Pseudonyms - Pros and Cons
Pseudonyms or, as they're popularly called, "pen names" are used by authors as assumed names.
· Why do authors sometimes use assumed names?
· Are there advantages to adopting one?
· Disadvantages?
· And how do you get one?
Why Writers Use Pen Names
Authors use pen names to disguise who they are so why would you want to do that?
To Mask Gender
One reason authors use pen names is to conceal the fact that they're writing in the "wrong" gender for their field E.G. – where a field has been dominated by the ‘good old boys’ and the author is a female. Authors sometimes use pen names to hide other personal traits, such as their age (sometimes you’re “too young” for the air of authority you need to adopt; sometimes you’re “too old” for the readers you’re targeting).
Shift Genres
If you’re an author who’s successful in one area of expertise, writing serious business books for example, you may want to write your science fiction novel under a pseudonym so that your colleagues don’t risk your reputation, or disappoint readers, by publishing in different genres.
Disguise Prolificacy
Not every writer takes years to produce each novel. Some writers dash them off relatively quickly. Rather than risk having readers assume they're just hacks grinding out uninspired formulaic works, it's often smarter to use multiple names.
Unify Identity
Anthologies or compilations of works are often confusing to the public when all of the authors are credited. Often it’s much more expedient to use a pseudonym for the entire group of contributors.
Hide Your Identity
Most writers have day jobs – don’t you? If they published under their your names your boss might assume you’re not working hard enough and fix the problem.
And sometimes a person just doesn't want his good name or reputation tarnished by the opinionated or risqué works he’s writing.
Sometimes, a work is fact, not fiction, and it’s an expose’ of something illegal or corrupt and you don’t want your name directly connected with the activities.
Establish Credibility
Some names lend weight and authority to a writer, while other names distract or detract.
Movie stars have done it for years and so have writers.
How To Do It
Suppose you decide you need a pen name. How should you go about adopting one?
Find a name that’s available. Check white pages, Internet search engines and U.S. Copyright Office records to avoid choosing the name of a real person, particularly another writer.
If you’re self publishing, you won’t have a lot of problems.
If you’re going for a commercial publisher submission of your work, you’ll need to decide how critical it is to keep your true identity a secret: It is harder to keep your publisher from knowing who you really are, and to block readers from discovering your true identity, than to simply have your work appear under an alias.
States often require persons doing business under assumed names to register with their municipality. Whether this applies to you depends on the extent of your use and where you live, so consult your lawyer, or city or town clerk.
· Decide how to handle copyright matters. The Copyright Office rules allow you to register copyrights under a pen name, with or without disclosing your real name.
· However, what you do here affects your copyright term:
o Copyrights ordinarily last for the author’s life plus 80 years; but for works published anonymously or pseudonymously, the term is the shorter of 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation.
o So publishing a work pseudonymously typically extends your copyright if you die in less than 25 years and shortens your copyright if you live more than 25 years.
· Fortunately, you can fix the latter by recording your true identity with the Copyright Office. For more details, see Copyright Office factsheet FL101, available on the Copyright Office website, www.copyright.gov.
As shown, there are often good reasons for adopting a pen name. If you feel that it’s appropriate for you to ue one, follow these guidelines:
· Choose a name that won't get you in trouble
· Comply with legal requirements
· Arrange for payment through your publisher, agent or bank
· Keep detailed records of your true name and pen name literary assets and
· Act wisely to assure the longest protection for your copyrights.
Why Not Use A Pen Name?
We’ve just given you some reasons for using pen names. Unfortunately, some writers adopt them for the wrong reasons.
If your motivation for using a pen name is any of the following, think carefully before you assume an alter ego in writing.
Distancing Defamation
Some writers wrongly believe that if they attack their enemies in writing under a pseudonym, they can avoid being sued for libel or slander. Though using a pen name may make it harder for plaintiffs to find you, or prove that you (pen person) are you (real person), if they're persistent they'll get you.
Concealing Contract Breaches
Most book publishing agreements require authors to give the publisher a first look at their next book and not to publish anything competitive. Will a pen name avoid these restrictions? Generally, no. (However, publishers sometimes waive certain restrictions for works published under a pseudonym; don't be afraid to ask.)
Exploiting Another’s Identity
Don’t try passing yourself off as another (real) person to capitalize on their good will and notoriety.
This is “identity theft” and it can get you sued. If the name is trademarked, you can be federally prosecuted for forgery. It may also cause confusion, anger publishers and prevent you from gaining your own loyal readership.
Trimming Your Taxes
Most dangerous of all would be to use a pen name to lower your taxable income.
If the next $1000 is paid to “Will Shakespeare,” thinks the playwright, “it needn’t appear on Edward de Vere's Schedule C.” That, ladies and gentlemen, is tax fraud. Avoid it.
