I Have a Secret: I Have a Penname

I feel like I’m deceiving people by keeping a secret from my readers. I don’t like that feeling because it implies that I’m embarrassed about this secret, and I am not. Last month I started writing a short story erotica series. I am writing it under a penname.

My Elemental Series is a Young Adult series that will move into New Adult in the last couple of books, so obviously I don’t want to risk having young teens search out other works by me and have them pick up an erotica book if they’re not ready for that or if their parents don’t want them to read it. It seemed prudent that I keep the two projects totally separate. I plan to write more stories under my real name, keeping with Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance, though they will most likely not be Young Adult, but there is no reason why teens can’t read them. The main character just won’t be a teen herself.

I’m not embarrassed that I am writing these erotic stories, but they are paranormal/supernatural and the main character is an elf so, like I said, I didn’t want there to be any confusion about the content. But I feel weird hiding this from people. I like the first story I published and I am enjoying writing the follow up story and hope to have it up for purchase before the end of the month. However, as much as I like these stories I felt it inappropriate to promote them for fear of reaching out to the wrong demographic. I have no way of knowing the age range of those that have purchased Earth thus far; as far as I know everyone has been an adult, but what if they weren’t?

It’s a difficult balancing act. So I feel like I should tell my readers about my new work, but again I worry. I was mature enough as a teen to read this kind of content, and I imagine most of my readers would be too, but that is not for me to decide.

But in the end I don’t like feeling like I’m keeping a secret from you all. So, if you’re so inclined, my penname is Leila Bryce Sin.

Whew! That’s a weight off of my chest.