Aside from fiddling with fonts, contemplating acknowledgments sections, and/or finding the perfect quote to precede the start of the book, dreaming up pen names is a favored procrastination tool for many aspiring authors out there.
As a result, I receive a whole lot of questions about them: should I include my pen name in the query letter? Do I need a pen name? Can I use “Dan Brown” as a pen name? What about “Stephanie Mayers?” See what I did there?
This post will hopefully answer all these questions.
UPDATED 10/31/19
You probably don’t have to decide right now
But before we get to the pros and cons of pen names, whether you do or don’t decide to use a pen name is something that can and should be figured out on down the line in consultation with your (future) agent.
When you send queries: query as your real self. I wouldn’t recommend send it from your pseudonym. When I was a literary agent, I wanted to know who I was really going to be working with.
If you’re considering using a pen name or have a pen name, mention it if you feel it’s really necessary and just put (writing as Mr. Pen Name) below your real name. Example:
Sincerely,
Nathan Bransford
(writing as Danger McDangerson)
Deciding whether to use a pen name
Now. As for whether you should or should not use a pen name, again, this is something that should be contemplated with your agent. Circumstances are inevitably different for every author, so generalizing will not capture all the ins and outs.
But here are some rough pros and cons:
Pros for pen names
- You can optimize for SEO. In this day and age of Google Searches, if your name is John or Jane Smith or something very common, a pen name can help you with SEO. What is SEO? Search Engine Optimization. If someone Googles “Jane Smith,” the author Jane Smith with the book out might be on page 47. Jane Jingleheimerschmidt, on the other hand, will probably be closer to the top. (Before the days of Google I never appreciated having a weird last name. Hooray for Bransford!)
- You want to avoid the attention of certain foreign governments. Some authors want a public persona that’s different from their passport name to avoid complicating future travel. (Honest!)
- Your previous books didn’t sell as well as you had hoped. A pen name can sometimes give an author a fresh start.
- Your publisher or agent feels your book might do better if the author’s name sounded more male/female/gender neutral to appeal to either a male/female demographic. Be very, very careful with this sort of thing, and it’s a practice that is largely falling by the wayside. Let the professionals decide this one and I wouldn’t try to over-engineer it.
- You want to avoid complications in your professional life. You might want your professional presence online to be different from your artistic persona online.
Cons for pen names
- It’s complicated. Many authors find it extremely annoying to have a pen name in the Internet age. In the past you just had to learn to answer to your pen name at readings and in interviews and otherwise you could go about your business. In the day and age of the Internet and Twitter and Facebook, constantly being another person gets exhausting, what with switching between e-mail accounts and remembering your alternate persona’s likes and dislikes, etc. etc.
- It can be harder to tap your network. With a fake name it’s more difficult to utilize your personal real life network to help sell a book. Regular non-book type people out there find pen names pretty confusing and difficult to remember.
- A pen name won’t give you cover when you’re defaming people. Not gonna fly in this day and age: The Internet will figure you out. And defaming people, even in novels, is extremely risky and costly business. Also it’s illegal.
In general I would recommend against using a pen name unless there’s a really good reason for it. In other words: don’t use one just to use one.
But if you really really need one…
Tips for pen names
- First check to see if the Internet domain is available. It will make your life much, much easier to have the FirstnameLastname.com domain.
- Don’t try and mimic another successful author. Be yourself.
- Many people find it helpful to stick with your first name at least so you don’t have to remember answer to a new name or accidentally call yourself your actual name.
- Make sure it’s memorable. If you’re going to get a new name, make it a good one!
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Art: Two tax collectors (detail) by Marinus van Reymerswaele
I just goggled (and yahooed) my name. I'd never thought my name uncommon but only 2 results on the first page weren't me. So I guess, I should definitely use my name.
What do you think of pen names and genres? Like if you write all these cutesy bunny rabbit stories AND erotica… Should you attach your name to both genre?
@Linguista
I wouldn't suggest using the same name for those. 'Specially since th former sound like kids books, and the latter are most certainly not. 🙂
Thanks Nathan.
I have an agent and we've been discussing back and forth if I should use my maiden name or married name. I already have my maidenname domain, and began networking under my maiden name. However, I am getting married in a few months and we hope to have finalized a sale on my debut novel by then. I'm really struggling to decide what name would be best for me to use. I am the #1 search for my name, and my other married name is a little more common — But has some pros. For example, I write YA fantasy, and my married last name will be Meyer. So, the positioning in the bookstore would be good. The only bad thing is that the .com for that new name is already taken.
I would use a nickname that I have been called a lot — but that nickname is my future sister-in-law's legal name. AND she is an aspiring writer, too.
