Support for Indie Authors discussion

Do you use a pen name? If yes, what is your reason? Also, how do you go about promoting your book under a different name?

I'm not sure whether I want to use my own name for my writing, mainly because I have a foreign last name with odd spelling. People don't immediately know how to pronounce it, and there's already someone with that name publishing a string of books (yes, distant relative).

What's your take on it?

I publish under a pen name. I initially went that route because I was worried about what my family would think of my books, but now most of my relatives know that I write.

But I've grown attached to the name. And it does give some freedom in what you write and how you present yourself -- if that makes sense.

Only when I'm writing something I'd blush to put my own name to.

I use a pen name, but for the exact opposite reason that you want to see good one. I use it to honor my family, and the men who helped to shape me.

I use my real name and I do have to admit, it can be limiting, but in a way, it's also freeing. I imagine if I ever was famous enough to be recognized on the street and I'd used a pen name, I'd walk right by, oblivious that they were talking to me.

Now, if I need to write something saucy to fund an emergency organ transplant or other such catastrophic event, I'll start pulling names out of a hat. ;)

I use a pseudonym.
My family name has required me to spell it out and explain it at least once a day for (cough)-years. So tired of that.
The pen name is actually that of an ancestor from four generations back, as he stepped off the boat.
Was going to go with Horatio Hornblatt the 3rd, but the wife gave me a sideways look...

P

Of note:

If you COPYRIGHT with a pen name, I strongly suggest that you have an notarized affidavit showing that you and your pseudonym are one and the same.
I've had a few interesting discussions with local print shops when trying to get galley copies made.

P

No. Well, not yet.

I have a writing project that, mainly for marketing purposes, will require a pen name.

If I were to cross over into extremely different genres I'd probably toy with the idea. Like if I were to write hardboiled detective fiction after publishing a lot of straight-up science fiction I might want to use a pen name. I'm not sure the audiences crossover much. And you don't want someone used to one genre being disappointed when they read something by you in a totally different genre.

Going from SF to fantasy, I'd probably not.

V.M. wrote: "I was wondering if that was a thing, actually - different names for different genres..."

It's absolutely a thing. Check this out: http://kriswrites.com/2013/10/02/the-...

Patrick wrote: "If you COPYRIGHT with a pen name, I strongly suggest that you have an notarized affidavit showing that you and your pseudonym are one and the same.
I've had a few interesting discussions with local print shops when trying to get galley copies made."

That is a very good point, I had not considered that before.

I'm already known to different groups of people by different names.

When I was little I went by my middle name (for reasons only known to my parents). Everyone I met as a child knows me by my middle name.

As a teenager I rebelled and insisted to be called by my first name instead. Everyone I met and made friends with during those years therefore knows me by my first name.

When I got married, my husband re-introduced me to my middle name (because he heard my mother use it on me and liked it so much), and everyone I met and made friends with as a young adult therefore knows me by my middle name again.

Then my brother married a girl with the same name, and as of the wedding we now share the same last name as well. That quickly led to confusion, so my family started to call me by my first name instead, which only old school friends did up to that point.

It's confusing for EVERYONE whenever I meet with people from different environments at the same time.
- "Why did he just call you Kat?"
- "Wait, you mean your name isn't Kat?!"
*sigh*

I already have a pseudonym that I use online to stay relatively anonymous for blogging and twitter and such, and I like that name, so I thought I might just use that for publishing.

Pen names are great. If you think it will help, go for it. I use one for my non-fiction everyday work because people on the Internet are angry. I use my maiden name for my books.

I might use one in the future. I really like the idea of writing some kind of pulp pastiche under a Spillane/Hammett style pseudonym.

Patrick wrote: "Was going to go with Horatio Hornblatt the 3rd, but the wife gave me a sideways look..."

That made me laugh out loud :D

As far as different genres go, I don't know how far detached from my scifi fantasy realm I'd have to go before considering a pen name. Aside from the previously mentioned saucy bits. I don't think scifi and hard boiled detective are really all that far apart as they are genres that hybrid well. Maybe if you write historical romance and hard scifi you might need a pen name, but I would think most folks at least read blurbs and maybe perhaps check the categorization before buying.

I always have, partly because not all who know me would be so enthused I wrote a book. Folks are interesting that way. My goal has been to work up a presence for this pseudonym online. It might be good to consider it as another brand name for a product you're selling. Buy Iffix brand!

My co-author uses a pseudonym. She has a very recognizable name and would prefer friends and family not pestering her about her writing. She especially wants to avoid the "Why ever would you right about that???" questions.

Ann wrote: "I publish under a pen name. I initially went that route because I was worried about what my family would think of my books, but now most of my relatives know that I write.

But I've grown attached..."

I had the same reason as Ann...once you start down that path, it's best not to try and change it.

