There is something I’ve wanted to address for awhile now, and it is the issue of my name. I will explain what I mean by that in this essay (or whatever you want to call this).
Larry Singleton is a name I chose for myself in my early 20s for a couple of reasons:
1. I didn’t want my real name to be associated with my work at first. I was kinda nervous about publishing my stuff out there to the world initially. Especially with stuff that can get as dark as mine, and a world that seems to be getting more and more politically correct all the time. It just felt safer to use a fake name. I care less now, but back in 2015 when I published Absolute Anhedonia I guess I felt it was safer to use a pseudonym in case everyone hated my book or some shit like that.
2. Larry is derived from my real first name and it’s a nickname people call me, and Singleton has my real last name in it, but sounds cooler. And it was also partly inspired by the filmmaker John Singleton, who I am a fan of (RIP).
3. I see this stuff as an experiment and wanted to see which name would sell more books. Thanks to the internet and self-publishing, you can choose literally any name you want for yourself and publish it under that name. Not only that, but there’s no limit to how many times you can do this. I’ve published tons of stuff on Amazon over the years, all under various names. There is stuff I’ve published on there that is so personal I simply cannot use my real name for it, and had to create a whole other persona for it (not just Larry Singleton, haha).
4. I didn’t really think people would want to buy my books if my real name was on it, and Larry Singleton doesn’t sound like a brown guy’s name. In fact, I have gotten more job interviews when I use my “larrysingleton92@gmail.com” address instead of my real name one (a hotmail address, haha. Perhaps this success is partly due to the stigma that comes with Hotmail and not just skin colour and an ethnic sounding name😂).
Now that it has been a few years, I no longer really feel like I need to use this name. I am not going to stop using it, but in some ways it has become a little problematic: there is a serial killer and rapist that had the same name, and when you search my name his info comes up instead, “Lawrence Singleton.” Look him up! I did not realize this when I first started using the name, it’s just one of those things that happened.
The other big issue is that there might be a bit of confusion for people between when I use my real name, versus when I publish under Larry, because I have now published under both names the most often. I don’t think this problem is too bad, I actually kind of like it because it makes people have to figure something out by themselves. It’s like a cool little discovery they get to have if they give a shit enough to dive deeper. The other day I was reading a review some guy wrote for one of my books and he included this detail in his write-up. I thought this was funny: it’s now a detail worth noting for people who happen to stumble across my work. This adds an interesting layer to the work because, as I’ve mentioned before, I like when art does things unique to that medium. It makes the process of engaging with it more interesting.
But finally, the biggest issue I am now having with this name: there’s another writer with the same name on Amazon. I did not realize this at the time I chose Larry Singleton, and now when you search the name, the results bring up both of our books. And even worse: there are books that I have written, and due to some kind of error, Amazon’s author information has the other guy’s photo listed. For example, I have a book written about sex addiction, and due to the mishap this poor guy’s face is on the author info. Sorry to that guy, I hope it didn’t cause him too much grief. This same error is also on Goodreads, and both of our books are listed under the same name.
It is not just a problem for him, however. It might be the biggest problem I face regarding this name shit because if someone accidentally purchases the other guy’s books instead of mine, they might get disappointed and I might lose a future reader. Or they might include his bibliography with mine and vice versa. I’d prefer for both of our books to be separate, but it’s too late now that the names are the same. It’s a bummer, and I have no solution for it other than writing about it here. I just wanted to take some time to set the record straight: anything that doesn’t have “meaninglessmagazine.com” listed in the description is not by me. And the other way you can tell if something is by me (the real Larry Singleton, haha) or not, is by checking this page. If I haven’t mentioned it on that page, then it’s not a book written by me.
It’s a bit of a predicament because I don’t really want to stop using this name, to be honest with you. It has a nice ring to it, and a lot of people who have met me online know me as Larry now. However, I think that moving forward, I will try to publish under my real name more. You can still call me Larry though, as that is a real nickname in my real life. (The Singleton part was self-given though, I admit that, haha).