Pen Names: A New Quora Space to Promote Your Related Stories

Have you tried using Quora’s new spaces feature?

Recently, I decided to give in to all the suggestions about using Quora’s newest feature called “spaces” and I ended up creating two spaces of my own.

The first space I created was: “Charm’s Corner” because I already had an older Quora account under my primary pen name of Charm Baker.

I hadn’t planned on spending a lot of time on the website, so I thought, what the heck; I’ll just post questions and short little posts, using the Charm Baker persona.

Initially, I was okay with writing under that particular pseudonym, because I wasn’t quite sure how to tie in the Medium stories. My Medium account profile is Justiss Goode and I didn’t want to confuse readers or worst yet, be accused of plagiarism.

As you can see, the whole issue of pen names can sometimes get a little twisted up and potentially cause confusion.

And just like on so many occasions, a good idea was born out of the chaos. Let me tell you about it.

Writers can benefit from information about the use of pen names.

The great idea I came up with was to start a Quora space, specifically devoted the topic of PEN NAMES. There are lots of related issues that could be discussed, and I’m sure many writers would like to talk about their pen names.

Even writers and aspiring authors who don’t have pen names might be interested in reading some beneficial advice and opinions.

I’m a self-published author with 3 different pen names. I’m sure there’s something of value that I can offer to new interested writers.

It’s not uncommon for online writers and self-published authors to experience dilemmas related to using pen names. Typically, if you write and explore a variety of genres, the different content and audiences may end up clashing.

Of course, there are other reasons that a writer may choose to write under a pseudonym, but whatever the reason, at some point you may decide to hang onto the new pen name indefinitely.

That is what I’ve done with my Justiss Goode pen name.

Justiss became a prolific writer in a short span of time (340 stories published), so the decision to tuck her away on the shelf would be counterproductive.

In fact, one of those published stories that is currently available in her portfolio is actually a short novella. Harder to Forget is available to Medium readers right now, although it was self published and is still on sale at Amazon.

After years of struggling as an online writer, things are finally paying off, and thanks to the growing portfolio of stories published on Medium, the monetary rewards are also increasing.

I got serious about committing to my pen name

When I recently decided I was definitely sticking with my pen name, I knew I’d want to use it on other platforms and not just for writing on Medium.

In order to really make a commitment to myself and my new pen name, I took a proactive step and created a new Justiss Goode writer/author website.

I prefer a website over trying to start a blog, because a website can be static; meaning: As long as all the relevant details are displayed, you only need to update the site periodically.

By having an automatic date code insert the current date on the home page, my site will always look current and active. With a blog, I’d have to regularly post content, which spells time away from Medium, where my real bread and butter is.

So the website is perfect, because I set it up to serve my purpose, now I can be done with it for awhile, if I choose to be.

In case you’re wondering how that helps my Medium stories; I posted clickable titles to roughly 200 of my stories, so the reader is brought here to Medium. I’m not worried about trying to monetize somewhere else, or have Medium readers stray away to my website.

My objective is to do the opposite, by bringing readers from other places online, to the Medium community. That’s why I didn’t actually post any stories on my website. I did, however, post a few excerpts, along with a “Read More” link, leading back to Medium.

You can visit www.JustissGoode.com and see how I laid everything out.

Final Thoughts

Have you got a pen name that you’d like to share or talk about? Do you have some type of issue or question related to pen names? Are you a new writer or aspiring author and thinking about using a pseudonym?

Whatever your particular situation happens to be, if this topic is relevant or of interest to you, don’t hesitate to learn more.

Medium members with pen names or pen name issues can request to join the space and leave related comments. https://pennames.quora.com/

DEAR READER: I always enjoy talking to writers on writing. This advice is meant to help writers on Medium get more exposure. Whether you prefer self publishing all your stories, or you submit them to Medium publications, you can still benefit from the information.

Check out the 340 stories I published since I started writing on Medium. | Let’s be friends on TWITTER: @GoodeWriter

Not a Medium Member yet? Join now with my referral link: https://justissgoode.medium.com/membership