Hi. I’m Brey.
And Ally.
And JJ Taylor. 🙂
Yes. I have three pen names. I also have three FB accounts (one of them is under my real name. I don’t have one for JJ Taylor.)
Why is this? Well. Let’s talk.
I started writing under Brey with my first books. Those are all speculative fiction of some sort: fantasy, sci-fi, dystopian, paranormal, etc. It’s a specific genre that I adore writing. There are ten of them out there now under Brey Willows.
When I decided to write pure romance, I chose to use a different pen name to separate that stuff from the other stuff. You see, people who like pure romance would look at my Brey catalogue and assume it had some otherworldly aspect they wouldn’t be interested in. If they want pure romance, then the Ally McGuire books are what they’re looking for. And people who read my Brey books would be disappointed if they picked up a book by Brey that had no otherworldly elements in it at all. So, a separation.
And separate FB pages, too, so that people who have no idea who Brey is can still find info about Ally books they’ve read and liked and so on. I do cross post marketing on them. I’m open about being both authors–the info is in the bios on all my pages. The JJ Taylor pen name is a mainstream book name, which has nothing to do with sapphic fiction, and therefore is different yet again. (That book, Medea, is a passion project that I’m particularly proud of.)
And of course, you can find me under my real name, too, on pretty much every platform, chatting about all the books I write, as well as the books my wife writes. Not to mention the books of the many authors we love working with! I also do a lot of talks on the craft of writing, providing tips, asking questions, and discussing the life of a writer.
There’s no pretending to be someone else–we don’t have other grand lives, boats, spouses, etc that don’t exist. Everything we share is true, but we might share different things on different platforms to keep things interesting. We’re us. Just us using various pen names for marketing purposes and so readers can find what they’d like to read. And maybe they’ll even cross over and like the other stuff under the other pen names! But, if they’re only interested in a particular genre, then they’ll easily find the books they might like to read.
There has been a lot of conversation on social media about transparency and authors taking advantage of readers by pretending to be someone they aren’t. It’s a small community and trust is important. Many readers feel entitled to know exactly who it is they’re reading; I personally rarely care about the author behind a book I enjoy, but I’m pretty atypical that way, I think. And so, all my profiles say I write under other names. There are real photos and real conversations. Honestly, I’m only on my second romance book (I find them really difficult to write) so I haven’t done a ton of posting on the Ally McGuire platforms. But as I write more of them (slowly) I’ll post there more regularly for the romance readers who like that work and who might never otherwise come across it if I only posted about it on Brey. In fact, I have a book coming out in November: Fragments of the Heart, which I’m really excited about. And I’m posting about that on all my platforms.
I’m abysmal at marketing. I’m always worried about posting too much, posting in the wrong place, posting too little, posting something that will bother someone, posting at the wrong time, posting in the wrong group…it’s a minefield, and I’m so worried about coming under fire that I’ll often refrain from posting even when I really want to. I’m a sensitive soul, you see, and the thought of pissing people off, however unintentionally, makes me feel rather like I’ve swallowed a bug sideways. So here I am, posting something probably no one will read, just to make sure folks know I’m not out to upset, mislead, disillusion, take advantage of…I can’t think of other terms…anyone. I just want to write books that people like to read.
That’s all.
The social/marketing side is pretty hard, to be honest. But I’m doing my best.
I hope that if you have any questions or concerns about us writing under different names for different genres, you’ll get in touch so we can talk it out. We respect our readers and writing as a profession, and we love what we do in the community. Writing sapphic fiction makes us happy, and the connections, friendships, and beauty we’ve developed through writing is never to be taken for granted.
Brey Willows 