Updated: October 8, 2011
Approx. two months ago, I asked for your help in choosing the pen name for my fantasy genre book called The Betrayed, the first in a series, about to be released toward the end of the year. Since my family name is not quite easy to pronounce for most people, I was mulling a number of pseudonyms, in addition to my real name. Thanks to your contribution, I have made my choice.
Dear readers, you voted, now let's take a look at how you voted. A total of 266 votes were submitted, in addition to five comments. The top choice was Igor Bergrand, with 27% votes, with my real name in the second place with 23%. Surprisingly, the name-only choice scored slightly less than 5%, which is something I have not quite expected. But that's the unpredictable beauty of the whole thing.
The most interesting part was the Other voting option, with 39 votes cast. Your submissions ranged from Igor Thorben and Igor Osborn, as the Norse alternatives, to funny ideas like It's Eye-gore and Ed O'Medo. Several people recommended I use my own name and be proud, while one person chose None as the best option. Then, there's Agent L, which smells of Matrix, but it was voted too. All in all, lots of options, including quite a few Dedoimedo spins and variants.
The third vector of voting included emails, most of which revolved around the idea of using my own name as is, which eventually tipped the scales in favor of Igor Ljubuncic over Igor Bergrand. Moreover, with such a tight race between the leading two contestant, even if there had been a slight bias in favor of the norsefied version, I would have chosen my real name. So Igor Ljubuncic it is.
Bottom line, with 266 votes, I am now far more confident in my choice, since it gave me a neutral point of view, or rather 266 points of view. It is really amazing how the global psyche works. Well, many, many thanks for your help and participation. Hopefully, the book will be out soon and you might be interested to take a look, after all.
Cheers.