Chapter requested by @AnnieFierce. Special thanks to @emmyles and @SamanthaJayne_x for helping me gather information.

I got asked about user names and what could happen if you change yours. I’ve never done this, but from what I’ve gathered, there are negative effects. In this chapter I’ll enlist them and advice you on how to avoid these unwanted results.

First off, when you are changing your user name, ask yourself why you are doing this. Is it a whim or do you feel that your current name doesn’t suit you; maybe it brings you bad memories?

If you connect your name with an unpleasant event or don’t feel that it reflects your personality, by all means change it; but if you are doing this on a whim, wait a few days and see if you still have that urge, okay?

After all, your name is how people recognize you; if you change it, you risk losing the followers you already have and the followers you might have later. You don’t get how it could affect the latter?

Let’s say one of your fans keeps recommending your work. They’d go “Oh, *your user name* has amazing books, you should check them out” and people would read that comment or message, look for your name and – BAM! – they won’t find it because you’ve changed it.

Now let’s say they don’t search for you right away because ONE PERSON recommended you, but when another and then another, and then another person says you are good, other wattpaders will probably check your profile. But if you keep changing your name, these other wattpaders won’t look for you because the three or however many wattpaders have recommended you all know you by a different name and the person who gets the recommendations will think they are being suggested a different person.

The same goes for those of you who frequent the forums: it’s hard for the other people in the discussion to notice you, if you keep changing your user name. Remember, keeping your name helps you make a name for yourself.

Apart from not being recognized, you might also annoy your followers if you rename yourself often. I asked around and apparently several people lost followers by doing that.

HOW TO CHANGE YOUR NAME LESSENING THE RISK OF NOT BEING RECOGNIZED?

First of all, let me remind you that you are not only known by your user name but for your work and for those of you who don’t change their profile picture – by your picture, so keep these equations in mind:

changing your picture + not changing your user name + not changing your titles = good (even though it’s easier to remember pictures and that’s why I try not to change mine often)

changing your user name + never changing your picture + not changing your titles = good

changing your user name + changing your picture + not changing your titles = not good, but if your books are popular, you’ll still be recognized

changing your name + changing your picture + changing your titles = disaster, which can be downsized to really, really bad, if you NOTIFY YOUR READERS

HOW AND WHY TO NOTIFY YOUR READERS THAT YOU ARE CHANGING YOUR USER NAME (I also recommend this if you are changing the title of your story)?

Why is simple: so that at least a certain group of people won’t wonder “Okay, who is this person that I’m following?”

As to how:

~ Announce that you are changing your name as a message to your followers. If you have more than one wattpad account, announce it on both (or on all three, four, etc.). I suggest you do this at least three times – once a few days before you change it, once when you change it and once after you’ve changed it, preferably after 24 hours have passed. Why after 24 hours? Because it takes up to that much for the change to take place.

~ Announce it in an A/N in all your ongoing books.

~ You have social media? Announce it there! Tweet about it, write to your friends on facebook, create a tumblr post… If wattpad is something you discuss on your social media, use that to your advantage.

~ Tell your closest wattpad friends through PM (although I’m guessing that if you are really close, they’ll notice).

~ If you are a part of a book or a review club, tell the other members.

WILL PEOPLE BE CONFUSED AND/OR ANNOYED EVEN IF YOU DO ALL THAT?

Most likely, yeah. A lot of people don’t read messages and A/N-s so I can pretty much guarantee you (especially if you have a large fan base) that there will be such people even if they don’t voice it out. But by doing the things I’ve listed above, the number of those people will be considerably smaller.

By the way, YOUR NUMBER OF READS, VOTES AND COMMENTS WON’T TURN TO 0 IF YOU CHANGE YOUR USER NAME; thought I should mention that as well.

To recap: changing your user name is up to you, but you can lose some of your current followers and some potential followers if you do (especially if you do it often). You can minimize the number of current followers you might lose by announcing in advance that you plan to take that step so I would advise you to sent out a few messages and write a couple of A/N-s.

As always, thank you for reading and please support the chapter with a vote if you found it useful. If you have questions about the chapter or want to request one on a topic you are interested in, write in the comments; don’t PM me as I don’t always get notified about PM-s and I read the comments before I check for messages.

Have a great time wattpading, everybody!