Did you know there's another writer called Kate Warren? Neither did I until recently. Now that I know, I thought it might be a good idea to address the issue of what to do when you find out that someone else is using your name. In my case, you do nothing.
Kate Warren isn't my real name. It's a pen name chosen because someone else was using my real name (which turns out to be a lot more common than I thought). So I'm not going to get territorial about it.
As far as people getting us mixed up, there are a few considerations that help. For one thing, we write in different genres. For another, she lives in England, and I live in the US so the vocabulary we each use in our work is likely to be different. Also I'm the only one using "the condensed writer" after my name.
The funny thing is that six years ago when I was looking for a good pen name, I did internet searches on suitable names using descriptors like author, writer, novelist...etc. Kate Warren came up with nothing. Nobody was using it, at least not that Google knew about.
But still I wonder... Is this other Kate Warren the "other" Kate Warren? Or am I the "other" Kate Warren? Maybe she's been writing for ten years and I didn't know about it because she wasn't online yet.
So, I'm not going to contact her and ask her to change her professional name. The question then is should I change mine? I could add a middle name or initial, not on the books that are already available, but certainly on the new ones.
What do you think? Should I make a minor adjustment to my name or leave it as is?
Kate Warren isn't my real name. It's a pen name chosen because someone else was using my real name (which turns out to be a lot more common than I thought). So I'm not going to get territorial about it.
As far as people getting us mixed up, there are a few considerations that help. For one thing, we write in different genres. For another, she lives in England, and I live in the US so the vocabulary we each use in our work is likely to be different. Also I'm the only one using "the condensed writer" after my name.
The funny thing is that six years ago when I was looking for a good pen name, I did internet searches on suitable names using descriptors like author, writer, novelist...etc. Kate Warren came up with nothing. Nobody was using it, at least not that Google knew about.
But still I wonder... Is this other Kate Warren the "other" Kate Warren? Or am I the "other" Kate Warren? Maybe she's been writing for ten years and I didn't know about it because she wasn't online yet.
So, I'm not going to contact her and ask her to change her professional name. The question then is should I change mine? I could add a middle name or initial, not on the books that are already available, but certainly on the new ones.
What do you think? Should I make a minor adjustment to my name or leave it as is?
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