What is your opinion on using a pen name?

[texxie-PRUFreads.blogspot.com]

Do you use a pen name to write under? Why or why not?

[Lara]

No, I do not use a pen name. I want ppl to know me for whom I am

[Jill]

I use a pen name for the opposite of Lara, I want the readers to judge my books for the book, not on who I am.

[Yzabel]

I use one (although I'm not published yet), but mainly because I want to keep my fiction work separate, in case I finally decide to resume with my studies and go the Ph. D road. My real name is for academics.

That, and there's no way I want my pupils to immediately know what I do with my free time as soon as they look me up on Facebook or something.

[Cherene]

Usually pen names are good for when you want to break out of genre without having followers judge your work under the same standards. Like Stephen King using Richard Bachman so far as to dedicate a book to a made up wife.

I would use one if I was to write literary and then switch to romance (as an example) because you'd attract such a different type of audience.

[Justin]

I myself don't use one and while I have considered it I haven't seriously considered it.
Sometimes authors do it for change to branch out and other times cause they have to.

[Lee]

I've used one right from the start based on two great actors, Sir Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, as a sign of respect for their legendary performances.

[Thayer]

I use my middle name and my grandmother's maiden name, so it is sort of a pen name, but not one simply made up without relation to anything. When writing outside of my genre, I do use a pen name that is totally created out of thin air. I like anonymity.

[Robert]

I've never had the urge to use one.

[Erica]

I had little choice, hehe. My name is Icelandic (30 letters long without the two spaces) and it's impossible for foreigners to pronounce, let alone remember.

[Susan]

Yes, I use one to separate my how-to's from my fiction. The only thing is, it keeps you on your toes, logging in and out of two accounts! LOL

[texxie-PRUFreads.blogspot.com]

Thanks everyone for your input!

[Mara]

I use one, for much the same reason as Yzabel. That and to make it harder to find me on the off chance my books ever gain momentum and the crazies come looking. =D

[Tome]

Personally the few bits of writing I've done online have always used a pen name, for privacy reasons more than anything else.

Coincidentally, Evan Ramspott has just done a guest post on my blog on this very topic. I hope it's not against the rules to post the link here.

http://tomesofthesoul.blogspot.co.uk/...