Thursday, February 16, 2012

“...gonna use a nom de plume...”


If you don’t start singing the song from Disney’s Aladdin, then watch the video and maybe you will. :}


Okay back to the subject of Nom de Plums, or Pen Names. As I was perusing writing and publishing related blogs I came across this one from The Passive Voice, Pen Names – Everything You Need to Know, and it got me thinking about how I could use various pen names for all the different categories of stories I have on my hard drive and the names I could use.

I got a little carried away, but thankfully a post by Anne R. Allen, Part IIIof her How to Blog series reeled me in. She recommends, for the second or third time, that you should use your name as your blog title so your readers can find you.

I commented how I have name confusion, between Elorithryn and Cathryn. Okay I have name confusion on more than those two, but Anne commented that she’d seen Elorithryn, but hadn’t realized it was me. That gave me pause.

Isn’t the sun avatar clue enough? I suppose if you don’t know me, or the fact that it’s my tattoo, perhaps it is confusing. The thing is I consider the sun my Brand more than my name. Names change, that tattoo is quite permanent. Not to mention it is the source of my sunny disposition. *grin* It’s also a unique design, born of my own drawing and the tattoo artist’s flare for color.

But perhaps the sun isn’t enough. Perhaps this ought to be Cathryn Leigh’s Diary, not Elorithryn’s, though the web address might have to stay http://elorithryn.blogspot.com/, though maybe I could get CathrynLeighsDiary.blogspot.com. I don’t know what that will do to my net presence though. You see, if you Google Elorithryn, I pop up immediately (this blog, Protagonize, NaNo...). Google Cathryn Leigh and you don’t find me (the woman I was named after pops up though; she’s the only one who spells her name like I do). *sigh*

So, if anyone has any advice for me on this quandary, please share it. I’m beginning to wonder if I should have stayed Elorithryn when I started posting comments on writing blogs... But I want to be published as Cathryn Leigh.... *sob, sigh, breath and grin*


:} Cathryn Leigh

6 comments:

  1. A warning: changing your blog URL makes life rather difficult for your readers. I don't have my name in my title, but my name still comes up top of Google with my blog (albeit the wordpress one I deleted ... I'm working on that xP)

    Personally, I'd just make sure you had your real name in your blog description - that's what I do with mine - and use your tattoo to mark you out well. I've started doing that with my new picture (the one with Llewellyn on my head, haha!) so people can recognise me better.

    Make sense?

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    1. Yup. And how can we not love Llewellyn on your head, even if I have trouble prnpouncing and thus spelling his name. :}

      I have been tempted to update the tattoo photo so that more of me shows, Such as me looking over my shoulder, since the tattoo's on my upper back.

      I do have Cahtryn Leigh in the Blog Sub-title at least. :}

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  2. I have this issue, because my blog doesn't have my name in the title and the username is 'delorfinde' rather than 'miriamjoy' - which means when I comment on non-WordPress blogs it often comes up as a comment from 'delorfinde' as it uses my username. On WordPress I've set Miriam Joy as my display name, so that's what comes up, which helps as most of the blogs I read are hosted over there. Now that I have a Blogger account too it's easier to comment here with my name.

    I've been tempted to change my username to miriamjoy but it's taken, so it would have to be miriam-joy. ('miriamjoy.wordpress.com' appears to be a blank website. Most annoying, as I'd like that URL!) And I'm unwilling to kill all links to my blog. Like, my Tumblr username used to be www.delorfinde.tumblr.com but I decided to change it to reflect the nature of my blog now, so it's www.initially-a-pirate.tumblr.com, and any links I sent people before I changed it don't work unless you replace 'delorfinde' with the new URL, as it doesn't redirect.

    Anyway. I think the most important thing is to have a title similar to your URL. I don't. People might type in farewelltosanity.wordpress.com or something, if they're guessing what my blog is. Spook is close with towerofplot, although people might add 'leaning'. If your username is the same as your header it's easier to find by people who've read it before but can't remember the address; otherwise, you have to google it and people are less likely to bother.

    I can't give you any advice, is what I'm basically trying to say, because I'm thinking about the same thing.

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    1. Actually you did because you've pointed out that having the web address (elorithryn.blogspot) be similar to the title (Elorithryn's Diary) is good for people trying to find you. SO I've good on that. Now it seems I just need to link cathryn leigh and Elorithryn together more closely... Which I tried to do on the About Me - at least I explain how it's my internet handle. :}

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  3. Hi Cathryn! When did you change your "tagline" (I hope that's the right term for it... I'm thinking, in Wordpress, of the "subtitle" line that appears below your blog's title)? If it was recent, you might need to wait a bit. I did find that adding my name to that tagline, plus posting more regularly, helped Google find me.

    I love your "pen name" and hope you can hang onto it! :)

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    1. Yup tagline, that's right... that didn't get changed until recently, as in maybe a month ago. So yes, it'll probably take a while for me to start appearing in Google searches. And this blog is ust about nine months old so... :} baby steps you know he he.

      :} Cathryn

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