The whole AngusTroll (and that second part appears to be the operative description of said individual) discussion has got me thinking: it must be a challenging decision whether to publish under your own name. Not only do you have to consider the “sale-ability” of your name, but you also have to weigh other factors, like whether there’s a lot of company in your letter of the alphabet on the shelves at Barnes & Noble. I think I read somewhere that Julia Quinn chose her pen name for that reason – not too much traffic in the “Q” section.
But then, you also have to think about your own potential fame: if your book is kick ass (and if you write, and you read this site, then I bet your book is indeed kickass) and it sells well, do you want the fame attached to your real name, and possibly end up with middle school ex-boyfriends contacting you via your author page? Or perhaps have people misrepresenting themselves as you, based on the availability of information available online that is connected to, again, your real name?
So how do you decide to pick a pen name? Why do you pick one? And what name to choose? On top of naming your characters, titling your manuscript and WRITING the damn thing, is this one more worry that seems goofy to be concerned about in the beginning? Or do you have to sit down and seriously consider your author’s identity as well?
I wanted a pen name because I read somewhere that romance novels are popular with men in prison. Originally I used Kate Racy for my adult novels and Beige Racy for my teen novels, but my agent made me change them. Imagine! Starting over, I decided to stick with my real given name, Jennifer, so that if someone calls to me at an RWA conference, I will turn around. I gave my agent a list of family names, and she chose Echols. It did not occur to me to Google myself beforehand, but now it turns out I had a supporting role as a nurse in The Notebook.
Since my name (Sonja) is not really pronouncable by the general public (at least the non-Norweigan general public), I’d have to go with pen name. My friend Skye, on the other hand, came ready-made with a great romance novelist name. I think it just depends on what your parents gave you to work with. 🙂
Sabrina Jeffries chose a J last name because her agent told her something about “J magic” wherein books by authors with a J at the beginning of either their first or last names (Julia Quinn, example) seemed to fly off the shelves.
My chosen pen name (if I ever get published- ha)is Ramona Norwood. Where’d I get it? It’s my porn star name. (Name of first pet + name of the street where you grew up.)
I chose mine because “Dahl” is the only part of my real name that’s even close to being cute or sexy. My real last name wouldn’t sell shit. And, yes, I had my name picked out years before I really started writing. Anyone else?
I chose a pen name for prosaic reasons—my real name is well known in certain SF circles, and if I ever write a SF novel I wanted to have that name in reserve. Sometimes publishers insist on different names for different genres, or the author does it to denote different genres, i.e. J.D. Robb/Nora Roberts, Amanda Quick/Jayne Castle/Jayne Ann Krentz.
But it was easy picking a pen name. I just pulled my middle and my husband’s middle name together to see how they’d sound, and it worked.
I don’t find that writing as “Darlene Marshall” frees up my inner smut muse or anything, but I have heard that from other authors.
If I used Sonja’s “porn star” method I’d be “Princess Oliver”. If I was doing it with my current pet and street I’d be “Yofi 30thPL”, which isn’t quite as euphonious[g]
romance writer (if I was writing paranormal I’d use it!). So I’m going with my middle name (Kalen). And I think my real last name (Fuller) doesn’t sound as good as my step-dad’s last name (Hughes), which also happens to be the name I used most of my life.
So I go from freaky NorCal hippie kid (Tonda Fuller) to very Brit sounding lady (Kalen Hughes) merely by manipulating the names I already have.
I have about a 4 page start on a book. I got bored w/my people and never got any further.
IF, by chance, I could figure out what the hell to write and how to write it I’d choose a pen name. My first name is great, but the last would have to go.
I would choose my Grandparents last name and add an R…Samantha Hartke..
Well, maybe not…it doesn’t look very good…
Sam
ok: Pen names for SB Sarah!
Porn Star name #1: Josiah Reynolds. Not good for romance.
Porn Star name #2 (i.e. current names/street): Logan Valley. Again, not so good for romance. Neither is Ohta Valley, Fukui-san Valley, Oliver Valley, or Grace Valley.
Middle names! My middle name is Japanese so I don’t think it’ll sell much!
But Darlene, it is awesome that your pet’s name is Yofi! What a great name.
Seriously, now that I’ve finished changing the diaper that beckoned me away from the computer, I have to wonder: if I ever wrote, would I use a pen name? Yeah. I have to think I would, if only because my identity is already a little too transparent on the internet.
I always admire writers who use their original names that NOBODY can spell. It’s very noble of them.
I’ll try googling them once, and if I’ve got the spelling wrong – sorry, but I’m mooooving on.