Even if your reasons for using a pen name are sound, there are still potential drawbacks, including:
Processing your advances and royalties gets complicated: you'll need a trusted agent or cooperative bank.
Pseudonyms can complicate the sale of reprint and subsidiary rights, as well as the administration of your estate -- collecting your literary assets and transferring title to your heirs -- after you die.
Since today so much promotion is personal, consider the effect of a pen name on your ability to market your book: How will you attend readings or signings, or appear on Oprah, if you don't want the world to learn who you are?
A major reason for writing is to see your name in print. Your name in print. Do you want to endure the frustrations of a Clark Kent or Peter Parker, unable to tell your friends that that superhero writer is YOU, or unable to convince them it IS you after you confess?
As the article explains, failure to register your pen name with the Copyright Office could shorten you copyright protection.
In short, though it can be fun to use a pen name, and often a smart thing to do, be sure your reasons are sound and offset any drawbacks.
If you would like to discuss the issues of using a pseudonym, please feel free to contact Howard G. Zaharoff
Pen Names: When to Use Them, When Not to Use Them
by John Kremer on Sunday, April 10th, 2011 | No Comments
Question:
My question has to do with pen names, and when they’re appropriate to use.
I work in finance, and am writing a marital book for young couples. The issue I’m having is I work full time in finance, and don’t want to be ridiculed for writing a marital book. I also want to write a series of personal finance books, and I want to keep the two subjects separate.
If I do use a pen name and then attempt to arrange marketing interviews, who are they interviewing – me or the pen name?
You must know that I can’t hold back writing this book. I can’t sleep at night and I have to get this book out and into the world. Please help!
John’s Answer:
Well, in the interest of marital peace, I guess I’ll have to answer your question. I presume you are keeping your wife up at night as well since you can’t sleep.
You can use pen names any time you want to hide your identity. There are a number of reasons to use a pen name:
1. As you noted, you want to keep your two literary lives separate. That’s a very good reason to use a pen name for one of those identities. Mathematician Charles Dodgson wrote a number of fantasies under the pen name of Lewis Carroll but wrote his more serious tomes under his real name.
2. You want to write a different kind of work. Romance author Nora Roberts uses the pen name J.D. Robb for her erotic thrillers. Later in her career Pearl Buck wrote five novels under the name of James Sedges.
3. You produce so much that you have to write under two names to keep your publisher happy – so you don’t over-saturate the market under one name. Some prolific authors have to use two names because publishers are afraid that the reading public won’t buy more than one novel per year from an author. Novelist Stephen King wrote four novels under the pen name of Richard Bachman. When he first started out, science fiction author Robert Heinlein wrote under a number of pen names so he could have more than one story appear in a single issue of a magazine.
3. You need to keep your identity hidden because someone is out to kill you, imprison you, or do other dastardly deeds upon your person. Dissident Muslims often use the pen name of Ibn Warraq to hide their identities.
4. You just like the sound of a new pen name. Samuel Langhorne Clemens wrote many of his works under the pen name of Mark Twain, but he also used the pen name Sieur Louis de Conte for other works.
5. You want to hide your sexual identity. In the early 1800s, it was considered unseemly for a woman to write books. As a result, Mary Ann Evans wrote under the pen name of George Eliot. Amandine Aurore Lucile Dupin wrote as George Sand (a popular name that George). The Brontë sisters wrote under male names ending with Bell.
Even in this century, Karen Blixen originally published Out of Africa under the pen name of Isak Dinesen. A number of women science fiction authors originally wrote under male names because the genre was so male-dominated in its early years. Alice Bradley Sheldon wrote as James Tiptree Jr. (she was also a bisexual career intelligence officer, so she had other reasons to hide her identity).
On the other side, Tom E. Huff wrote romance novels under the pen names of Jennifer Wilde and Edwinna Marlowe. Harold Lowry wrote romances under the name of Leigh Greenwood, Vince Brach under the name of Fran Vincent, and Mike Hinkemeyer under the name of Vanessa Royall.
6. You’re forbidden to write books under the terms of your work contract. Brian O’Nolan used several pen names (Flann O’Brien and Miles na gCopaleen to hide his identity because Irish civil servants at the time were not permitted to publish works under their own names.
7. You use the name of a character as your pen name. Daniel Handler wrote the Lemony Snicket young adult novels as purported memoirs of an acquaintance of the main characters.
8. Book series are often written under one name even though multiple authors might have contributed books to the series. The Bobbsey Twins series was credited to Laura Lee Hope, the Nancy Drew mystery series to Carolyn Keene, and The Hardy Boys mysteries to Franklin W. Dixon although all three series had multiple authors.
9. It’s not uncommon for multiple authors to write under one pen name. For instance, Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee wrote mysteries under the pen name of Ellery Queen (which became a brand name under which they also published a magazine). Similarly, Cherith Baldry, Kate Cary, and Victoria Holmes wrote their Warrior series under the pen name of Erin Hunter. James Madison, John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton wrote The Federalist Papers under the name of Publius.
