Can using my name as author harm my book sales?
My name is Vinícius Morais, and I'm new to writing books. I have finished my first fantasy novel. But do I keep my name as the author or create a pen name? The main problem is there's a great poet and composer in Brazil (I'm from Brazil too) with the name Vinicius de Moraes.
The name is not same, as you can see, but for search engines it might as well be. Every place (Google, Amazon, Wikipedia...) you search Vinícius Morais, you will find Vinicius de Moraes's books and music.
I'm not sure if this is bad for me. I really want to maintain my real name in my books, but I need to think. I imagine that one day I will sell some books. Is better to use a pseudonym?
*Changing my name is not possible.
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1 answer
I say keep your real name.
It's not exactly the same as any other author at the moment and none of the names you mention are unique enough that it would be confusing to use something similar. It's not like your real name is George LL Martin or William Shookspeare.
No matter what name you choose, Google will get it wrong. There will always be somebody else's name that's close enough to muddle the results.
Say you do pick a pen name that magically comes up with no other results in search engines. How do you know this won't change? Someone else with a real or chosen name similar to yours might come along and ruin your carefully crafted naming. There was a question here on Writing about an established author who discovered that someone in another country chose a pen name that happened to be the same as the author's name (it's unlikely this was on purpose) and then used it to author several porn novels for sale on Amazon.
So stick with your actual name. Maybe the longer version if you think it will differentiate yourself better. But something that is still you. There's no telling what names may be popular in the future. Perhaps it will be yours.
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