Image from the TV series “Awkward”

What’s in a name? Apparently everything.

Most of you have noticed by now I changed my writing name, but I’ve been so caught up in the nightmare of changing it that I haven’t had time to explain why. Or why it’s been such a nightmare.

For anyone new to me, the name I use on social media for writing was Raven CLARK. There is another Raven Clark on Amazon who writes in the same genre, erotic romance. As some of you know, I have a book coming out, an erotic short story, Doing Wright. It’s due out later today (Sept 1, 2015, YAY!!!). It’s my first release. Had I kept my name as Raven Clark, there would have been the risk of confusion for readers once the book came out. Plus I don’t want to step on the other Raven Clark’s brand, or for her to step on mine. The other writer is very prolific and writes different enough from me that once you read the books you can tell us apart, but the possibility of cross contamination is still huge. Especially down the road when I have more books out and the names start to compete with each other.

For anyone in publishing—or for that matter in any business—I don’t have to tell you how awkward this sort of change came make things, or of the potential disaster it can bring so close to launch. And it doesn’t matter if you’re self publishing or going traditional, it’s still a shit load of work.

I should state here, in case anyone is worried about buying the book now, the name change won’t effect the story. I’ll work on getting the files updated as soon as I finish this post, and Amazon takes time to put the update through, but it’s just the cover and the links to my pages at the back of the book that will be inaccurate, as they still say Raven Clark. If you buy before the update, you’ll get an email asking you if you want an update once it goes through. The update will be free.

Now, I can imagine what you’re saying. Why didn’t I look up the name before I took it?

First, I did. Repeatedly, between the time I took the writing name, and now. The other Raven wasn’t there. She appears to have only started publishing within the last six months. There was no Raven Clark, at least not one I had to worry about people confusing me with. Second, when I came up with the name, now almost a decade ago, self publishing didn’t exist as it does now, and there weren’t billions of authors cropping up risking competition with the same names.

So, I changed my name to Raven DARK. But that meant changing everything connected with the old name over to the new. Which is why I’ve disappeared from social media almost entirely for the last few days. The less I posted anywhere, the less chance for drawing attention to the change before the migration was complete, and thus causing confusion.

Since I only discovered the issue three days ago, I’ve been scrambling to get everything changed over in time for release day. It meant buying a new domain and paying for a new website. It took two days, most of it online with an amazing friend of mine who knows way more about website stuff than me, to get everything fixed. If you look around, the site is actually better than it was. It’s all pretty now, thanks to her epic skills. Then we had to change all my social media pages and contact the support centers for all of them so we could have the url’s changed. I’m still waiting on Amazon to update my author page, because apparently there are parts I can’t do myself, and they can’t change everything until I update the book itself with the new cover. Which, I can’t do until after it’s released. Until after the damn thing is on SALE.

So for at least a little while after Doing Wright comes out, until the appropriate people catch up and change things over, my first book is probably going to have the wrong author name, and my Amazon page still says Raven Clark in the browser. Which means it looks like you’re looking at the wrong person.

Trust me, you aren’t. It’s me, and you have the right book. Hopefully the update will go through in a few days, so everyone can get a copy with the right cover and links.

Most of the hard work is done, but ugh. This would have to happen now, days before release. It never hits you how important your name is, or how it binds you to everything until something like this happens.

As I’ve been weeding out all the Clarks from my pages, it’s hit me exactly how bonded I was to the name. It’s a pen name, yes, but I think of myself more as Raven Clark than my real name. I spend so much time online being Raven, when I’m out with friends and they call me by my real name, it feels weird. I literally cringe. It’s a second before I realize I’m supposed to respond. I AM Raven. The idea of changing the first name would have gutted me, like losing a part of me. Plus I wanted to make the transition as easy for readers as possible, and people have called me Raven for a very, very long time.

So, with release day looming (or here) and zero hour coming, I sit here blogging to you, hoping my first book baby doesn’t come into this world to the resounding sound of awkward crickets.

The only reassurance for me is that, as a few authors have pointed out, sales for first books tend to be very slow unless you have a huge fanbase, so not many will likely notice that book has the wrong author name on it. By the time the book picks up steam, if it does, everything will be updated. Which is exactly why I haven’t been doing the blitz of promoting one might expect with a first release. It sounds backwards, but, although lots of sales would be fantastic, part of me doesn’t want the book to end up with a lot of buyers on its first day. Fewer people to confuse and annoy. LOL

There is a bright side to this. At least it’s happening now, and not two years later when I have a huge number of books out and hopefully a big fanbase.

Oh, and one more thing. IF you happen to buy a copy of Doing Wright with a Clark on it, keep it. Get the update, but keep the file. You never know. It night be worth something one day.  *grin*

What about you? Have you had something happen on your first day of a job or your first book release that made things awkward for you? Was it a disaster? How did you handle it? Tell us your story.

R.C. …er, I mean D.

***Doing Wright, my erotic short story, is available for preorder at Amazon. It’s BBW with a hint of BDSM, romance, and a hot alpha professor.***