I feel like in this day and age it's hard to have two separate personas, and I don't know that I want to keep two up. The separate lives thing is that #1 reason my agent suggests that I use my married name (one name for my day to day life, the one I'll share with my husband and kids, and then another for my writer persona).
I feel like since I put an effort in networking I really need to make the decision soon. 🙁 It's not an easy one!! I feel for all you others who are struggling with the decision.
For anyone that DID chose a pen name — Did anyone decide on it once they were fairly far into the publishing process? Any others who network extensively on facebook or twitter, has it affected the influence you have on the 'real people' in your life?
There are so many great sites on the net that publish tips and hints and great advice and yet again, it is a pleasure to pop in, have a coffee and read your very practical advice. Hope that doesn’t sound sycophantic, I can’t bear sycophants. I hadn’t even considered a pen name because I can see my name on the front of the holiday read on a bookshelf at the airport! It is the only thing that remains constant in my vision as I rewrite, edit, delete, doubt my work. I couldn’t win a raffle prize let alone the Booker prize but somehow that vision of a book with my unusual name on the front of it remains the hook to hang my aspirations on.
I'm another one of those people considering a pen name for spelling/pronunciation purposes only. Some days, I also think my given name doesn't have quite the right 'sound' for my genre, but some days I think the uniqueness would be an asset.
Still debating the issue, and will probably be doing so until I'm agented, at least.
Thanks for this post, Nathan, really interesting!
I have an unusual last name, and I always assumed I'd publish under my own name. Because it's unusual, even people who've only met me once or twice tend to remember it (and thus might buy the book *grin*). Then there is the whole annoying-people-who-didn't-like-me-in-school issue. And I'm six of the results on the first page of a Google search, and all of the others are shipping lists for Irish people emigrating to America two centuries ago. So no confusion there 🙂
There is also a sentimental edge to this. My name is a family name. I'm named after my late father's late mother (and a couple of others slightly further back), and I'd like to use my own name in their honour and in memory of my father.
Although I do love genre hopping, so I have a YA-friendly pseudonym all lined up, should an agent ever insist on it 🙂 Never let it be said I am unprepared.
I'm afraid to be recognized for prior bad acts. So, I would certainly use a pen name.
I just use my own name, maiden and married. My maiden name is uncommon and I use both names in everyday life as well as for my writing.
Other things to consider ~
Copyright is in author's name. If you create C-corp or something, a pseudonym will work. Otherwise, you likely don't want a legal copyright in a fake name.
I know writers who copyright to a "trust" and that works since the trust spells out who controls the money (in the future especially).
Consider inheritance of copyright.
Exclusive or non-competitive works clauses may keep a productive author from publishing under the same name.
Collaborations.
Ducking your agent when she/he won't represent something you've written.
I'm using a pen-name, which is my first two initials and my maiden name because I didn't want to put my S.O.B. ex-husband's name on my books. (I'm not bitter.)
Although I write women's fiction, I plan to write a few spy novels, a series featuring an African-American woman. So for those, I'll be using a pen-name because of my former occupation. (I could tell you but I'd have to kill you.)
I've had too many people tell me I have a great name to use a pen name, even though I've considered it. Even some young musician who's YouTube video I posted had to message me and tell me my name was "sick". My 16 year old assures me that that's a good thing.
I do have a pen name for cross-genre, but I don't spend enough time in it to worry about it.
I do agree with all you said about not using a pen name unless necessary and you make excellent points. However, I read this story on Alex Kava's website
https://www.alexkava.com/news/newsView.asp?ID=49
She got 116 rejections, then changed her name from Sharon Kava to Alex and got a lot more responses from agents. I often wonder if I changed my name to a male name if I would get a better response from agents. Not that I have any desire for a pen name. I just find it interesting. Might be something to try.
Nathan —
I'd like to second the question from earlier in this comment thread: what about the crazies? What if you do happen to achieve some level of notoriety (for good or bad) with your book. Wouldn't a pen name be some measure of protection against someone with frightening intentions googling your real address, etc?
one problem I have with my 1st pen-name is the social networks need to ask gender, I am a man, so I say I'm a man, but in the genre I'm writing under this name, I should appear as not a man. It needs to be plausibly deniable, and the social media signups make that moot. Hopefully the books get bought before they find my social presence under this name. Sales are unlikely if I'm discovered as a man socially before I'm read. My others are very definatively male.
How much, if any, value is added by being at the start of the alphabet – i.e. Benjamin Black as used by John Banville?
@Kurtis 11:59 – this made me LOL. Especially if ex was anti-writing or dismissive of your dream.
