How to launch a new pen name

So you’re ready to launch a new pen name. Maybe you’re writing in a new genre that’s radically different than your current genre – you’re going from spicy romance to YA, or sci fi romance to thriller.

Or maybe you’re a brand new author.

Either way, you’re putting a lot of time and effort into your new pen name, and you want to give it the best chance of success.

I’ve created three pen names that became six figure a year earners, and here are the steps I took every time.

Launch a new pen name: Graphics and Brand Kit

You’re going to want a logo, and brand colors, at a bare minimum. You can design a logo for yourself on Canva, or you can search author groups for recommendations for logo designers, or you can hire a logo designer from somewhere like Fiverr.

You’re also going to need graphics for your website’s hero image, and for your Facebook header. And you’re going to need either an author photograph, or a cartoon/graphic/vector image for your author photograph. Some authors who want to stay anonymous use their logo for their author photo.

Launch a new pen name: Start Creating Your Social Media Presence

It’s best to get started several months before your book release day. Create accounts for your new pen name on the social media platform or platforms of your choice. If you have a big budget or a lot of free time, you may want to create multiple social media accounts – Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, TikTok, are among the ones that most authors say are the most effective.

If you don’t have the time to post and interact on multiple accounts, or the money to pay someone to manage your social media posting, then it makes sense to either just pick one social media platform or to use a content scheduler to post across multiple platforms. You can create one post and have it appear on multiple platforms, saving you a lot of time. However, social media engagement requires more than just posting. (That’s an article for another day).

How often should you post? At least a few times a week.

When you release your new book, and readers come to check out your social media, you want them to find a feed that is filled with posts that reflect your brand and your voice.

Building Your Audience

When you first start out, you won’t have any following. A good way to start getting followers is to join groups for your genre and post helpful, fun content and book recommendations, and also comment on other people’s posts. Do NOT promote yourself in these groups unless the group allows it, and even then, do so very sparingly.

What Should You Post?

You want to reflect your genre’s voice.

Social Media Content Ideas For Thrillers:

Engaging Readers & Teasers

1. First-Line Friday – Post the first line of a book (yours or a famous thriller) and ask followers to guess the book or share their own.
2. Mood Board Monday – Share an aesthetic collage of images that inspired your book’s setting or tone.
3. Excerpt Teasers – Share short, suspenseful excerpts from your books with dramatic captions.
4. Guess the Plot – Post a cryptic or vague one-liner about a book (yours or another thriller) and let followers guess the story.
5. Behind-the-Scenes – Share your writing space, notes, or sketches related to your books.

Thriller-Themed Fun

6. Conspiracy Theories – Post a real-life unsolved mystery or conspiracy and ask followers for their theories.
7. “Would You Survive?” Scenarios – Create a poll or quiz asking followers how they’d handle a thriller-style situation (e.g., “You’re locked in a basement with no signal. What’s your first move?”).
8. Famous Crime Facts – Share historical crime stories or facts related to thrillers.
9. Spy or Detective Name Generator – Post a fun name formula (e.g., “Your thriller alias is your middle name + the last thing you ate”).

Promotional & Community Building

Character Spotlights – Introduce a character from your book with a short bio and an intriguing fact about them.

Cover Reveals & Book Announcements – Build hype by revealing your cover in pieces or sharing book release dates.

Book Recommendations – Share your favorite thriller books or ask followers for theirs.

Fan Theories & Reader Engagement – Ask readers what they think will happen next in your series.

Author Q&A – Answer questions about your writing process, favorite thrillers, or personal experiences that inspire your stories.

Social Media Content Ideas for Rom Coms

Engaging Readers & Teasers

1. Meet-Cute Monday – Share a snippet from your book featuring a meet-cute or ask followers to describe their dream meet-cute.
2. First Kiss Friday – Post a swoon-worthy kissing scene excerpt (without spoilers!).
3. Romance Trope Polls – Ask your audience to pick their favorite tropes (Enemies to Lovers vs. Fake Dating, etc.).
4. Character Mood Boards – Share aesthetic collages of your characters or settings.
5. Text Message Teasers – Post flirty or funny “text conversations” between your characters.

Romance-Themed Fun

6. Love or Laugh? – Post a romantic quote next to a hilarious dating fail and ask followers which they relate to more.
7. Romance Meme Tuesday – Share memes about love, dating, or rom-com tropes.
8. Rom-Com Movie Recs – Suggest classic and underrated rom-com movies.
9. “What’s Your Romance Trope?” Quiz – Create a fun game where followers find out if they’re in a friends-to-lovers or grumpy/sunshine romance.
10. Book Boyfriend Bracket – Have a tournament where followers vote on their favorite fictional love interests.

Promotional & Community Building

11. Cover Reveals & Book Announcements – Build anticipation by revealing your cover in stages or with a fun teaser.
12. Swoon-Worthy Quotes – Share romantic or funny lines from your books.
13. Behind-the-Scenes Writing Process – Show how you come up with romantic scenes or funny dialogue.
14. Playlist for Your Book – Share a Spotify playlist that matches the vibe of your book.
15. Ask Me Anything (AMA) on Love & Writing – Let followers ask questions about writing rom-coms or even personal funny love stories.

How to Launch A New Pen Name: Next Steps

Set up your website with a graphic that shows that your book is coming soon. Post snippets from your book. Put some blog posts on your website that talk about your writing process, what you’re reading, and some of your favorite books in the genre that you are writing in.

Create a newsletter form and put it on your website so you can start building your newsletter list.

If you don’t know how to build a website…contact us here at Author Tasks! We’d be happy to help!

How To Launch A New Pen Name: More Chores.

A few weeks before I release a book in a new genre, I upload the first three chapters of my book in Bookfunnel. Then I run an ad campaign on Facebook, steering potential readers to those first three chapters, in exchange for them signing up for my newsletter.

This way, when it is time to release, I already have the beginnings of a newsletter list and I can send them news of my new book release on release day.

So there’s my list of how I create and launch new pen names, and increase chance of my book finding sales! If you have any questions, please email me at admin@authortasks.com, and I’d be happy to chat.