If you were going to have a book published...

[Deleted]

would you use a pen name?

If so, why?  Privacy reasons?  Just liking a different name?


Since I'm signing a multi-million dollar publishing contract tomorrow, I need to decide this tonight. 

[Deleted]

Unless it was a crappy book ( like 50 Shades, or Twilight) that I didn't want my name associated with, I would use my own name.

I would want people to KNOW that I was the FAMOUS author.

[imojoebunny]

I would probably use my real last name. It is a common name. Maybe just my initials for my first name to keep the fans at bay :-)

[imojoebunny]

Angry bear duplicate...

[Deleted]

I've thought about this before too...I can understand it if you were going to write trashy romance novels or something that was semi-autobiographical and you didn't want people to know it was you. Otherwise, I don't get it.

[lime]

I have a lot of identity attached to my name, so I want to say I'd go ahead and use it.

When I write a white paper or a presentation, I do [first initial last name].

[Deleted]

Now that I am not spending every day in survival mode, I'm slowly getting back to writing. So naturally, I started jumping 30 steps ahead and pondering this.

I feel like I have a great pen name picked out, but I wonder if it would be stupid to use it. There is already someone well-known (though not exactly famous) with my real name. Plus, the obvious nickname for my hypothetical pen name would make a great website address and Twitter handle.

I may have overthought this a bit...

[dr.girlfriend]

I think I'd use a pen name regardless. That way if I wanted someone to know it would be easy enough, but I could go about town without issues or not have to worry about crazy stalkers showing up on my lawn, etc.

[mbcdefg]

I think I'd use my maiden name. It flows a lot better than my married name, and it's a way more common surname than my married name so my family and I could possibly stay more under the radar in the event that it became a best seller.

I have no desire to be famous.

[kwynn]

Congratulations on your publishing contract!

If I was writing about my real life industry, pen name. A regular book? My regular name.

[Awkward]

Ok, I've given this some thought. If I wrote a piece of mainstream fiction, I'd use my real last name and then a nickname variant of my first name (it's one of those with over a dozen) than the one I use in person. Think Peggy Lastname instead of Marge Lastname. I don't feel my parents named me with an ear for how my name flows, so I'd pick something that sounds nice when said by an interviewer on NPR or CNN.

If I ever get around to writing that book of trashy short stories, I'd pick a froofy French first name and last name to match. Something completely fake sounding like Marie-Clemence DuChateau. The more over the top, the better.

[cjeanette]

I think your pen name needs to be Bridey Harpy

Sent from my SPH-L710 using proboards

[stever]

I'd probably use a pen name.

[M]

Feb 10, 2013 19:46:12 GMT -5 mbcdefg said:

I have no desire to be famous.

Same here.  I'd like to use my real name but at the same time, I don't want to be known by random people.  

H has been doing a lot of interviews for magazines articles and brokerage's news thing lately for our investment firm and they've asked me several times to answer some questions and give a picture of the two of us together and I just don't want to.  Not anytime soon at least.  

About 9 months ago, H somehow found his way onto a new TV show on the SPEED channel (airing in 2 weeks!).  I was there the entire time they were filming and when the race was over, they asked me to come in a say a few words.  I quickly said no haha.

[Dusky]

It depends on what it was. For most things I'd use my real name, but there a few subjects where I think I'd use a pen name to protect my privacy.

[Velvetshady]

I think I'd use a pen name, but I'm shy and would want the ability to hide from the world.

My dad has many books published, most of them under pen names, only a couple under his name. His reasons: 1) the first mystery series he had published, he worked for the govt and they would only clear them to be published if it wasn't under his real name for security reasons; 2) he now uses that original pen name for spy/thriller/mystery types books and another name for more cozy/mystery books--the cozy pen name is a female name because male authors don't sell as well in that genre; 3) he writes some books he doesn't want his family/friends knowing about (think smut :-#) so those are under a completely different pen name he wont tell us; and 4) he's done a couple main stream fiction books under his real name now that he is retired and they aren't topics that can be linked to his old govt job.

And, no, he's never had a billion dollar publishing contract, but he does pretty well in the e-book market (enough to pay for a 4 week vacation in England last year and three cruises this year).

[Deleted]

Absolutely. I wrote a short story that I was encouraged to turn into a novel, but I could never write about the subject matter under my own name (it's about an emotional affair--even though it is based on events that happened before I met dh, I'd hate for any questions to come up)

[Deleted]

I would use my real name but with my maiden name instead of last. Another thought I had was to use just my first and middle name (as if it were my last name).

[RoxMonster]

I might do my first two initials and last name. H's aunt has gotten some books published and that's what she did.

I would want people to know it was me, so I wouldn't want a totally fake name.

[gibbinator]

I've spent way too much time thinking about this too, although more in the famous movie star scenario.
I think I'd use my first name with my great grandmother's maiden. It's an awesome surname.