#10 Setting Up Google Alerts Led to a Pen Name Crisis: What To Do When Someone Else Has Your Pen Name 😭

It’s fine. I’m fine. Everything is fine…

I’ve been emotionally attached to my pen name for years. But guess what? Someone else is using almost the exact same one. And it’s not like I can make a deal with a sea witch to steal back the name, right?? Right. Sigh. 

It’s not EXACTLY exactly the same. It’s spelled differently, but what are the chances that readers will google and misspell the name and find the wrong one of us? Probably fairly high.

Options I’m considering:

• Crying about it for a few hours and then making a decision

• Eating some emotional-support cake

• Adding a middle initial and differentiating the spelling even more

Has anyone else out there run into this same problem?? What did you do to solve it?

I don’t want to put my middle name out into the ether, and there aren’t any other family names that I want to take on. 

I think the method I’m going with is adding a middle initial and differentiating the spelling. Maisie M. Meyers has a nice ring to it. And hopefully that’s distinct enough to keep the two streams uncrossed. 🤞

📌 Next up: Seriously, the answer is cake. Then, maybe I’ll feel a little better about this whole horrible realization. It’s not the end of the world, right??

🗨️ If you’ve also run into this issue, please leave a comment and let me know! We can commiserate together.