Is anybody else out there thinking about using a pseudonym?

I have a friend who didn't choose a pen name but now that she has a school-aged child, wonders if she should have. No, she doesn't write erotica (I think most of those authors do choose a pen name) but she still doesn't want attention directed at herself when they're in situations where the child should be the focus.

You should ask some of your pubbed authors at your local RWA chapter. I'm sure they have stories. The ones who have been around a long time might have been told that they had to have a pen name (yes, I know people who were).

You should also ask this question over in the writer forums. More people who write might see it. 

FWIW from a non-writer,

Penn

some of the crazy attacks I've seen leveled at authors lately on the internet, I think a pseudonym is practically a must.  Heck, I'm starting to think that as a reviewer I should have gone with a pseudonym based on some of the craziness out there!

And as far as for different genres... I know it helps me as a reader know which books by a particular author are geared to what I like. 

Every one knows your other name anyway......

Everyone knows that Sherrilyn Kenyon is Kinley MacGregor (Maybe when your name is MacGregor, it is easier to write about Scots?) 

Or books will say Stephen King, writing as as Richard Bachman..so whats the point?

Anne Rice also goes by a couple of other names (that I cant think of at the moment).

I guess in the case of Anne Rice, that name so associated with the Vampire Chronicles, that she needed a different name for the Sleeping Beauty series.

I always thought my name was a litle bland, so at one time, when I thought of becoming an actress, I was going to call my self  Whitley Wilcox (two streets in Hollywood),  Holly Wood,  Whitley Franklin (more streets in Hollywood).

Or something really outrageous like a character I saw in a animate series (I cant think of the name at the moment) about a black family,  where there there there was a girl named something like LaCienega Sepulveda (two streets in Los Angeles)

Or some other unpronouceable street names around here like Cahuenga, Topanga, Tijunga.

I definitely need to use a pseudonym. Especially because I am targeting Spice Briefs and Nocturne. (And then I have one I hope to target to LI... go figure. I may need therapy right? Multiple personalities. Alter ego? ) I have family that would not understand about the nocturnes or the spice briefs... at all. A part of me thinks that even if I used my real name almost no one would make the connection because it seems so unlike me.  Well, to anyone except my closest friends.

Some authors use pen names to separate the books they write which target a particular genre and audience.

I thought I read somewhere that there are several different ways to go about it. One way was so that your real name is not disclosed. If you ever look at some of the books you read, the name on the inside of the book where the copyright is, is different from the author's name on the cover of the book. However, I have also seen, under different publishing companies, where an author's real name was next  to the copyright with one publisher and that same author's pen name was next to the copyright with another publisher.

So there has to be some way to keep confidentiality. I would go to a book signing using my pen name as well! LOL.

there was a character in a book once, a woman who wrote under a male pseudonym and used her father's photo.

Do
whatever works for you - if you copyright it under your pen name
(copyright the name as well) then it's legally fine and nobody should
work it out. Use a P.O. box for mail and then even the postman won't
know!

Hugs

Sadhbh 

Amanda~

I have the family and town issue too!  Small town America is NOT a great place to try to remain annonymous!!!  I guess this is just one of those things I'll have to ponder until it happens.

No use worrying about things that don't even exsist yet, is there?  And yet it is so much fun to dream of seeing your name (or pseudonym) on the cover of book in stores all across the world!!! 

wow, this is great conversation.  And I am glad to see that other people wonder out loud on this subject also.  When you get 'the call' and decide, do you need to get a business license set up?  Your name, other name, how does that work? just curious

chapter. There has to be a difference between a name on the cover that isn't the same as the one on the copyright page vs. when they match. If you open Evelyn Vaughn's books to the copyright page, you see her real name. If you open Meredith Fletcher's books to the copyright page, you see "Meredith Fletcher" and he/she's really someone else.

Other things to consider if you write for more than one genre is can you move your pen name with you? RWA took care of that for the romance genre (I've been told that it used to be you couldn't move your name from one house to the other but that's no longer the case but since I'm not a writer, I don't know for sure). As an example of what I mean about the genre/mobility thing, Lorraine Heath writes under 3 names b/c she also writes YAs for two houses and has to use two different names for them. But maybe she could use just one name for her YAs now and started writing before the author could move his/her name. I don't know . . . it's just another thing for you to find out and consider. Of course, she didn't want her YA readers picking up her romances, so she would be writing under at least 2 names.

The experienced authors -- esp. the ones who have been around for at least 15 years -- can give you the real scoop.

Penn

i'm all for using a pen name since i know my mom would be appalled at the racier stuff i've written (heck, i embarrass myself)

i've considered using the name my birth mother put on my "original" birth certificate in place of the name i grew up with (since i was adopted at birth). i guess, if you think about it, i've always had two names - so technically i'd be using my "real" name.

in this era of close to nil privacy, i think an alternate ego is almost a must. just my two cents...

thanks for your thoughts on it Amanda R, and good luck with your manuscript, let us know the great news!

and your right, so right, this is addictive

bookstore, so I'm obliged to buy all my books online, except for my very rare trips home to Ireland

But while I don't have the pleasure of browsing in reality, I'm having great fun reading all the books I browsed online

And
I'm living in a very small town/village that doesn't even have shops,
though there are a few supermarkets within a five mile radius

Who needs shops when you have a good TBR ?

I wouldn't need a pseudo, most of the locals can't read English anyway

Hugs

Sadhbh 

One of the downsides of being married to a Frenchman

Have a wonderful time in France!  I want to go someday as well!  I took French in HS and actually still remember quite a bit of it.  LOL  I amaze my co-workers every so often with a bit of French conversation with my French Canadian clients. 

but I just read a book and remain