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What's in pen name?

NotWise

NotWise

Desert Rat
Joined
Sep 7, 2015
Posts
13,591
What's in a pen name?

Suppose that you produced the same unimportant, first-time post under three different names, all in the same category and each a few weeks apart. For grins we can call the story "Sex in the Back Seat" -- SiBS for short.

I'm going to make up some names, so I'm sorry if they're your name. You post it once as authored by "ThrobbinRod", once as "JillJuicy" and once as "Mel2465." Category, title, short description and story tags are all the same.

Which pen name gets the most attention for SiBS? Does it matter? How much might that vary by category?
 
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Category is everything

I would say category matters in certain senses, for instance JillJuicy wouldn't get as much play in GayMale where it probably would do pretty well overall-- especially in Lesbian. ThrobbinRod is so generically sexualized that I doubt it would stick out anywhere save for the Lesbian section. I do have to say I'm less likely to click on any story written by an author with a stream of numbers behind words. Uninteresting username probably correlates to a uninteresting story. Though a Mel could be a man or a woman and that might interest me.
 
You know what the last thing it that I look at when deciding to read a story? The author name, if I even look at it at all. Exception, if I like the story, I will click on the author name to see what else they might have published. Until that time though, the name doesn't matter.

I know the name will be made up, with a high probability of trying to be cute and sexy, yet missing the mark by miles and miles and miles. I find most author name absurd and boring here on lit. Even my own, leave a lot to be desired. But, it's better than my real name.
 
I have to agree with Zeb Carter, the last thing I look at is the author name when looking for a story to read. I always look at the title and description first.
 
I'm sure that's just wonderful for both of you, and we certainly will file that information away for when we want to know what your personal preferences are, but I do believe that the general readership hones in on sexy-sounding female names here more than it does on others. It doesn't really matter that that isn't the brightest response, it doesn't seem to change what happens. (Yes, I've experimented with it.)
 
sr71plt said:
I'm sure that's just wonderful for both of you, and we certainly will file that information away for when we want to know what your personal preferences are, but I do believe that the general readership hones in on sexy-sounding female names here more than it does on others. It doesn't really matter that that isn't the brightest response, it doesn't seem to change what happens. (Yes, I've experimented with it.)
Click to expand...

That's only because most men, I said most, not all, come here thinking that a female author that writes porn will do anything they ask. Most are perverts looking to find that submissive slut who writes porn for them.

Of course that's all a bunch of bullshit, but there are men and some women out there that think that. So, yes, you are probably right about most men looking for a female sounding name.

My preference, first category, then title - description, then first paragraph. If I make past there, I might look at the author name, might.
 
Zeb_Carter said:
You know what the last thing it that I look at when deciding to read a story? The author name, if I even look at it at all. Exception, if I like the story, I will click on the author name to see what else they might have published. Until that time though, the name doesn't matter.

I know the name will be made up, with a high probability of trying to be cute and sexy, yet missing the mark by miles and miles and miles. I find most author name absurd and boring here on lit. Even my own, leave a lot to be desired. But, it's better than my real name.
Click to expand...

I think you are right, Zeb.
the "cute & sexy" is generally rather 'orrible, boring and somehow just - not right.
 
StrangeTamer said:
I have to agree with Zeb Carter, the last thing I look at is the author name when looking for a story to read. I always look at the title and description first.
Click to expand...

Does this mean that you have no favorite authors? If the author's name is the last thing you look at then you won't even notice who wrote it unless he/she happened to come up with a title and description that you like.
 
NotWise said:
Does this mean that you have no favorite authors? If the author's name is the last thing you look at then you won't even notice who wrote it unless he/she happened to come up with a title and description that you like.
Click to expand...

No I have a few favorite authors, I usually just visit their page to see if they have anything new. Normally I just browse to see if anything interests me.
 
JillJuicy puts me off because it's so cliched and I just don't like juicy as a description of a female. ThrobbinRod is just as cliched and I don't give a flip about anyone's rod but my own. Melnnnn is just dull. None of these grab my attention.

I've learned from time online that names don't mean much. A few years spent in online adult roleplay will teach you the way it goes. "LushAngel" is going to be lush, alright - she'll send photographs which prove it - but the angel part is just false advertising. Wet'n18 is a guy. DreamingButNotLost is going to talk about her spirit quests and crystal collection - she's an indigo, an aquarius and SUPER intuitive, but somehow never figures out she's boring you to death. HotAndHard is gay and will have a total of one topic of conversation. SpankMeDaddy is in her late 40s, was never spanked, and her husband doesn't know she's online.

In the end, you give up on learning anything from a nickname, and just ignore them.
 
There have been a couple times when I thought, "I should have picked a more generic pen name for Lit." That holds true if you're a male posting in the Lesbian category. I swear there are haters out there who simply look for lesbian erotica written by a male to one-bomb.

Is there a vicarious thrill imagining a hot babe wrote that story that made you wet/hard? Yeah, probably. In general, women aren't as free to express their sexuality as men.

While you present an interesting idea, I believe a title and a good description trumps the name associated with it. After reading, a person may be curious about the rest of that author's library - but I believe it's only a select few who start their story reading thrill with the thought, "I want to find a story written by a chick."

Oh, and since female handles are in the minority, there's certainly a novelty factor that comes into play.
 
I think folks on the thread are still substituting personal preference for Web site reality and giving too much credit to the bulk of Literotica readers. I think the bulk of the story readers here are men fantasizing being on the make with willing women and that, therefore, for the bulk of the readers here, an account name does have attention-getting value--the more female and crudely cruising the better. That's what I took to be the thrust of the OP question--not individual posters' personal preferences--which hover somewhere between "that's nice" and "so what?"
 