Thanks, Nathan– I'd been wondering those things myself (and think I did it a bit wrong recently).
I have three major reasons for using a pen name:
1. I have another career as a biologist, so I don't want searches for my scientific work to overlap with any fiction I might have published.
2. Although I like my unusual first name, non-Gaelic speakers find it difficult to spell and pronounce, and I'd rather use my initials.
3. My legal last name (made up by my grandfather when he immigrated) is fairly generic, and turns up lots of random people in a search.
Another blog tip if you're using a pen name, is to locate it near an author in that genre. So for Horror KING and KOONTZ are common so a K-name would work wonders.
For Scifi I'm locating next to H.G. Wells
Oh, no.
Now I can't stop singing – "John Jacob Jingleheimer-Schmidt, his name is my name tooooo."
It's going to be stuck in my head for the rest of the day now.
Word verifications: flums.
That makes me giggle for some reason.
–Ash
GhostFolk, I'm not sure that copyright is an issue here. Many books show the copyright in the publisher's name, where the publisher is holding copyright for the author, so neither the real name nor the pen name necessarily has to appear with the actual copyright statement.
Nathan, this is a useful post, fully amplified by the many comments. Other people use "pen" names or "commercial identities" in the publishing world, and I just wrote about this within 24 hrs of your post at my self-publishing blog.
How about for when/if you change genres? That's a good reason to use a pen name, isn't it?
Eg. writing contemporary MG for girls and then after several books branching out into Urban Fantasy as well (which is something I'm thinking about).
Would it be best to use a pen name so as not to confuse readers?
There are cons to that idea as well. Pen names. It's a toughie.
Iain Banks is a fiction author
He decided to try scifi
He writes as Iain M. Banks (those I read)
My name is a pen name, but I'm not trying to fool anyone. It's a variation of my real name, anyway, and if anyone goes to my website and does a whois search they see my real name.
I just use it to separate my work life from my writing life. And also, I have a book out under my real name, which is a non-fiction self-help book I wrote ten years ago. I have articles out and op eds on all different stuff under my real name. None of that's the direction I want to go in the future (I want to write fiction and publish gothic literary art) So, I'm just trying to sidestep a little baggage.
I had people (NOT in the industry) tell me that I better choose a pen name because my last name is too Jewish to be mainstream.
Yeah, that just made me more determined to slap my clunky Jewish name on my "un-Jewish" book.
I publish scientifically under my full name and feel strongly that it isn't my right to 'taint' my co-authors with fiction. I've handled it by dropping my first name. My maiden name is now my first (a name I have always used) and my married my last.
It's a bonus that the new name is gender neutral. (Hart as a first)
Another blog I'd seen though said 'it's your name now, use it–no point confusing people with a whole bunch of names', so I am feeling wrong footed and like I've been sending my queries wrong–it is still my NAME per se… just missing the first name.
Damn you, Quentin Tarantino!
I put a lot of consideration into this, actually, about a year or so ago. Then I settled on a pen name. Thing is, I'm Danish and my name doesn't pronounce well in English. Actually, people could be misled into pronouncing it Hell Underline, which, yeah… So I decided I'd rather not have my name mutilated, and went with a first name – Dannie – that stands for my nationality more than anything else, and a last name – Underhill – that's the direct translations of my actual first last name. It simplifies things, and doesn't earn me quite as many snorts.
Wouldn't it get really confusing? I would. If someone calls me my pen name i would just look around trying to find her until I realized he was talking to me!!
Thanks Nathan, your post came out just at the right time, I'm having difficulties to decide if I should use my real names or use a pen names.
The thing is I have published a comic book using a pen name, but now I write a novel and changed my genre. I wanted to be taken seriously this time so I was thinking to use my real name, but then again my real name is not too commercial for a fantasy, and I have use my real name for some of my non fiction book (it's a how to draw book), is it okay if I just use another pen name?
Thanks in advance
Googling my married name is likely to land you on sites of ill repute, so I reverted to my maiden name. Now when you google Sherri Cornelius, I'm 1, 2 and 3 on the front page. Bodes well for my brand, if I ever get the chance to need it.
Nice place ya got here.
I exist within the grouping "…don't want complications at work" – translated – "I am on a leave this year to pursue writing, and may not go back, but if I do, I don't want to be fired!”
My manuscript is entitled Conversations of a Pornstar and an 8th Grade Teacher (I am the teacher in question (female), and agreed to live in the house of a male adult film star in order to write it). I really don’t think any further explanation is needed!
My choices to keep my own name away from the internet actually began long before this book. For 7 years, I taught at a K-8 school, teaching mostly 7th and 8th Graders. Those kids go home and Google you the moment they meet you! Thus, I never had a Facebook account, Myspace page, anything – and anything I do for the book now is either under my pen name or the performer’s name I wrote with/about.