Nadia Cornier and Bob Mayer had exchanged emails abou this, and Nadia then posted about it on her blog, Agent Obscura: http://www.livejournal.com/users/agentobscura/2006/01/08/
Tonda said: ‘So I go from freaky NorCal hippie kid (Tonda Fuller) to very Brit sounding lady (Kalen Hughes) merely by manipulating the names I already have.’
I’m in the UK, and I’ve never met anyone called ‘Kalen’. Was that a typo for ‘Karen’? ‘Kalen’ sounds sci-fi to me.
As I inch closer and closer to publication (I have started to talk about “my” agent now, although nothing is yet signed) I have thought about this and decided to stick with my own name, not least because I have appeared on the TV under it with “romantic novelist” attached (though its all looking a little unromantic at the moment).
I might do the pseudonym thing if I were to start writing in a different genre style. Porn Star name would be “Mavawok Long” (I can’t for the life of me remember where Mavawok came from).
My pen name is my maiden name (yup, my legal first name is MaryJanice). It makes me happy to see MARYJANICE DAVIDSON splashed in big shiny letters which take up half the cover. It is my eternal hope that all the mean girls in high school will see that name and feel a stab of envy. “Now, as I look back upon the ruin of a life that peaked when I lettered in cheerleading, I realized it all went wrong when I hid Davidson’s leg warmers in the boys’ locker room.” Yeah! That’ll learn ‘em.
(My husband, who has no idea how cruel girls can be and how much I dreaded high school at times, said: “Really? That’s why you use your maiden name on the books? So the cheerleaders feel bad? No, come on. What’s the real reason? Hon? Mare? Hello?”)
When I sold an inspirational (inspirational=nothing below the shoulders) novella to Barbour Press, the editor asked that I make up a name. A pen name for my pen name, so an inspirational fan wouldn’t stumble across a racier Davidson book by mistake. So I came up with Pohl, my ma-in-law’s maiden name. Janice Pohl, kind-hearted inspirational romance author. Thus making me, as my best friend pointed out, the only person she knew whose alter ego was…good.
Julia Quinn chose Q to be close to Amanda Quick, rather than far away from her. I guess she figured if you’re hunting down the Qs for a Regency author, maybe you’ll go for the other one, too.
As an academic with the beginnings of name recognition, I’d probably choose a psuedonym just so Google searches go easier. I’d probably choose my middle name, Samantha (not the other one—Gaye!) and some variation of my mother’s maiden name. But I might just stick with my own name. ::shrug:: Gotta write the damn book, first! 😉
Pohl seems an unlikely pen name for a “nothing below the shoulders” book.
Get it? Pole? Get it?? PAH-HAHAHAHAHA
Gawd, I crack myself up.
I’m still pondering Mavawok Long.
I picked Summer because I got my first erotica contract during a blizzard and Devon because it was in the phone book—and my sister had fond memories of Devon, England.
I picked Kate Rothwell because it’s my name. I was going to be Maggie but that’s a cat’s. If I were doing it again, I think I’d have used another name for those books too. Some of the letters I get are . . .odd.
Can we have some invitations printed up for a wedding between Janice Pohl and Mavawok Long? Just so I can giggle?
And choosing to use your real name so the cheerleaders can be envious? Awesome. Heh.
I’m pretty sure someone out there with my porn star name—Penny Montgomery—is already writing Harlequin Presents.
If I ever publish anything (the possibility is remote) it will be under a penname, because my real last name is hard to pronounce correctly and easily twisted into potty-humour forms.
My friend Snookie and I decided to choose last names that’d put us next to our favorite and most popular authors on the Romance shelves. We figured: that way, when Laura Kinsale is between books and her legions of fans come to scour the K shelf, there’s Kingston! And Snookie chose to be near Gabaldon.
In addition to googling our respective pennames, we also checked out many, many, many bookstore shelves to be sure of the placement. Now we kinda feel like tools for using that method. Like we know anything about marketing? HAH.
I am glad that I kept my real first name, though. Can’t imagine being called anything else. And absolutely can’t imagine my real last name plastered across a book.
My pen name for my erotica is my great, great grandmother’s name. I wanted something sharp sounding with a soft ending.
If/when I’m published, I’d like to be Susannah instead of Susan. And since my married name starts with W and my maiden name with S, I’m thinking of pulling an ancestral name from earlier in the alphabet—my top candidates are Fowler, Fraser, Fancher, and Lightfoot.
I’ve toyed with the idea of using something like Beal, Bean, or Beasley just to get myself shelved between Mary Balogh and Jo Beverley, but I’d rather stick with a family name, and none of my ancestors had the foresight to have a B name.
