Is it silly that I picture my novels on the shelves at Barnes and Noble? No, I didn't think so. It's a good way to visualize my dream and then work towards it. With my pen name, however, I noticed something kinda crappy...
First of all, I wanted my pseudonym initials to be the same as my real ones. Then, I wanted to pick a name that was bold, adventurous, romantic, and easy to remember. So I chose "J. Leigh Hunter". This was a name I picked many years ago. It wasn't a last-minute thing...an impulse buy, more or less. I spent days--months--working on my pen name.
And then I went to B&N and found out that there are two other (prominent) authors with the last name of "Hunter". One of which is Madeline, which is fine, but the other is Jillian. Jillian sounds an awful lot like "J. Leigh".
The bright side is that neither of these authors write Wild West/American Frontier historicals, mainly Regency. So that's not too much of a conflict of interest.
Another thing I noticed is that at B&N, and also at my library, the H authors are way down low on the bottommost shelf. Crap. That sucks the big one.
I'm not sure how marketing works for romance novelists and their publishers, but I can only hope for good reviews, peer ratings, and perhaps out-turned books when they hit the shelves. If customers are not coming in for my book, then maybe I can hook them with a really sexy cover.
J
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