I actually mentioned to my husband the other day that as I age, I will probably increasingly introduce myself as and go by Ann.

I had thought about it because my books are fairly mature and different from my personality. I wasn't sure I wanted my family or friends to read them :)

Christina wrote: "I don't think scifi and hard boiled detective are really all that far apart as they are genres that hybrid well..."

While they do hybrid well, what doesn't cross between the genres well are the audiences. Particularly those who read detective stories but not SF. I'd think pretty much anyone into SF would be OK reading the occasional detective story, but I don't think that door swings both ways.

I know people who will read absolutely NOTHING if it's not set in the real world in a real historical time (past or present). One good friend I have, a history major, she completely shuts down the minute I start talking about even mildly "fringe" science, let alone far flung SF speculation. She just doesn't get it, and doesn't want to get it.

If I wrote a detective story, I bet she'd read it even if the town it's set in is fictional. But it can't be alternative history, or even slightly futuristic.

Seriously, there are people who won't cross over those conceptual boundaries.

Kat wrote: "Do you use a pen name?"

In all the years I wrote primarily for myself, I used a pen name. Dumb as that sounds, it's true. I thought if I ever decide to try to get published and if I found a publisher, it would be good to use the pen name as I wasn't sure my family would like or approve of some of the things I wrote.

I'm older now.

When I started self-publishing I found I no longer cared what my family thought. The only ones whose opinion I truly worry about these days are my wife and God. And a pen name ain't gonna hide me from either of them.

I do like making up pen names, even if I won't ever use them.

Hard boiled detective author? Hmm...

How about James Rothko Ryder?

Death in the Frigid Jungle by James Rothko Ryder. Yeah...I can hear the sultry jazz playing already.

I guess you could say I do, since I changed the place of two letters in my last name from Hellstrom to Hellstorm... :-D Because it sounds cooler... *lol*

If I ever write a cookbook I'm going to call myself Rhombus Chimeracart because we've got this vegetarian cookbook at home by Crescent Dragonwagon and I thought...hey, that's a good naming convention:

Shape = First Name
Mythical Creature + Non-Powered Vehicle = Last Name

Rhombus Chimeracart. Bob's your uncle!

I use a pseudonym myself. I decided upon this because I thought the surname of my pen name is better than my real surname (no offense to my German ancestors). I also think my pen name sounds more professional.

Micah wrote: "If I ever write a cookbook I'm going to call myself Rhombus Chimeracart because we've got this vegetarian cookbook at home by Crescent Dragonwagon and I thought...hey, that's a good naming conventi..."

Well great. I have a vegetarian cookbook on the back burner (pun maybe intended) and I was planning on releasing it under my own name. I guess I'm Octagon Bansheebike now.

I use my first initial and my middle name. I wanted my books (at least the first 3) to stand apart from me, so that you'd have to know my pen name in order to look up my work on Amazaon. Also A. Louise Robertson is my homage to my favorite author from my youth - Louisa May Alcott.

Yes, I use a pen name. I didn't really want any of my relatives to find out that I was writing Elfrotica for fun.

Story time!

The original pen name I had decided on was amazing. I fell in love with it, and it was a secret reference hidden inside my novels themselves! Sneaky people would have been able to figure out a plot point if they noticed that pen name fit with something else in the story. How sneaky I was, how clever.

When I was building my website, I googled my pen name to see what happened when I googled my pen name, because it had been up on the internet for a full hour!

My pen name turned to be the same name as a professional football player who was very famous for beating his wife nearly to death. Oops!

I fell out of love with that pen name quickly after that, but a word of advice - always google your pen names! (Heck even your character names just to see what happens)

My new pen name isn't as sneaky, but the initials stand for something hilarious, so that is good enough for me!

I used my first initial and last name for my first book, a true story about meeting Soviet defector Sergei Kourdakov. I'm considering switching to a pen name for fiction books. CB, I will definitely google-check my pen name choices carefully!

I use a pen name to keep some measure of privacy from my private life whilst trying to have a very public online social presence to try and market myself as a author. My pen name is a play around of my actual name.

CB wrote: "I fell out of love with that pen name quickly after that, but a word of advice - always google your pen names! (Heck even your character names just to see what happens)"

Great advice. Have yet to do that. Now I'm curious...

Christina wrote: "Octagon Bansheebike..."

We could start a club.

Nope. I am proud of what I wrote. My name is pretty bad for search engines though. A pen name would be better for that, but I love it. It is my name and my work, why be ashamed?

Most erotica writers use pseudonyms, so it was an easy choice for me. And one that pleased my deeply religious family.

Both my parents work for faith-based organizations, so their careers could actually be affected if word got out that their daughter is a deviant pervert, so it works out well all around.

I have a hard time pronouncing my own last name. A pen name seems like the only option!

I would probably use my real name, or a variant, but something clearly identifiable with me. Not because I'm embarrased of my writing, but keeping branding in mind.

