Ever try to find a needle in a haystack? Of course you haven’t. Me neither. The idea is preposterous. No one would do that. Stupid question, sorry I asked it. How about this one:
Have you ever tried to find out something about John Smith in an internet search? Google returns seventeen million results. Bing returns seven million. And if you look for ol’ John as an author on Amazon, you’ll get 12,702 results. What’s my point?
While I am not John Smith, I suffer from the same problem, getting lost in the proverbial pile of fermenting cattle food (no offense, other Michael Davises). According to HowManyofMe.com, there are over sixteen thousand people in the United States with the name Michael Davis.
I prefer my focus to be on writing, not marketing. But I do want people to read my work, so I need to market it. It is difficult to stand out in a crowd of people with the same name. So I have decided to start using a pen name.
Pen names have been used throughout history for various reasons. Voltaire, Mark Twain, and Lewis Carroll are all pen names. There is even a rumor that William Shakespeare was a pen name. Some more recent ones include Anne Rice, J.K. Rowling, and Lee Child.
My new pen name is Davis Falk. It should be obvious how I chose the first name, but in addition to its relation to my real name, it is said to be a popular Southern name. Falk is adapted from William Faulkner, one of my favorite authors. I will start using this name with the release of my new short story, “The Spaceport Was Empty” of which you can read a sample in a post in a few weeks.
What does this mean for readers? There will be a new blog at DavisFalk.com. It will be this one. The old web address will continue to work. But the name will change. Hopefully this will all be seamless and the only difference you will see will be the title of the blog. But at least now you are warned! Thanks for your patience and understanding with this change. And thanks for reading!