? But that’s not the end of it. The cherry on the top is that the other Ms Dee has recently been diagnosed with HIV. Tell me, what is a Jessica Dee to do?
This one changed her name. Slightly. I am now Jess Dee, just like my website!
So, if you should be browsing the internet, and you come across a, uh, very nude Jessica Dee, in, er, a very interesting position, please remember—it’s not me!
I am just Jess, and proud of it.
Oh, Jess, I feel for you, but I’m ROFL at the coincidence. And, I thought it was bad that there’s another Denise Patrick out there, but she writes children’s books and always uses her middle name, so I figured I was safe. And, she hasn’t updated anything in ages because the last time I googled myself, I was about the first ten hits in various places around the web.
Good luck and I hope you have lots and lots of sales – regardless of name!!
So sorry about the name coincidence! It is a very entertaining story though. :)
I also use a pen name. I think there might be another Lyn Mangold out there, but I think she uses two n’s for Lyn instead of just one like me. So when I google myself I get my book, yahoo group, etc. So I guess I was lucky on that.
There’s a few porn stars named Jenna. Googling myself (jeez, that sounds so dirty now, doesnt it?) for the first time was very um..educational.. GAACK!
There are so many people with the same name and who have websites, it’s almost impossible to come up with a name that isn’t already used. Porn star or not :)
Natasha
Oh, Jess… I feel for you.
My pen name originated from a love of a really corny sci-fi program called Lexx, and a sleep-deprived search one night for a French word relating to sex… I was pretty happy with Lexxie Couper until I tried to set up my yahoo readers group and Yahoo newsletter group. Yahoo won’t let me use double X in the addy or description which is really frustrating. So, even though I shorten Lexxie to Lexx most of the time, when I’m dealing with Yahoo I have to be Lex (which makes me think of a bald arch-villain NOT erotic romance. sigh)
Lexxie Couper
LOL – I didn’t even see it coming. Great blog. You know though….it might not necessarily be a bad thing. There are a lot of men who read erotic romance and erotica. You might find yourself an entirely NEW area of readers. And as you build your name, your name is going to rise in rankings. It takes about 6-12 months to get up around one or two when you type in your name for returns. I’ve had my website since 2002 and when you type in my name. Mine is the first one to show. I have a Monica M Burns who was out there before me. She writes about women’s issues, so I think I’ve gotten some crossover traffic from her too.
Hugs Monica
Thank you for all the commiserations. Certainly seems like I’m not the only one with pen name…issues.
Jess
Murphy’s Law is alive and well, LOL. Oh well, hopefully you’ll pick up some curious eyes for your work. It’s scary to google yourself and find out how many people have the same or similar name, and how much info is out there about us. Good luck with the book.
Interesting story. I have a similar one. I recently discovered the girl I had a crush on all thorough middle school ( I even wrecked her sister’s car), is now a rather famous “adult” film star. Go figure.
then, last year, when I noted a new employee on the roster whose name was exactly the same as said porn star’s psudonym, I thought No Way. It can’t be.
it wasn’t. But what a coincidence, eh?
Poor Jess! But you made a good choice. Jess Dee is a very memorable name. And think about it this way- being short, it can go up on your covers in BIG letters.
OMG Poor Jess.
I didn’t even think to goggle my pen name before I chose it, probably because it was the name I was born with. LOL My married name is very common, and I wanted something different that was still me.
I’ve heard some wild stories about writers having problems with their pen name, but this tops them all!
Bye, bye Jessica Dee, hello Jess Dee!