Hi! I have a question about authors & names—here’s an example: if someone published a book before they married and used their original maiden name, but then got married a few years later and decided to change their name to their husband’s last name, and wa

I suppose you could publish under your new name. But you might lose some readers who are unaware of the change. I think the main thing is you do not want to confuse your readers or make it hard for them to find your books.

There are several authors who write under multiple pen names but I feel like they do this because they’re writing in different genres and the different names help differentiate between those genres. So, for instance, they write under a certain pen name for their romance books, and then another name (which may in fact be their real name) for their YA books. So their romance readers know them as one name, and their YA readers as another.

Some writers begin writing under a new pen name if their first couple of books did not sell very well. They essentially rebrand themselves by writing under a new name.

Some writers publish under their first name and choose a different last name to help shield their privacy.

So there’s a lot of options and motivations. It’s always a good idea to talk to your agent about it when you get to that point. :)