I chose be a bit ironic (and yes, I am using it incorrectly!) and use my “porn name” as my pen name – you know, when you take your middle name and the street you grew up on to form your ‘performing moniker’? Yes, I know you can also use your first pet’s name, but Poohbear seemed a bit off the mark. I suppose, if I don’t really want to “get caught”, I should not be so cheeky, as the name itself would provide hints to my actual identity, but I fear I may be “screwed” (NO pun intended) either way, as the agent handling the manu seems to think that any publisher would want both the pornstar and I to go out and promote, as the book is written in both our voices (I ghosted his parts), and people are gravitating to the “regular girl’s POV”.
The pen name is not at all memorable – that is the funny part – I guess I sort of decided to go with it BECAUSE it sounded like an ordinary, unassuming name (and, oddly enough, my real last name is pretty rare).
Here’s the thing. I desperately want to continue writing, and be one of the lucky few that has a chance to do this as an actual career. I loved my time in teaching, but would love to leave teaching to write full time even more (but I have to have a back up plan)!
Any other books I write will be under my own name. The ONLY reason I used a pen name for this one was because I work with children, and despite the fact that I did not “live the porn life”, just lived in a pornstar’s house, I sense that the school board, my admin, and the parents of the kids I have taught cannot help but view me in an entirely different light. If I were still riding a desk in a cubicle, waiting tables, anything of that nature, I would say, “…darn right, I wrote this!”, but if I DO go back to teaching (and I did, for a year in the middle of all this, keeping things very quiet), I cannot be “…the teacher who wrote a book with a male pornstar”! Even if I could not be fired, I am sure that I would be made uncomfortable enough to ensure that I left on my own.
So, for me it is necessary, though it does seem as if it may all be useless, if I am asked to go out and promote.
What would you do?
LOL I love that my reason for my pen name is the first in the "Pro" list. Smith is a horrible last name for an author, especially for romance.
I go by first and middle because it's not too big of a deviation.
I just hate my real life name. Legally, I'd be willing to change my name to my pen name. I kept my last name and merely changed my first name.
But, I also set up all my twitter, online email, facebook under my new first name. So it is more likely to be found than my birth name.
Second, my family is nuts. I have no desire to have my fringe relatives googling me.
Do I think a pen name is a good idea for everyone? Nope.
But for some people, yes.
And I answer all my email and mail under my pen name with that name.
I actually have more of a problem remembering to use my birth name at work.
Loved the article. Good fodder for the brain.
Tirz
I went ahead and started building a platform (leap of faith) with a pen name for practical reasons… my day job is a lawyer and we have to have a public address listed on the state bar pages. I wanted to have some semblance of privacy and not worry that people would just show up at my office! Also, my "real life" persona is writing legal non-fiction and my pen name is writing YA, so I thought it might be good to break it up, as I wouldn't necessarily use my business networking to promote my fiction but would for my non-fiction. The true question will come when I write a legal thriller one day! lol I did keep my first name though. Didn't want to deal with having to respond to different first name. I also kept my last name something that I could easily remember and had a connection to me. If I chose something random, I think I'd have a much harder time.
Thanks for the post Nathan!
See, I use a pen name for everything on the internet. I am paranoid- but with your real name it is very easy to get way too much information about you.
In AZ it is a matter of doing a quick search and I can pull up a homeowner's address, mortgage amount and signature online.
Been stalked once by a crazy guy- trust me, that is not fun!
My business name is Rissa Watkins. My real name is Marissa uh, something. 🙂
Nathan-
I am considering a pen name, because of the very point(s) I found as reasons people choose pen names on a few other site discussing this topic (pasted below).
"Some use a pen name as a political move to avoid the various –isms still prevalent today. Writers whose ethnic origins differ from the mainstream will sometimes use a name like that of the prevalent culture to get away from that society’s prejudices towards them."
"If your name is hard to spell, remember or pronounce or seems too foreign or ethnic. To hide ethnicity or alter apparent ethnicity."
My last name does fall under these catagories (I was born and raised in America, but my ethnic background is not a popular one, my name is hard to say if you're seeing it for the first time and no one spells it correctly because it has 3 consonants in a row, so it throws people off.)
Thoughts???
Nathan-
I am considering a pen name, because of the very point(s) I found as reasons people choose pen names on a few other site discussing this topic (pasted below).
"Some use a pen name as a political move to avoid the various –isms still prevalent today. Writers whose ethnic origins differ from the mainstream will sometimes use a name like that of the prevalent culture to get away from that society’s prejudices towards them."