I would/will use a fake name because my family would be both proud that I was published, but not so proud that there were shirtless men on the covers of my novels. I tossed the idea out there (about the writing), and my parents said, “Fine, but not with your real name.” Then my mom started making me really dirty pen names… My pornstar name is not suited to any literary pursuits: Chica Landon or Chica Jollyville. Truly pornstarish. I might as well be Tits McGee.
If I ever sat down and wrote a really outstanding work of literature, I would want to save my real name for that so as to cause the most envy.
My real name already belongs to a porn star. She can have it – I never liked it, anyway. My mother has already apologised to me on several occasions, some of them public. She says it sounded nice at the time, but she also admits to having dropped twenty IQ points while pregnant.
My future nom de plume changes almost as often as my hair color. Currently I am vibing on the names of literary villainesses. That, or characters played by Maria Montez.
I’ve no shortage of pen names in mind…published works of fiction, however, are a bit more difficult to come by.
Tits McGee. LOL! I dare you.
Because I am STUPID, I took my husband’s name when I married him (okay, gimme a break, I was in love).
To all you kids at home: DO NOT DO THIS. IT IS STUPID (erm, I mean, don’t change your name, go ahead and fall in love and get married).
Now then. Here’s a quiz for you kiddies; married, legal name: Erin Nowjack; maiden name: Erin O’Brien.
Which the fuck name would you want on the cover of your book?
If you guessed Erin O’Brien, you are right! Now hop on over to Amazon and part with ten measly fucking bucks and buy a copy of “Harvey & Eck.”
If you guessed Erin Nowjack, you are wrong! Now hop on over to Amazon and part with ten measly fucking bucks and buy a copy of “Harvey & Eck.”
It is the best book you will read all year. I know. I wrote it. It is better than Bridget Jones Diary, laugh-out-loud-funny and if that ain’t enough, there’s even a nice fat vibrator in it.
I love you.
Erin
When I’m published (almost finished the first draft!) I’ll be using a pseudonym because it’s my work and I want it associated with my name, ie: a name I’ve chosen for myself, not one foisted on me by my father or my (ex)husband.
I’ll still be using my own first name – ‘cause I like it – and I’ve decided to borrow my maternal grandmother’s maiden name, again because I like it and it feels right.
I think I’ve annoyed my mum, though. “But your father’s name is your name…”
I used my real name and at times (like when I’m opening an email from someone who lives near Ohio and thinks one of my characters is real) it was a mistake. I’ve considered taking on a pen name but I already write paranormal erotic so unless I took up writing about donkey sex (I got a visual…it was NOT pretty) I’m not sure what good it would do.
To do again, I’d try to put my maiden name in there somewhere. The family name dies if my brother doesn’t pull through and have a boy. Well, it’s safe to say that the idea of him reproducing is a skkkeeeerrrryyyy thing.
I had to choose a pen name for my erotic books because I was already published as a children and YA book writer. I don’t mind that adults look up my children’s books, but I wouldn’t like it if a child accidently got hold of one of my erotica books. At least like this I keep both genres seperate.
If I change genres, I think I’d change names as well. So many people associate authors with just one genre, and that’s all that they’ll buy.
Ann is my real first name—like there weren’t already enough Anns in romance writing! But my real last name is more suitable for a laboratory geek than a romcom writer, so I chose Wesley Hardin.
I’m distantly related to the infamous gunslinger John Wesley Hardin, so I chose it partly for name recognition. It’s also my grandmother’s maiden name and I thought it had a nice lilt to it.
My porn star name is Poppy Pilgrim. LMAO. Wouldn’t make a bad pen name either!
I plan to take a pen name when I get published.
For various reasons, but mostly because I’m Chinese, and most other Chinese can’t pronounce my last name, much less uh, people of other races.
I may or may not keep my first name, but my surname…Probably not.
Simply must have pen name (assuming published manuscript and all that).
1: I’m elected and may run for re-election: the public has a bed feeling about elected officials who enjoy sex.
2: My first name is not spelled the way it’s pronounced and is often mispronounced, and my last name *is* spelled the way it’s pronounced and is often hopelessly mangled.
…or a *bad feeling. Although “Bed feeling” can work in context I suppose.
a bed feeling eh, Suisan? So no kitchen tables in books if you want to stay in office?
I would like to write in different subgenres, so I plan to take pen names for each one in order to avoid confusion. I have some ideas but nothing solid. In the meantime, I just go by my own name which most people manage to misspell and mispronounce.
Really, though, those worried that if they ever hit it big it wouldn’t be with their own name so people they wanted to dis wouldn’t know it was them are crazy. When you’re sitting on Oprah’s stage, no matter what your name is on the book cover, it’ll be your own face on the TV screen, right?
I only wish I had such major problems.
