Change your Asian name; sell more books?

[Motherofgorgons]

I have an Asian writer friend who self publishes romance in the UK and the US. She sold a few under her own long Asian name and with a colour photograph. They did not sell. She changed her name to a Western one ( think regular Christian name) and used a black and white photo where her ethnicity is ambiguous. She is now selling pretty well, not exactly JK Rowling but making over US$1500 per month and expects to make more. Anyone have thoughts?

I suppose to depends on the genre. People may think someone with an ‘ethnic name’ might write about race or culture or worry or won’t be racy enough! Or maybe the ‘new name’ was reminiscent to other writers of the genre - Babette Carter? Millie Boone?

What do you mean exactly when you say “anyone have thoughts”?

Only that that is a very large amount to make from selling self published books.

I have thoughts.

SOS Racisme, a French anti discrimination charity, did an experiment or two some years back. One was sending white couples and Muslim couples to a nightclub. Guess who got in and who didn’t? Another trick they tried was changing obviously Muslim names on CVs for people who’d had no success getting employed. Oddly, they were suddenly successful. There were several case studies for the latter.

I thoroughly believe that outward appearances and names can be discriminated against, the charity pretty much proved it really effectively. I would not be amazed if the OP’s friend is now more successful due to the name change. Having said that, there might be other factors eg better publicity/agent or she’s using trending features eg werewolves seem to be ‘hot’ in romantic fiction currently. Wouldn’t amaze me if it were her name, tho.

@KittenKong

I suppose to depends on the genre. People may think someone with an ‘ethnic name’ might write about race or culture or worry or won’t be racy enough! Or maybe the ‘new name’ was reminiscent to other writers of the genre - Babette Carter? Millie Boone?

Nothing like Babette Carter or Millie Boone.:) Or Lizzie Harlequin.

A pity really, that readers think books written by Asian writers must be about arranged marriages or footbinding during the time of Mao. Her books are not super racy, but racy enough, I think.

As for her sales figures, I have seen her Amazon KDP dashboard so I know she is making that much in some months, though not all months. . She obviously has a day job as well.

The publicity has been the same throughout and she has no agent at the moment.

Not surprised at all. My Asian friend changed her name to an English name several decades ago so that she was not discriminated against when she applied for jobs.

This reminded me of SOS racisme too.

So disappointing and yes I do believe the uptake in sales is due to the name change.

We have a pretty unusual foreign name - even people in the COO scratch their heads with it. We haven’t had issues with it being ‘too foreign’ but then maybe that because it just baffles people?

A cousin has a ‘version’ of her name but that’s because it’s pronounced a bit too close to the n-word for her safety.

Have you read any of Kia Abdullah's books? She is a brilliant writer and always a shocking twist at the end

If it’s not an author that I’ve already heard of then the name is probably the last thing I look at - cover and title are much more likely to draw me in!

footbinding during the time of Mao

Mao outlawed footbinding, which was already a dying practice in some regions.

But anyway.

As you were!

@KittenKong

We have a pretty unusual foreign name - even people in the COO scratch their heads with it. We haven’t had issues with it being ‘too foreign’ but then maybe that because it just baffles people?

A cousin has a ‘version’ of her name but that’s because it’s pronounced a bit too close to the n-word for her safety.

Ooh I wonder if it's the same name as the Dr who talks on BBC Breakfast every Monday. I always wonder if she's ever been mocked for it

Unlikely. There are only a handful of us over here. All related!