Authors & Pseudonyms: I'm so Confused!

[The Angry Lawn Gnome]

I'm kind of curious what people's opinions are on why authors would want to use pseudonyms in this day and age. I'm asking because it seems like it would be more a detriment than anything else.

As in, I used to love reading Paula Volsky's books, but it seemed to me she stopped writing sometime in the early 2000s, for no reason I could figure. Just found out that she's written several more recent books under a pseudonym, Paula Brandon. Huh? These books don't seem wildly different from her earlier stuff, aimed at all that different an audience and all that, so I'm at a loss as to why she didn't simply, well, publish them as Paula Volsky.

Seems to me if you've attracted an audience, be it large or small, there's not much point in abandoning this audience, is there? What is going here that I'm missing? Probably there's not definitive answer to the questions I'm asking, but that's what discussion boards are for, right? :)

[Tasha]

I'm using one as I'm religious and had concerns about how the community would accept my writing. It turned out I may have been overly cautious.

Sometimes a publisher or agent will insist on a name change. Sometimes the writing is a different genre - more & more in this case the authors main name is tacked on. The author got married and didn't think about how changing her name on books might affect her. Someone owns the rights to the name. Some kind of controversy happened and changed name in hopes of leaving it behind. Then there is using a name in the gender typically associated with a genre... Like Nora Roberts (romance) writing mystery as J.D. Robb.

[Stan]

Sometimes it's because they are writing for different publishing companies.

[A.L.]

Depends on genre too. A lot of erotica writers use a pen name as they may not want their family/workplace/church to know or even say they write kids books as well. You look for a book for your child and google the name J Smith and don't realise the book is not suitable.

Some authors get a lot of stick for their books and writing.

[Andy]

I was going to use one, but at the eleventh hour realised that the one I had chosen was actually a quite famous person. So I reverted to my own name, albeit with initials. The benefit of this is that I don't have to remember to sign off with with nom de plume.

Andy (that was easy).

[Emma]

I write academic texts, as well as some somewhat raunchy scifi and paranormal fiction. I use my real name (complete with letters afterwards) for the academic stuff, but I use the pen name E. Jaye for the fiction.

[Stan]

I use Stan instead of Stanley. But around the net I use a pseudonym. So if you've ever run into the infamous morriss003, well...

[Jacqueline]

I work full time in the medical field still and prefer to keep my careers separate when possible.

[Yzabel]

Although I haven't published much yet, except for a couple of short stories, I went with a pen name that I decided on years ago. I want to keep my writing life separate from my work life (it's already annoying enough when pupils look me up on Facebook and ask me to be their "friend"). Also, I want my real name to remain "free" in case I go for a Ph. D and end up publishing academic papers.

[Bryn]

I work in a conservative industry and have professional publications under my own name, but I write fiction with my sister under a pseudonym. I mainly want to keep these separate since the fiction does contain some cursin, violence and sexual content. I don't want a potential client googling my real name and coming up with my fiction publications.

www.annbrynbauer.blogspot.com
author: Cuban Sun

[David]

Not sure about this day and age, but the story of my own pseudonym spans decades. When I started out back in the mid 1980s, it seemed that "David Wilson" was going to be too bland. I'd read a fantasy novel where a Welsh bard named Niall was a main character, and my family background is Welsh/German. So - I became David Niall.

Then, over time, I actually started selling some stories. I had a hard time convincing people who knew me that this David Niall guy was me. At the same time, I had started to gather some publication credits and readers...and I didn't want to lose them to my early silliness. What I did, in the end, was to tack the Wilson back onto the end, and it's been that way since about 1999. My actual middle name is Neil - so it's not too far off...

Sometimes, though, the reason is simply to separate different kinds of fiction, to prevent your YA readers from picking up a horror novel with adult themes, and to prevent reader confusion.

[Winnie]

As a aspiring novelist, I am wondering about this topic too. I work in quite a public field, and am not sure I would want my "professional" identity linked to my writing identity. So, I have always figured I would use a pseudonym. It just avoids awkward questions from coworkers and some family and friends depending on which genres you write. I think when you cross genres, it can sometimes work out really well. But, there are other times when your audience aren't into all the genres you'd like to write about, so having a few pseudonyms helps you better market your books to those who might be interested.

[K.A.]

I write in the fantasy genre and was advised to use a 'gender-neutral' first name, so I use K.A. rather than Kathy. Not sure it makes any difference, as I don't go to any lengths to disguise my gender, but that's why.

[M.W.]

I kinda did mine backwards. I picked a "pen" name when I started, which was actually the nickname I go by and my maiden name. I write erotic romance under that name and have for years. I'd had old high school friends and third-cousins hundreds of miles away I'd never heard of before contact once they found a book of mine. LOL! BUT Then I got divorced. I would've liked to have gone back to my maiden name, but I kept my married name to keep the identities separate. THEN I decided to publish New Adult/YA under a new pen name (partly to distance myself from a bad publisher and to focus on author branding).

Sooo technically, my erotic romance pen name is an old name of mine and my Y/A pen name just has one initial in common with me. Most authors go about this the other way around (write racier stuff under a super-secret pen name). For me it's not really the content that guided the decision but the branding.

[J.A.]

LOL Kathy I got the same advice....For some reason in Sci Fi and Fantasy they think female writers don't sell.

But I just use my initials as you do.

Some of my colleagues in my Romance writing group have 2 or more pen names for different types of stories. For example: one writes erotica under one name, romance under another, and fantasy under a third.

It can cause confusion if we change names, if we switch types of stories, or even if we just get married or divorced.

So judicious use is a good policy...

Jenny