A questions about pen names - what do you think?

[Yordan]

Hello!

I'm not a published author yet, but I am working slowly on that darned first book and the publishing-related questions keep piling on me. The one that concerns me now is the pen names issue.

My main reason for considering using a pen name is pretty blatant - I'm afraid that my obviously eastern European name will put off too many western readers, because of Americans' distaste for translated literature. It's also quite hard to pronounce for most people so I'm thinking of "translating" it into Jordan E. Irons (Zhelyazo=Iron in Bulgarian, so it's a direct translation).

However I plan an Indiegogo crowd funding campaign so I don't hope - nor intend - to keep my nationality a secret. I just don't want it to be on the cover of my books, expelling readers from first sight. I am concerned that maybe I'm being a bit paranoid and there's no need to worry and bother with a pen name. I'm still not certain.

Any advice will be appreciated - am I right to do something like that, or do I worry needlessly? What do you think? I'm writing in the fantasy genre.

Thanks for reading! 

[Su]

I don't know that I can speak to 'American's distaste for translated literature.' However, if you do go with a pen name, as I have for my own reasons, I love that you found such a great translation of your original name. It's a solid...har har...Irons...name, easy enough to remember. Good luck in this decision, and the plethora of others that mount daily...lol.
Keepin' the dream alive!
Su

[Carey]

I also cannot speak towards American distaste for translated materials, however, the name that you've chosen is a good STRONG name. Plenty of authors use pen names for many reasons. Iron definitely stands out and is attention grabbing. I say go for it.

[Yordan]

Thanks for the swift and encouraging replies!

Sorry if I offended you with my line about Americans and translated literature - I didn't mean it as an insult. It's just statistics - a very low % of the books sold in the US are of foreign descent, that's all. And rightfully so - I often read english books untranslated when I see they've been translated to Bulgarian poorly.

Back to the topic - thanks again for the replies! I like the sound of that pen name too, but I still feel I need as much feedback as possible. I'm also afraid it might in turn put off some Bulgarian readers (although I'll use my own name in my country, of course) , but I guess there's no perfect scenario. :)

Thanks once more! I really appreciate it!