Cheesy name, cheesy writing

I generally avoid any author with a middle-school type of name.

I figure that if the best name he could come up with was Throbbin' Rod... Well, his stuff will be just as unimaginative and cliche.

Pass...
 
My favorite response so far is Bramblethorn's *cough*." I mean really, isn't "ThrobbinRod" going stick out by definition?

It's interesting to know that some people may not look at the author's name until they've read the story (which is a difficult thing to translate to the printed press). The question was more like, "all else being equal, does the author's name have an effect?"

I suspect that (as Pilot pointed out) there is a preference for female-name authors. Did SusanJillParker get more attention than Freddy? I don't know the answer to that.
 
NotWise said:
Did SusanJillParker get more attention than Freddy? I don't know the answer to that.
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That's an easy one to evidence. SusanJillParker is #23 on the top 250 favorite authors list. BOSTONFICTIONWRITER is #205.
 
Yes, but I've seen posters, presumably men, continuing to hit on "her" after being informed "Susan" is male--which only underscores the power of the account name.
 
I am more curious on how and why people come up with their pen names here. IRL I could will never use an alias because my given name has a lovely ring to it. In any business when you're 'selling an art or a part of you', your name is pretty important in some instances. My mom even told me to keep the name I was born with, even if I ever get married, for professional reasons.

As for my pen name here, it actually was the name of a character I created awhile back. I used the same username for Youtube. Numbers come from my High school ID number lol. 195 has stuck with me for almost 20 years now hehe. On my DeviantArt and Tumblr page though, I use Pristine, which is the main character of my Lost One story.
 
Mine was meant as camouflage. Variations (a couple of pen names playing off it) of a short connection from much earlier in my life that no one knowing my mainstream work would connect with me. Unfortunately, it's been too easy for detractors to zero in on that and completely lose connection with what I'm using it for--stories that stand on their own with no necessary connection to the pen names.
 
Zodia195 said:
I am more curious on how and why people come up with their pen names here. IRL I could will never use an alias because my given name has a lovely ring to it. In any business when you're 'selling an art or a part of you', your name is pretty important in some instances. My mom even told me to keep the name I was born with, even if I ever get married, for professional reasons.

As for my pen name here, it actually was the name of a character I created awhile back. I used the same username for Youtube. Numbers come from my High school ID number lol. 195 has stuck with me for almost 20 years now hehe. On my DeviantArt and Tumblr page though, I use Pristine, which is the main character of my Lost One story.
Click to expand...

As I recently revealed elsewhere, I nearly choose "Chuck Dickens" as my Lit pen name. I'm not real sure where I came up with the combination Bucky Duckman, except one of our kids once had a stuffed, baby duck that we called "Duck Chickens."

Other usernames I use for non-Lit reasons have been based on former roleplaying names and/or twists on my real name. Counting my work, Lit, and primary personal email, I still have six or seven other emails. (Geez, really?) Mostly because of the free storage that came along with them. (2 Hotmail accounts for personal and professional OneDrive use, those gmail accounts I mentioned, two BS gmails accounts that collect spam for when a website requires registration to access content, and a very old yahoo account from my chat days.
 
I specifically chose a name that I hoped would not attract much attention, and I've been quite successful at that. For one, it itself does not give away my gender, though I don't hide it. I wanted something that had a nice ring to it and had some personal significance - I would have used Legerdemain (sleight of hand, trickery) if it were available but of course it was already taken. I used Legerdemer as a play on that - "trick of the sea" - and invite folks to refer to me as Mer.

I have little doubt that, if Lit has more male than female readers and members, female names may have an advantage. No slight to the gay writers here at all - it just so happens biology deems that as far as sexuality goes, straight outnumbers gay by some unknown factor.
 
BuckyDuckman said:
Other usernames I use for non-Lit reasons have been based on former roleplaying names and/or twists on my real name. Counting my work, Lit, and primary personal email, I still have six or seven other emails. (Geez, really?)
Click to expand...
Does anyone associate anything significant with my screen name? Well, some have suggested that it signals inadequate oxygen flow to my brain... :cool:

I have assumed may identities over the past few decades. 'Hypoxia' dates back to my BBS days circa 1983. One fave Sonoma County (California) BBS was The Smurf's Village; there I became Hypoxia Smurf, and remain so. I also sometimes went by 0C7 (an IBM error code) and su.mi (an invitation for litigation).

Sorry I can't post my other IDs -- they would reveal entirely too much about my reality. Don't like that? Then su.mi.

EDIT: I almost forgot to mention the user group from those old dial-up days. We were SCUM: Sonoma County Users of Modems. And a right scummy lot we were, too. Hardly anybody with doctorates.
 
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legerdemer said:
I have little doubt that, if Lit has more male than female readers and members, female names may have an advantage. No slight to the gay writers here at all - it just so happens biology deems that as far as sexuality goes, straight outnumbers gay by some unknown factor.
Click to expand...

This is how Alexa.com describes the Literotica user's demographics.

attachment.php


Compared to the Internet average, the crowd here is overwhelmingly male.

While searching for that little bit of information I came a across an article on "theladiesfinger" written by an Indian woman. I'm not sure how many people here might already know about it. The article was an interesting read about the importance of Literotica.com in the author's life. I can't link to it, but it can be found by googling "what i learned on literotica.com"
 

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