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yansusu
Sep '19

A few days ago, there was a discussion about how to come up with pen names:

Quite a few people mentioned in their responses that they had different pen names on different sites because of various reasons. That made me wonder: Is there anybody around who separates pen names because of what they write/draw e.g. the genre? And (how) would you do that on the same site?

There's a bit of a personal reason for this question too (let's be honest :sweat_smile:). I was writing in another genre previously but stopped and switched over to my current BL stories. I'm increasingly feeling like picking up the old stuff though but since it's a different genre and associated with my previous pen name, I'd like to use that one to publish it again.
Now, the problem is: I'm here under my current name and don't want o change it since that's associated with my current stories which I don't want to drop. I haven't seen that having multiple accounts is forbidden but it always leaves a bad taste in my mouth (and maybe I just haven't looked at the rules well enough ...). I also haven't seen a way to have different names associated with the same account.

So ... What would you do if you were in that situation? Just get another account with the previous name and post with that one? Say screw it and put everything under the current name? Do you think there could be any negative consequences even if it's allowed? (Maybe bad for the brand? Or some ad revenue and tipping stuff?) Or maybe somebody already was in this situation and can share a bit of their experience? (I'd also take thoughts on other sites where you might have had that problem.)

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    Sep '19

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sydneyrobbin
Sep '19

I have two accounts on Wattpad. I posted the same question on the forums there, and most people were fine with having multiple accounts. My thought process is, I wasn't using two accounts to benefit in any way. I didn't use one account to vote for work from another account. I didn't publicize or anything.

The rules on Tapas say that we can't have multiple accounts for the sake of getting subscribers, likes, etc. (As far as I understand it)

You don't have an ulterior motive for wanting another account. I think you're fine to create another account for another genre.

I'm pretty new to Tapas, so maybe you could ask whatever is the Tapas equivalent of Ambassadors or the staff just to make sure?

yansusu
Sep '19

Yes, I also thought that having two accounts for separating pen names wouldn't fall under 'for the sake of getting something out of it' but it might really be better to ask the staff if nobody else knows for sure.

nostalgicroxas
Sep '19

I'd look at it in terms of what are you trying to get out of the two names?

  • I want two names so I can have one be the sort of content I can show my friends/family/co-workers without worrying that they might find the more edgier or controversial stuff (ie the BL).
  • I want two names simply because I want one to be the gruff, pervy, BL stuff, and I'm afraid readers who like that sort of thing or don't like it, won't come across my other genres and candypuff.
  • I want to utilize just one name so that people who find my current projects interesting, might look through my works portfolio and find something else of mine that they will enjoy.

Three very different ideas, with #1 being likely a reason a lot of people source. I would point out that given the chance, and something I mentioned in the other thread, if I had the choice to make my dA writing name what my current name is (nostalgicelle into nostalgicroxas), I would have - it would have organized all of my writing under one name, in one portfolio, making it easier for people to find.

I've met and talked to people who do one of the three reasons I've listed above and for various reasons in their personal lives, but it usually boils down to one of those three. That's also a thing people source for their artist names being different - pervy content being under a different name so co-workers can't find it or such. :thinking: This isn't unheard of persay in publishing as a whole since lots of mangaka hired in Japan, for example, operate their doujin spin-offs (which are canonical to their story, because it's done by them) underneath a pseudonym / alias. And this is usually done, according to articles, for two purposes: 1 to seperate it from their professional work, and 2 to seperate it from their professional contracts.

As writing a doujin for their work (say the mangaka for Gravitation writing doujin's that are super perverted) would potentially conflict with sales through the public's impressions of the story if it's considered to be fully canon. Gravitation itself is rather tame, albeit 4th wall meta breaking on crack, but it doesn't contain any explicit sex scenes. The doujins however, done by what fans have deduced to be the official mangaka, however are very very NSFW - including suggestions of rape (expanding that rape scene from the main story), suggestions of orgies, voyuerism and exhibitionism, and other fetishes. As a whole, these aren't bad and pretty regular for doujins. However, if the mangaka put their name on the doujin as the same name that was on Gravitation, especially at the height of popularity, the story would have likely suffered and not run as long as it did, and likely wouldn't have been picked up for a 13-episode+1ova stint. And this was during the time when Sukisho (a graphic BL visual novel game) was also picked up for the same sort of runtime and was heavily censored.
Another comparison would be something famous and current. Let's say Avengers since they're comics and were picked up for movies recently-ish. If the creators of Avengers comics, let's say it was Lee to keep this simple, also had comics of various characters chopping off people's heads and gettin' it on, then the public's perception of the stories would be that it's all about that violence and sex and it wouldn't be applicable for kids. Kind of like when Joker shoots and tortures a certain Robin, and it's a miracle that's even animated. Lee would have to release that kind of content, assuming he wants to publicize it at all, under a different name. But, in the US, we don't have buddy-buddy understandings and agreements with copyright and doujins/fanworks that Japan has, so that kind of thing - since it would be considered "damaging to the reputation of the original" would be flagged and taken down ASAP with lots of damage control around it.

I somehow got off topic there... but the point remains. I hope. You can both benefit and hurt yourself and your work from utilizing the same name across everything. Which is the higher outcome more likely to happen - the hurt from being combined with all of your work together, or the benefit that your fans don't have to speculate if this is canon, done by you, or official in some other regard. I personally don't mind linking people to my pwp p.o.s.'s on Ao3 to read, but all of those works have been tagged appropriately with NC17+, explicit sexual content, and pwp, and so forth - so someone clicking the work without reading those tags (which the NC17 one is red) is blind as a fruitcake. And it's not my fault :stuck_out_tongue: Would I post that work here on tapas? No. #1 they're mostly fanstuff, #2 they're mostly stuff that hasn't or wouldn't happen in the main story, or #3 are AU- well and #4, are pwp prompt exercises.

yansusu
Sep '19

Ah, not at all. I loved the examples! I always think that examples help with understanding the points that were made better :smiley:
I actually didn't think of NSFW-stuff beforehand (since everything I do is pretty tame whether it's BL or not) but now that you mentioned it ... it makes a lot of sense that people might want to separate them in that way for the reasons you mentioned.

nostalgicroxas
Sep '19

One I've heard mentioned a lot before is the #1 example I gave. And their extended reasons usually involve that someone who they talk to a lot and has the IRL power to make their lives miserable, would or could find their work if they find it under a usual suspect username. It ends up resulting in very odd usernames that are nothing like what the person usually uses for the bulk of their work - but for that very small, very specific, stuff they want to or need to hide from someone, they need to utilize a second name.
And that doesn't even have to be about NSFW stuff. It could be that the story has something tame like cussing, or utilizes themes that don't align with a religion. Or it's political. Anything that can make the creator's life miserable if that one person finds it.

yansusu
Sep '19

I can imagine :confused: A former fellow author somehow managed to attract a stalker and had to give up writing since there are some laws in my country that are terrible for self-published authors because we'll have to publicize our name + address if we want to publish the stories as a book. It's a little easier online but I guess you'd have to make sure you're far, far away from anything recognizable in such cases too

yansusu
Sep '19

Since nobody else seems to have any experiences with this ...
@michaelson are we allowed to have a second creator account on Tapas if we don't use it to gain an advantage but just to separate different pen names? Or if we don't, is there any other way (planned maybe?) to do that on one account (in the future)?

michaelsonSenior Editor in Chief, here to help you
Sep '19

Yes, that's fine. There's nothing against our terms and services that stipulates anything against that.