Who Are You?

                                                    

You are singing that song now aren’t you? My evil plan has worked. Mwahahahahahaha! Now back to the regularly scheduled blog about pen names. You had no idea what I was going to talk about from the title did you? I hope not because I like to keep you guessing.

So moving on to the topic of pen names.

I understand the reason authors use pen names. I always feel like they should have a cape or secret powers to go with that name. I guess they do really. They do have the power to take me away to another time or place. Now there is a multitude of reasons they have pen names but the one I hear the most is that they want to keep their public life separate from their private life. They are smart to do that because there are some people who shall remain nameless (Luna) that are stalkers.  I, however, am a dedicated follower (yes, I totally stole that Luna).

Why keep their private life separate, you ask? For a variety of reasons. Let’s face it. If you read or write erotic fiction, you are somewhat thought of as perverted. I wear that badge proudly but for someone with a judgmental family, it is harder. They have to keep it a secret because of their children as well. Either so the kids won’t know because they are too young or they don’t want them to be ostracized at school.

They, also, use pen names to try out different genres. At first, I had no idea what they were talking about. But as I talked to more and more authors, I learned lots of new stuff about them. Most authors work really hard on creating a name for themselves and, if they try a new genre, sometimes it doesn’t necessarily fail but it is not the raging success that their first pen name reached. They are usually still proud of the work, but they don’t want that name to tarnish the successful one. 

Another reason I have heard is that if the genres are different then chances are the readers are as well. I have no idea what that is about because, even though I am not a huge fan of some genres, I know that if one of my favorite authors is writing a book in a different  genre then I want to at least try it. I have yet to find a book by one of my favorites that I didn’t like because of the genre. But anyway, let’s get back to the reason they use a different name for each genre. It is so that the readers are not confused by the books and can easily find the genre they want to read.

Another reason authors use multiple pen names is because they are writing for different publishers. This is probably the most popular reason. Publishers are picky about their authors. Sometimes they own an author’s pen name and, for that reason, the author cannot use that name for a different publisher.  Why do authors use different publishers? Sometimes it is because their contracts say they can only submit a certain number of books a year but the author can write more than that number. So why just submit to one publisher? I almost went off track right there when I put the word submit because all the sudden I heard a whip in the back ground. All right, I did go off the rails, but I am back on them now.  Authors need to make a living, too. If a publisher limits the number of books they can submit then that is cutting into the living of the author. I understand this is one of the biggest reasons that authors use the pen name. I don’t blame them for this one because, if an author is selling, why would you want to limit the number of books they produce? Sorry, another blog topic for another time.

The only drawback I can see for an author using a pen name is all the extra work it must create for them to do promo and whatnot for more than one name. I am sure, if they have to keep the names secret, it must also be quite the hardship because most authors are yappy or the ones I have met (and you know who you are—Mia and several others). For readers, it is a little different. Sometimes when authors use different pen names, if I don’t talk to them a lot, then I have no idea that my book collections are incomplete. I tend to collect authors and not series or genres. So I want every book they have ever written.  

So do you like pen names or do they annoy you?

Sinfully Sarcastic,

Shmuttmeister