"If your name is hard to spell, remember or pronounce or seems too foreign or ethnic. To hide ethnicity or alter apparent ethnicity."
My last name does fall under these catagories (I was born and raised in America, but my ethnic background is not a popular one, my name is hard to say if you're seeing it for the first time and no one spells it correctly because it has 3 consonants in a row, so it throws people off.)
Thoughts???
Like Jessica, I'm a lawyer and work in juvenile court. My name is weird enough that I think I'm the only one out there and it's really hard to spell. I anticipate needing to keep my day job. I am writing an urban fantasy, have had thoughts about writing fantasy, paranormal romance, and legal thrillers, but would prefer to keep my writing self away from my real world career. I am worried about what if someone wants me to go on tour. But I'm years from there at this point. I also have an occasional stalker who knows where my office is and fortunately lives too far away to be a problem, but publishing something would be like waving a red flag at the stalker.
I have a much easier name picked out but will need to check to see that it isn't taken.
Answering to that name wouldn't be terribly difficult. I already use nicknames in different areas of my personal life and haven't had that problem at all.
It's unfortunate that some people I know can't pronounce my Italian last name correctly, and it's only five letters long, with only two consonants. Because of my Italian and Greek background, I'm looking for a pen name with a Hellenistic sound to it. However, foreign names don't seem to run too well, and from what I understand, neologisms are big no-noes. Adding a sequence of vowels is probably not too good either. Not only that, but there can only be so many single syllable words. It seems that the names that will run are single syllable Anglo-Saxon names that are within the first few letters of the alphabet. Unfortunately for me, I prefer Greco-Roman names like Alexander and Valerian. Hard to pronounce, right? So much for unique names. I guess I have to settle for a single syllable first and last name. Popular yet unique. Then there are the issues of homonyms and memes. Could I be wrong, though?
-Anth
I use a pen name because we – 3 authors – co-wrote a novel based on a short story by a deceased friend. I'm the 'p' (for Pero) in pgkhanson. A unique situation perhaps, but we figured it was best way to deal with 3 authors – especially in a query
Thanks Nathan for another great blog post that aids me in my procrastination! I can always count on you for good information and a laugh or two followed by hours of entertainment in the comment section.
Clara Rose is part of my very long name and has served as my pen name for more years that I care to admit. When I query you (you know I will at some point) I will remember to give you the full version 🙂
This was an interesting and helpful post. I have built up a platform off of the pen name I hope to use. My real name is too ethnic, and I'd like to avoid that. Not to mention my first name seems to be hard to pronounce for some people, and my last name is really, really common and both of my names together bring up a whole list of famous people. So, yeah. I thought long and hard about using a pen name as well, and I've come to the conclusion that it's better to use one, although I have had some people try and talk me out of it.
This post cleared up some things. Thanks.
I live in Britain and I'm an "ethnic minority." I'm worried people will see that and not want to buy my book (if, you know, it ever gets published.) I think I have to use a pen name.
I just wrote about this topic.
There is a long and well established tradition of writers using pen names. As Nathan suggested in his article above, there are a number of good reasons a writer may choose to use a pseudonym or pen name.
Using a pen name seems like a trivial matter to a lot of writers, but there are a few things needing to be considered before casually pulling a name out of the air. For example, using a pen name does affect the length of your copyright and works written under a pen name tend to be orphaned more often than works written under the authors real name.
This information and more can be found in A Writer's Guide To Using Pen Names.
My name is not very usual either, there are only a few man out there who have the same combination of first & last name, however my pseudonym is unique, and there can only be one with it, and that's me!!
I personally chose my pen name out of a extremely hard personal experience, however I have a friend who also has a 'nickname' that came to him accidentally, yet everyone in his business knows him by it and not everyone by his real name!
Thank you,
Mario A. Niebles a.k.a. the Illuminazzo.
I'm really not sure what to do… My name is Danielle but I've been "Dan" to family and friends since I was very young. (My dad thought it was cute.) Now I feel no connection with "Danielle” and only use it at the DMV and the ER. So, I don't want to publish under my full legal name, but hate the idea that people will think I'm being cagey (or trying to hide my sex). Also, I sign everything "Dan." Is it a pen name? I guess. It's easy to explain in real life, but I'm not really sure how to handle it here—especially with online submissions.
Great tips, all of them still on point 10+ years later 😉
I’d add the importance of social media handles nowadays but that’s pretty much a no-brainer.
I created a pen name generator many years ago which I finally “translated” to English now. (If links are enabled and this comment gets approved, click my name.)
It’s very basic stuff right now but with some feedback I could improve it.