I have two pen names, a long to-do list, and never enough hours in the day. For years, I told myself I didn’t need separate websites for each pen name. Readers would figure it out, right?
Besides, the idea of building another site made my brain want to melt. I envisioned design decisions, endless plug-ins, tech glitches, and a thousand little tasks I didn’t have the energy to handle. So I put it off. And… before I knew it, 11 years and nine books later, I still didn’t have a website for the pen name that had become my number one revenue stream.
In the end, the seemingly Herculean task of building a website for my second pen name only took me 20 minutes.
Below, I share my thoughts on having a pen name, how I came to build my pen name website, and the impact that website has had.
The benefits and challenges of pen names
I used to warn fellow authors away from getting a second (or third) pen name. After all, each new pen name brings a slew of to-do items. We’re talking separate social media accounts, email accounts, websites, branding, and more. It’s a lot to take on… which is why I used to be staunchly on the side of authors having only one pen name with clear per-book branding that communicated the subgenre. While I can still support that side, as time goes on, I’ve learned more about branding and changed my stance.
Authors should have a clear, distinct brand where readers don’t have to guess at a book’s experience, or decipher it from clues on a cover. In a perfect world, an author’s brand is a distinct lane where all of the books deliver the same emotions, experience, subgenre, and vibe. For example: Meghan Quinn, Freida McFadden, or Matt Dinniman. The more consistent an author’s brand and books, the stronger the reader’s loyalty and confidence, and the less guesswork involved in each purchase.
If you’re an author who jumps genres and writes lots of different types of books, having a unique pen name for each lane is the ideal scenario.
BUT you need to do the work involved in setting up brands for each of those lanes.
Why I finally gave in to a separate website
I started writing spicy romance under my Alessandra Torre pen name in 2012. In 2013, I launched A.R. Torre, writing mysteries and thrillers. To keep things simple, I just added the new pen name to my original website.
But the truth is, my A.R. Torre books deserved their own space. Their tone and covers aligned with a different kind of reader and it was confusing to see them promoted on a site together with my romance books. Combining them weakened both brands.
I also wanted to give my A.R. Torre readers an experience that:
- Made a polished first impression
- Funneled them to the right series and store links
- Helped grow my A.R. Torre email list
- Wouldn’t require a part-time job to manage
A website is a great way to do all that, but my first site took me six months to build, and involved two different designers and a bit of a learning curve. I didn’t want to do all that work again — just the idea of purchasing a new domain and linking it to a hosting platform filled me with dread. I just wanted it done — and without drama.
Then I saw a demo of BookBub’s Author Websites builder at Inkers Con. I attended the demo half-heartedly. After all, I hated website building! But I perked up as soon as I saw the website builder in action. It looked impossibly easy, and I pulled up the site with high skepticism. It couldn’t be as easy as it looked. Could it?
It was. Honestly. In 20 minutes, I built an entirely new site from scratch. I bought the domain, added all my books, created a series page, and the builder did the rest. It pulled in my book covers, descriptions, bios, and retailer links straight from my BookBub profile. No uploading. No digging around in folders labeled “FinalFinalFINALAuthorPhotos.” No copy/pasting.
The only things I had to manually add were my social media links and my MailerLite API key (which Google helped me find in less than a minute) to export new email subscribers.
Then it was just a few clicks to pick a layout, adjust the colors, preview different fonts, and boom. Done! I published the site, then immediately emailed every author on my email list and screamed my love and enthusiasm for the tool. When BookBub asked me for a testimonial, I was happy to write one — it’s an easy topic to rave about.
The new site I built is clean, simple, and makes it look like I actually have my life together (even if my writing desk suggests otherwise):
Was it worth the investment?
Now that my new A.R. Torre site is live, both my pen name brands are stronger. I’ve added a link to my new site to my social media bios, the back matter of my books, and my email footer. It’s now the go-to spot when I mention my thrillers, and I love that I’m building a separate email list for those readers with the site’s built-in subscribe forms.
If you’ve been putting off building a site because it feels like too much, I get it. I was in the same boat. I wanted a website for my pen name, but I didn’t want to make the massive investment of time and money that a traditional website represents.
You may have your own good reasons to keep your pen names on the same site — but know that it doesn’t have to be hard to create separate sites. Author Websites made it easy for me to create a clean, professional pen name site that I was really proud to share. And once it’s done, you can go back to writing. Good luck with the misbehaving protagonists and those pesky comma placements!
