Getting Facebook to approve your pen name

[Annie, The Mistress]

[Copy/pasted from an SIA thread a few months ago. Not sure if this is useful. But meh. Can't hurt, eh?]

Facebook. Ugh. It took me a whole week to get a profile approved with my pen name. And I am annoying persistent, so you might have to be as well hahaha...haha...ha...seriously.

It wouldn’t even allow me to create a profile in the first place because “Arcane” was flagged as not being a legit name (I tried Annie Arcana just as a test and it worked). Instead, I was prompted to send in proof of ID. I took screenshots of my GR profile, my book on Amazon, and my author website. Here’s the reply I received:

Hi,

A profile is for personal, non-commercial use and should represent an individual person. The name on your profile should be the name that you go by in everyday life. Pages look similar to profiles, but they offer unique tools for businesses, brands, organizations and public figures to share their stories and connect with people.

Please keep in mind that using a profile to represent anything other that your authentic self goes against Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities.

If you'd like to use Facebook to represent a business, brand, organization, idea or public figure, consider creating a Facebook Page.

Pages allow you to reach more people and offer more options to connect with them. Pages are specifically designed to help you communicate with large groups and capture new audiences when people who like the page recommend it to their friends.

Thanks,

Riley
Community Operations
Facebook

Soooo, if you simply wanna create an author page that is attached to your regular FB profile, then there’s no issues at all. If I’m not mistaken, this is what most authors do…

However, I'm a stubborn little bugger and was hellbent on having the actual profile under my pen name, so I pestered poor Riley until he finally caved. I’m kidding. I was super duper nice to him because nobody’s gonna help me if I act like an entitled butthead XD I really did bombard him with a whole whackload of stuff, though...

In the end, this is what I had to provide:

1. A copy of my driver’s license (any government photo ID with DOB)
2. A screenshot of my publisher’s account with Library and Archives Canada (or Bowker, if you’re American?) showing my real name along with my pen, which I have set as the publisher name.
3. A screenshot of my Goodreads author profile with my photo and DOB (matching my driver’s).

Truth be told, I received 4 rejection emails and *grumbles* had finally given up. Like, I emailed him saying, “Okay, I understand. I’ll just a make a page,” and then suddenly happened to be approved. Go figure, eh? LOL

In case you’re curious as to what the difference is...

Profile: https://www.facebook.com/anniearcane/
Page: https://www.facebook.com/annietheauthor/

(I know there’s barely anything on there *grins sheepishly* Don’t judge me.)

If you already have a FB profile set up under your pen and you’re worried about it getting deleted, you could always send in some proof. And besides, we want them legally linked to our real names anyway, for when we all made it big like superstars, right? ^_~

You'll need to prove that A) you are the person under that pen and B) you are using that pen as your everyday name. I’m quite certain that if I didn’t have Annie Arcane listed as my official publisher name, it never would’ve been approved. And even then, the final decision is still in their hands.

Hmm. Personally, I'm super anal retentive about legalities so I refuse to fly under the radar but...

Now I’m wondering if you’d run the risk of having them delete an existing pen name account because you’re bringing attention to it. Yeah. I dunno. That might be a possibility, eh?

Hope this helps!

Hugs,
Ann

[Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger)]

Thank you for posting this, Annie. I didn't realize you had so much trouble getting an FB author page. Yikes!

[Annie, The Mistress]

No problems getting a FB page at all. You can have as many as you want and pretty much name them whatever you wish.

It's the FB account (profile) that they're kinda anal retentive about. Grrr. Tee hee.

[Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger)]

Oh, smack me, dang it! I can be slow on the uptake sometimes. Got it now.

[Annie, The Mistress]

Hahaha! Don't worry!! I actually went and edited FB account to include (profile) cuz I wasn't totally clear either.

But yeah, are you trying to just make a page? Or an actual profile for your pen name, Miss Sue?

[Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger)]

Sometime in the future, I will want to make a page for advertising purposes, but I think I should wait to see if I actually need one. I might not.

[Annie, The Mistress]

Hmm. In that case, you could just create a page under your personal FB profile. I think that's what most indies do. It's a bit of a pain to do it my way. And, I mean, you could just make a profile with your pen name (99% chance it'll go through) but...

They might always delete it later. This happened to Miss Christina over at SIA. Boo. Booooo.

[Kristina]

Facebook is getting stricter and stricter. Profiles are so much better for getting stuff seen (average page reach is 2-10%), but they don't like you using anything but your real name.

I tend to keep my profile personal and only add people I know on there, and use my page for book-related things. I share book-related things on my profile too, but that's because if I don't only a couple of people will see them -.-

I think it's worth having a Facebook page, but given how tough it is on pages these days (you pretty much have to pay to get exposure unless you have a strong following), I'm not sure it's worth investing much time in it anymore. It's just not worth the aggro of posting regularly.

(Can you tell I work in marketing? XD )

[Annie, The Mistress]

Hahaha! Thank goodness you work in marketing, Miss Kristina!!

I've done sales (in one form or another) for pretty my all my adult life and always get complimented for/accused of being a sales(wo)man LOL!

Oh, I totally agree about the FB profile! It feels more personal too. Like you're not just talking "at" people. But, yeah, it wasn't easy getting them to approve it. And I was laying on some thick charm hahahaha...

Seriously.

Tee hee.

[Kristina]

I'd rather work in writing, lol! One helps the other (and pays for the house) I suppose XD

After a while they definitely start to rub off on you, don't they? I still haven't quite shaken off the white goods salesperson that I was in 2011/12...

It does, yeah. I'm very careful about mixing my personal profile and my writing one. I don't like my surname which is part of why I use a pen name, but also I'd like to keep the two as separate as possible. It's not very separate given my life revolves around writing, but for some reason I don't like the idea of someone adding me as a friend on Facebook just so that I can help them with their writing. That's what somewhere like LinkedIn is for IMO.

Sometimes the charm offensive is the best option!

[Annie, The Mistress]

Kristina wrote: "Sometimes the charm offensive is the best option!"

+1 bazillion

^_~