And I find it interesting that some of you use pen names to hide your writing from relatives or friends

I'm gonna use the pen name Stephonne Kang.

Samuel wrote: "
And I find it interesting that some of you use pen names to hide your writing from relatives or friends "

Deeply held religious beliefs tend to rule people's lives. And bisexual menage erotica doesn't tend to mesh well with certain major religions. Therefore, I didn't exactly have a choice in keeping that aspect of my life quiet. When I told my mum what I was doing, she cried and didn't speak to me for a few weeks. She's calmer about it now, but we kind of have a do-not-discuss policy.

My immediate family (parents, siblings) know what I write, but none of the extended, except for a few cousins (the ones who have left the faith) who I knew would accept it. If my aunts and uncles found out, they'd never speak to me again, as would many of my still-very-religious friends. I have one cousin who told me I was dead to her because I'm a vocal advocate for contraceptives. (Don't ask, she's nuts).

I know some people would think fine, if they don't accept my writing, they don't accept me, but those relationships are important to me, and I understand I'm doing something that's so far against their values that they can't handle it. I'm not going to throw aside the majority of my life's relationships because I choose to make money this way.

I've always been the black sheep of my family, so nothing I write should surprise them.

But I would not want my mother reading Transcendence. :|

Samuel wrote: "And I find it interesting that some of you use pen names to hide your writing from relatives or friends "

Maintaining privacy from relatives and/or friends is important. Writing is often deeply personal and almost all people have things they chose not to discuss with everyone they know. But they may wish to write about them, and even if they don't do so directly, deeply personal, private feelings may (and usually should) inform their writing. Strangers are unlikely to accost one to discuss something in a book, but friends and family will (understandably) take that liberty. And that can (often does) cause friction, because now they know things they are not entitled to know and, absent a book, would never have learned.

It really doesn't matter whether they object to whatever it is, or support it, anything else. All that matters is that it's a personal matter to the author, that the author does not choose to discuss. Pseudonyms are a good way to do that. Privacy is something that, once compromised, cannot be repaired.

Owen wrote: "Privacy is something that, once compromised, cannot be repaired. "

I think that is a very important point.

I do! I want my work to speak for itself, but also I'm not an author to be famous. Over the past two years I've become a bit precious about my anonymity.

However, it got me into trouble on Librarything yesterday; I usually use True's Love's book cover as my profile pic, but that site seem very against it. Oops! :-/

It is odd; I've almost become schizophrenic! I post all my book stuff as TL Clark but it's almost a different persona! :-O

Today, if you go to Amazon Books and do a search for me, it inevitably comes back with, "Do you mean Patrick Tyler?"

To which I reply with, "%#$@ your &%&&%#$ &%#& in the rama-%$^#%$-ding dong! JUST GO TO ME-EEEEEEEE!!!!"

or words to that effect.

One day, I will Google myself, and there I will be.

Patrick wrote: "One day, I will Google myself, and there I will be."

Sounds like a good reason for a pen name. You think Engelbert Humperdink used that name because it was funny?

;D

Start writing under P. Tyree Swinfinkle and you'll show up on Google searches at the top in no time.

Samuel wrote: "And I find it interesting that some of you use pen names to hide your writing from relatives or friends."

I wanted to clarify the statement I made the other day. I am not embarrassed to have written my novella or others in the series. But there is some strategy to not telling everyone all at once. I love writing sci-fi, but I know that not all of my friends would enjoy the story, so I tell them at my own pace. In fact, I told most of my close friends immediately and others more gradually. And I haven't regretted the decision. My grandma was one I was very nervous about telling. She's from the era that considered The Waltons and Little House on the Prairie to be the world's greatest entertainment. And when I shared my story with her, she in fact told me she knew I could do better than sci-fi. (The thought that I may actually enjoy sci-fi didn't cross her mind.) But, strangely enough, she ordered another 6 copies of my book to share with her friends, so I suppose I must have done okay by her after all.

I use initials. I have since High School. Many of my favorite writers (Elliot, Cummings, Housman and others) used initials. I do it as something of an homage to them.

I do, because I want to keep my writing life/persona separate from my everyday life, at least for now. Those I want to tell, I do. Those I don't want asking too many questions (you know who I'm talking about) I don't tell :). Makes for a fairly drama-free avocation.

Yea i use a pen name my tattooist invented some time ago. I used the name a few years ago then neglected it. In the last year i've hammered the writing of books by that name. Kind of liberated from my own self writing wise. A rebirth... but starting again as a newbie was/is so hard. Due to not being known under the new name...

Why famous authors used pen names:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05...

I write under a pen name and plan to have more than one. I think it may help if and when I cross genres, because I think it may be a good idea to have a certain pen name associated with a certain type of writing, rather than one for everything.