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Should you change all the names, including yours, in your memoir?
Beyond changing the names of the other people in your memoir, you could also change your own name!
In thinking about the impact of publishing your memoir, you may have thought about using a pen name…
Why would you want to do this?
There are a lot of reasons authors use pen names… too many to go into here.
But I can’t see that it makes a lot of difference what name you use.
When you look at best-selling memoirs on amazon, how do you know if that’s the author’s real name or not? Unless you know them personally, who can tell?
And do you really care?
You could write your memoir under a pen name and never tell your family and friends you wrote a book!
They’re not your market anyway. Let’s say 15 of them bought your book — well, that certainly didn’t make you rich.
If you choose to write under a pen and not tell family and friends, then all during the memoir-writing process, you can’t tell ANYONE you are writing a memoir.
Personally, I think this is a bit paranoid, and kills your chances of getting quality feedback from peers on your writing and…
