I was born in 1992. That means a lot of things, but for purposes of our discussion it means that I've been on the internet since before I was old enough to exercise good judgement about how I used it.
I got my first private computer when I was 13. In my case, this was too young for several reasons (see: poor judgement). In any case, I started exploring the internet, and as many 13 year olds are wont to do, I in due course became an internet troll. I'm not proud of that fact, but the details of that period aren't really why I'm posting this. What's important is that at one point, through an unfortunate series of events, my real name became associated with the username I used for trolling.
I've since adopted the "Two McMillion" moniker in a deliberate attempt to distance myself from those days. I like to think I'm a better person now. I'm even active on a forum I used to troll under the new name; I don't think anyone so much as guesses I used to be that other guy. At least to me, I think I act night and day differently.
It happens that on this forum, a lot of people read books, and a lot of them have excellent social media capital that could be very helpful if I can get them to like a book that I write. Several of them are regularly given advance copies of books in order to review them. Since we have a preexisting relationship, I'd certainly like to make use of that fact.
Problem is, a lot of these same people were active on that forum back in my trolling days. My concern is that if they recognize my real name (in, say the byline of a novel), that I'll lose all the credibility I've worked hard to build up with them.
I've considered writing under a pseudonym, but that would basically require me to do all of my writing under that pseudonym. I'm not sure I like that; I've been told my real name is very attractive. Alternatively, I could simply not associate my account on that forum with a book I write, but I hate to lose the opportunity my relationships there represent.
What do you guys think? Maybe I'm making a bigger deal out of this than it is, but it does bother me when I think about it.
I got my first private computer when I was 13. In my case, this was too young for several reasons (see: poor judgement). In any case, I started exploring the internet, and as many 13 year olds are wont to do, I in due course became an internet troll. I'm not proud of that fact, but the details of that period aren't really why I'm posting this. What's important is that at one point, through an unfortunate series of events, my real name became associated with the username I used for trolling.
I've since adopted the "Two McMillion" moniker in a deliberate attempt to distance myself from those days. I like to think I'm a better person now. I'm even active on a forum I used to troll under the new name; I don't think anyone so much as guesses I used to be that other guy. At least to me, I think I act night and day differently.
It happens that on this forum, a lot of people read books, and a lot of them have excellent social media capital that could be very helpful if I can get them to like a book that I write. Several of them are regularly given advance copies of books in order to review them. Since we have a preexisting relationship, I'd certainly like to make use of that fact.
Problem is, a lot of these same people were active on that forum back in my trolling days. My concern is that if they recognize my real name (in, say the byline of a novel), that I'll lose all the credibility I've worked hard to build up with them.
I've considered writing under a pseudonym, but that would basically require me to do all of my writing under that pseudonym. I'm not sure I like that; I've been told my real name is very attractive. Alternatively, I could simply not associate my account on that forum with a book I write, but I hate to lose the opportunity my relationships there represent.
What do you guys think? Maybe I'm making a bigger deal out of this than it is, but it does bother me when I think about it.