Because I write erotic romance, I decided to use a pen name rather than my real one. Because I teach full time in the local high school, I decided to use a pen name rather than my real one. Because my husband had qualms about his name being associated with erotica, I decided to use a pen name rather than my real one.
LOLOL
After three years of publishing, my husband is no longer concerned (he’s seen the paychecks), my school (for the most part) doesn’t care and in fact likes the fact they have someone with practical experience teaching creative writing, and I’ve discovered branding as an advertising concept works wonders. People know what they’re going to get when they buy a Diana Hunter book: some discussion of bondage and the D/s dynamic.
Now, should I decide to write something DIFFERENT? Then I have another decision to make. Do I write under the same name, and hope my readers don’t care that I switched genre? Or do I change my name and lose all the readership I’ve worked so hard to gather?
Diana
I went with my middle name because it’s at the beginning of the alphabet (my real last name starts with a W), and it also means my good friend/CP Bella Andre will sit together at big booksignings, not to mention we’ll be shelved together too. I also kept my real first name so I wouldn’t get confused with the dual identity thing (I can barely keep track of how many scoops of formula i’ve put into a bottle for my son, much less remember to answer to another name). Though as my other CP pointed out, I probably should have put an “e” on the end of my name since that’s how most people spell it, and people will have trouble finding my books. And as a writer of erotic romance, I do worry a bit about the prison thing.
But my pornstar names would have rocked:
Germaine Montana (first pet, first street)
Mandy Lockwood (second pet, second street)
And if I used my current info, I could be Joey Buckeye. Sweet!
I use a pen name for some of the reasons already listed—I write erotic romance, I’m a nurse and people can get weird about their medical professionals lovin’ da boinkage, and I don’t want my ex-husband’s name on my accomplishments. (Not that I hate him or anything, he’s actually a big fan of my writing and just fixed my car for me. Weird, huh?)
So… Amelia Elias I became. Mostly because my real name is quite generic and, to my mind at least, not the least bit sexy. Besides, Amelia is close enough to Amy that I don’t have any problem answering to it—and most of the time I say, “Call me Amy,” anyway. Elias is ‘alias’ with a different first letter. Clever, ain’t I? *yuck yuck yuck*
Plus, all of the above is easy to spell, easy to pronounce, and easy to remember. And the url was available, which, I must say, has to be taken into account when you write ebooks. Readers want a website.
But as far as the freaky emails and letters go… where are MINE, huh? I mean, come on! All my friends have gotten nekkid pics in the mail and freaky emails and one has even got IMs from a scary chick who claims that the hero from one of her books is visiting scary chick in her dreams. Where’s MY psycho, eh? (And much love to my friend with the psychos—she tells them all to buy Pandora’s Box. She’s trying to sic the weirdos on me, but in the meantime, I’m getting more sales! Whoot!)
My pornstar name is Sugar Tulip. Hmmm…just as well I’m waayy to short and round (not to mention middle-aged) to ever be a pornstar.
I’m not pubbed yet, but I’ve been using my penname on the web for a while. ‘Bronwyn’ is my actual name, but ‘Parry’ is an old family name. My actual surname is fairly common, and here in Australia there are a fair few women with the same name – there were three of us working at my small-town uni at one stage, and when I was a consultant there was another consultant with the same name working in a slightly different field – yep, we got each other’s emails.
Bronwyn Parry sounds okay, will be shelved somewhere towards the middle of the bookshelves, I’ll remember to answere to Bronwyn at conferences, and it looks okay in my scrawled signature.
If ever I change genres, though, I’ll probably use a different name. I suppose I could write erotica as Sugar Tulip 😉
I actually went with my real name…and there are times I wish I hadn’t. I have 3 daughters, 2 of them in high school. I wasn’t very happy when, last year, the local paper (bunch of romance-hating, literary snob asswipes) did an article on romance novels, calling them porn, and put a picture of me and my first book beside the article, naming me as a local romance author. I was mentioned nowhere in the article, it had nothing to do with me, they just wanted to single me out because I’m local.
My daughters were asked about it by kids at school, and by a couple of teachers. And I was VERY unhappy.
Fortunately, I have a great RWA chapter here and they deluged the paper with letters so I got a sort of backhanded apology.
I’d think long and hard, though, if I had it to do over again.
Leslie Kelly
One of the main reasons writers use pen names is when their career starts to falter. Buyers at the various chains look at their track record see less than fabulous sales and either don’t order more of their books or order very few. As a result they get offered lower advances by their publishers or get dumped altogether.
The only way to revive such a stalled career is to pick a new name. It worked very well for Robin Hobb (big-time fantasy writer) who started out under her own name as Megan Lindholm. While the Lindholm books were well reviewed they did not sell.
If your publisher never wants you to use a pen name consider yourself lucky!