On our panel today we have three authors: Steven Piziks, Steven Harper, and Penny Drake. Mr. Piziks is known for his media tie-in books and short stories. Mr. Harper is known for his science fiction novels. Ms. Drake is an upcoming writer of romantic thrillers.
Will the real author please stand up?
All three of them are real, of course. They’re all me.
Authors take pen names for a number of reasons. These days, the most common reason is numbers. Bookstores have a deadly and terrible method of ordering books–they always order fewer than before. If Big Box Books ordered 1,000 copies of New Author’s first book and they sell 800, they’ll order–get this–400 of his second book. That’s right–400. Let’s say 300 of those sell. That means they’ll only order 150 of the author’s third book. And we all know that Big Box Books don’t restock if a book sells out, either, so there’s little chance of a book to break out and turn into a major seller.
At this point, the publisher will say, “Look, dude–your books aren’t selling. We can’t offer you another contract.”
“But . . . but . . . it’s not my fault! My books have a high sell-through rate!” protests the author. “The bookstores just don’t stock my stuff!”
“Sorry,” says the publisher. “Nothing we can do about that.”
“You could push my books more. You know–give them a publicity budget, maybe pay to put them on an endcap by the cash register.”
“BWAH HA HA HA HA HA! You’re all right, kid! It was nice working with you.”
But Big Box Books orders everything by computer, and computers are stupid. They have no idea that Author One and Writer Two are the same person. So Author One adopts a pen name for his next book, and the computer for Big Box Books order 1,000 copies again. Ta da! That’s how Steven Harper was born.
Sometimes pen names are born through audience expectation. I wrote a romantic thriller named Trash Course for Carina Press, the electronic arm of Harlequin. It comes out in a couple of weeks, and you can preview it here. Unfortunately, men are largely persona-non-grata among romance readers. A man can’t truly write from a woman’s point of view, goes the reasoning, and many romance readers shy away from anything written by a man. Out of this, Penny Drake was born.
Some authors adopt pen names for privacy. Marion Zimmer Bradley, for example, wrote several novels of lesbian fiction under a false name because at the time she was living in a community that would have made life difficult for her if they’d known about it.
Occasionally authors adopt pen names because their real names are difficult to spell or pronounce. Readers don’t like having to search for a name or having to stammer or stutter for a clerk: “I’m looking for the new book by Joel Sczymanski.” “How do you spell that?” “Uh . . . ”
What other reasons have you come across?
–Steven Harper Piziks
http://spiziks.livejournal.com
Books available at Book View Cafe:
Full selection available at http://www.bookviewcafe.com/index.php/Steven-Piziks/Steven-Piziks-Novels/
Another reason: If you’re day job is university professor and you write romance, you have to be very successful to be able to come out to your colleagues and pupils – like Eloisa James.
Or you might want to completely change genres and are not sure readers will follow you if you use the name you got famous with (Nora Roberts /J.D. Robb).
I expect that your Carina Press romance will get the male side right then ^^.
They really need to lengthen their excerpts to Samhain size…
Also, the excerpt shows the action part, but I don’t get any feel for the romance.
Their excerpts show the opener of the book and are something like the first 500 words, or something. No idea how Carina decided on that length. I’ll probably give a longer excerpt on my own site later.
I had a friend who used a pseudonym because he didn’t want his mother to know he was writing. The familial politics behind this decision were like something out of a really bad Tennessee Williams play.
I write m/m romance and erotica, and use a pen name because when I was first published, I discussed it with my husband and he said there was a small but non-zero chance he could have trouble getting his next raise or promotion at work if it became known that his wife wrote “gay smut.” :/ I’ve known other people who wrote erotica or explicit romance because they or their spouse was a teacher or a nurse or a clergyperson or anyone else whose employer might have 19th century “morals” clauses in their contracts. And some people do it to hide from their families.
Another reason to use a different name for a different genre is just to help readers keep things straight. I’ve recently started subbing some things to mainstream SF/Fantasy markets, and I’m using my real name for that. I’m not trying to hide — I’ll be marketing those on the same blogs and web sites as my m/m fiction — but rather communicating clearly to readers who are into one but not the other just which is which.
Oh, and my GLBT publisher has a YA imprint; if I ever sub anything to that, it’ll be under a different pseud. They market that imprint heavily to libraries and schools, and I’d just as soon Little Julie’s mom or her junior high librarian don’t Google my name and find explicit sex. [wry smile]
Oh, and some people use multiple pseuds because they write so fast they’d overrun reader interest if they published it all under one name. I wish I had that problem, but some people do.
Angie
I am waiting to see if I can sell a third Alfreda book — if I can, and a publisher is interested in any more YA/Teen books, then my real name becomes the book I write YA/Teen under (and also SF, from an early incarnation of myself). But the split between teen writing and adult writing seems a likely candidate for two names. You’ve mentioned the bookstore gambit — someone else mentioned the “your mom writes gay porn, doesn’t she?” bit.
One I just learned about is not the “overwhelming the public with how fast you write” but what if editors want you spending a year on their book, not someone else’s book? And if you really can write three quality books a year, you may need three names to be publishing under, for three very different areas. And you’re not hiding from the public — you’re hiding from editors at different houses.
All I really wanted was to write — *sigh*….
The best reason to use a pen name is if your name is already in use. All writers named Steven or Stephen King should consider a switch, for instance.
Yeah. Numbers. -sigh- That’s why one of my Carina books is coming out under a new name, ’cause my current pen name seems to have garnered a bad reputation. The second book is under the “old” pen name since it’s a reprint, so it’ll be interesting to see the difference in sales, even though they’re totally different genres.
A friend of mine writes Christian romance and “hot” romance. She has to keep her two identities separate and secret because her Christian publisher would drop her if it knew she was writing semi-erotica for someone else.
I’ve heard more than a few horror stories involving some of the crazies who have stalked romance writers. Then there is identity theft which has happened to several writers of my acquaintance.
In these days where anyone can find your phone number and address, get a map to your home, and learn the names of your spouse, kids, and pets in under a minute online, I think the question is why you should use your own name, not a pen name.
BTW, if you, gentle reader, wish to fight the “death spiral” that ordering of books causes, go to your bookstore and ask them to get the book. Gets a sale recorded.
Two offerings out from a very bad publisher, and one more that . . . nevermind. I don’t want my new buyers to buy my old stuff, because I’ll never see a cent. My new stuff is all me, and I can see the profits as they come in. That’s my reason.
The big one, of course, was always the ‘female author wanting to be taken seriously in a very male career’ which a lot of Regency authors seemed to do. Not needed nowadays, of course…
Then there are Iain Banks and Iain M Banks…. two different genres, very similar names and the same writer.
“The big one, of course, was always the ‘female author wanting to be taken seriously in a very male career’ which a lot of Regency authors seemed to do. Not needed nowadays, of course…”
I’m hesistant to say “it’s not needed” because sexism is still prevalent. James Tiptree Jr was only 30 years ago.
I would posit that some female writers still choose to non-gender themselves, by use of initials, or a gender neutral name. It’s certainly what I do.
I use a pen name for an air of mystery – my name is too simple and boring. It is also very common where I come from – if you throw a stone to a (male) crowd chances are you hit a person with my name.