Who Am I?

I'm trying to get the story posts back to the weekend, so we're going to talk about some other shit today. Namely, names.

Specifically, my name.

I've mentioned at some point in the past (I don't remember when, I have over 200 posts, man) that I had this whole debate about pseudonyms and whether or not I wanted to use one. I was going to. That's why the blog is under Mad Cooper. That's what I was going to publish as, when I got around to publishing. But the more I thought about it, the more I didn't like the idea. It would be a pain in the ass, more than likely, and I'd have to set up some kind of "doing business as" thing if I wanted to get paid. And I realized that people would potentially address me as "Mrs. Cooper," and I definitely didn't want that. There's a reason that's not my last name. It doesn't suit me.

So, long story slightly shorter, I decided I should publish under my real name, or two-thirds of my real name. So that's the plan, should I ever actually publish anything. I decided this months ago. Like… six months, at least. You might notice the blog is still under a pseudonym. I think at some point, I should switch the blog to the name I'll be publishing under, to grow my brand or my platform, or whatever. It's not like it's hard. I just change my display name. It would take maybe a minute.

So why don't I do it? I tell myself it's an anonymity thing, but 90% of my readers get here from my own private facebook. They know who I am. It's not like I have a secret identity. Who am I really hiding from?

I keep telling myself I'll change it when I get published, but everything I've heard says you have to build up your platform before that. I'm still super iffy on all that, and I think it's supposed to involve me having my own website, which would be neat, but is definitely not something I can afford until I'm raking in the sweet book money. Which is probably… never.

So this blog is what I've got, and frankly, I like that it's not like… myname.com. One, my name is super common at that probably already exists (It does, I checked, they make boats). Two, that seems super self-centered, and while maybe I have to sell myself in order to get… noticed or whatever, it makes me feel super gross, so let's avoid that, shall we?

All right, readers, all five of you… what do you think? Should I start blogging under my own name so that when books hit the shelves or amazon pages, they'll bear a familiar name? Is there a reason to stay anonymous? Let me know. Seriously, I need some opinions on the matter.

I'll see you Saturday, when the dude in the story has to deal with the next big hurdle in his unexpectedly continuing life.