What To Debut With?

We all have the same problem here
I concluded I will publish under a pseudonym as my job probably will not appreciate being a dark fantasy author with kind of twisted ideas. *shrug*. Just finish first, you can always decide later.

Speaking from personal experience.. write the first one until you run into serious problems. As I have done. When your writing and sense of storyline gets better it is possible that you recognise problems which are not easily solved. And then you can start with a fresh WIP with newfound skills.. and this one won't be stunted nor incompetent

The one you have already started on. I don't know how much you have written but at around 70/80k I recognised my own problems.

Writing is never wasted, even if you don't publish immediately. Let's be honest here, you probably won't. One never does with the first WIP. All writers talk about a learning curve and this is true - again speaking from personal experience. Just finish your first, write for yourself first and foremost!

You can always write both at the same time. One for you (and again, no one forces you to publish immediately), and the other one you feel close to, to aim for publishing. But don't put too much pressure on you

Most readers are women, especially for books with a strong romantic element. Women are bigger readers of M/M fiction than men are. I think you're worrying about people who aren't ever going to be your target audience - men who're uncomfortable with gay protagonists.

As for your question, it's not worth spending your brain space on until one or both of the novels are finished. Going purely on statistics, the first novel you pitch is highly unlikely to be your first one to sell. Fourth or fifth is more likely. So even if you shelve one of these novels and focus on the other, you won't be making any sort of commitment or decision about which will be your debut.

In any case, making a dramatic switch in your writing style, genre, content, etc is a risky move. If these novels are really so different, then whichever fans you get for the first one might not be your target audience for the second. Maybe you'll use different pen names for each, as suggested.

In short, I don't think it matters.

Ah, I see. Is your name unusual in some way? Otherwise a prospective employer googling it is unlikely to think you're the author of a book unless you've mentioned something about writing in your resume.

I'm using a pen name because I'm literally the only person in the world with my real name + surname.

First person-despite what you might think- is usually harder to write than third.

I personally don't really see the issue with either. I guess I'm a little more optimistic in the opinions of the people, but I also don't think people will necessarily immediately think you're "Oscar Leigh" from the book unless you're picture is in there somewhere. I'll probably use a pen name when I publish not so much to hide my identity just that my name is REALLY freaking long. And like @Tenderiser it's kind of one of a kind. Anyway off topic.

I say finish which ever one calls to you more as cliche as that sounds. You're the author and also like others have pointed out you don't need to publish ATOT first even if you finish it first. Idk i feel this wasn't particularly helpful but yeah.