10. You take a pen name to fit your genre better. For example, Pearl Gray wrote westerns under the name of Zane Gray (a more manly sounding name).
11. You want to state stronger opinions than your contemporaries might tolerate. Diplomat, business man, and patriot Benjamin Franklin wrote Poor Richard’s Almanac under the pseudonym of Richard Sauders so he could write more caustically.
12. You’re an insider but are not ready to reveal your identity. Joe Klein wrote Primary Colors, a novel about the Clinton presidency under the name of Anonymous.
13. Your family doesn’t approve of your writing. Eric Blair’s family was opposed to his writing as beneath him so he began writing his novels under the pseudonym of George Orwell. Louisa May Alcott’s family would never have approved of her stories of mayhem, romance, and death so she used pseudonyms like Flora Fairfield and A. M. Barnard.
14. Your name is hard to remember. Thrill writer Jim Cjazkowski wrote under the name James Rollins.
Well, as you can see, many successful authors have published under pen names. Now, as to your other question. When you are being interviewed, you will be interviewed under your pen name – at least until you are ready to admit your true identity.
For the legal side of this question, please see attorney Ivan Hoffman’s excellent discussion of the legal and copyright ramifications of pen names: http://www.ivanhoffman.com/pennames.html.
· Why do authors sometimes use assumed names?
· Are there advantages to adopting one?
· Disadvantages?
· And how do you get one?
Why Writers Use Pen Names
Authors use pen names to disguise who they are so why would you want to do that?
To Mask Gender
One reason authors use pen names is to conceal the fact that they're writing in the "wrong" gender for their field E.G. – where a field has been dominated by the ‘good old boys’ and the author is a female. Authors sometimes use pen names to hide other personal traits, such as their age (sometimes you’re “too young” for the air of authority you need to adopt; sometimes you’re “too old” for the readers you’re targeting).
Shift Genres
If you’re an author who’s successful in one area of expertise, writing serious business books for example, you may want to write your science fiction novel under a pseudonym so that your colleagues don’t risk your reputation, or disappoint readers, by publishing in different genres.
Disguise Prolificacy
Not every writer takes years to produce each novel. Some writers dash them off relatively quickly. Rather than risk having readers assume they're just hacks grinding out uninspired formulaic works, it's often smarter to use multiple names.
Unify Identity
Anthologies or compilations of works are often confusing to the public when all of the authors are credited. Often it’s much more expedient to use a pseudonym for the entire group of contributors.
Hide Your Identity
Most writers have day jobs – don’t you? If they published under their your names your boss might assume you’re not working hard enough and fix the problem.
And sometimes a person just doesn't want his good name or reputation tarnished by the opinionated or risqué works he’s writing.
Sometimes, a work is fact, not fiction, and it’s an expose’ of something illegal or corrupt and you don’t want your name directly connected with the activities.
Establish Credibility
Some names lend weight and authority to a writer, while other names distract or detract.
Movie stars have done it for years and so have writers.
How To Do It
Suppose you decide you need a pen name. How should you go about adopting one?
Find a name that’s available. Check white pages, Internet search engines and U.S. Copyright Office records to avoid choosing the name of a real person, particularly another writer.
If you’re self publishing, you won’t have a lot of problems.
If you’re going for a commercial publisher submission of your work, you’ll need to decide how critical it is to keep your true identity a secret: It is harder to keep your publisher from knowing who you really are, and to block readers from discovering your true identity, than to simply have your work appear under an alias.
States often require persons doing business under assumed names to register with their municipality. Whether this applies to you depends on the extent of your use and where you live, so consult your lawyer, or city or town clerk.
· Decide how to handle copyright matters. The Copyright Office rules allow you to register copyrights under a pen name, with or without disclosing your real name.
· However, what you do here affects your copyright term:
o Copyrights ordinarily last for the author’s life plus 80 years; but for works published anonymously or pseudonymously, the term is the shorter of 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation.
o So publishing a work pseudonymously typically extends your copyright if you die in less than 25 years and shortens your copyright if you live more than 25 years.
· Fortunately, you can fix the latter by recording your true identity with the Copyright Office. For more details, see Copyright Office factsheet FL101, available on the Copyright Office website, www.copyright.gov.
As shown, there are often good reasons for adopting a pen name. If you feel that it’s appropriate for you to ue one, follow these guidelines:
· Choose a name that won't get you in trouble
· Comply with legal requirements
· Arrange for payment through your publisher, agent or bank
· Keep detailed records of your true name and pen name literary assets and
· Act wisely to assure the longest protection for your copyrights.
Why Not Use A Pen Name?
We’ve just given you some reasons for using pen names. Unfortunately, some writers adopt them for the wrong reasons.
If your motivation for using a pen name is any of the following, think carefully before you assume an alter ego in writing.
Distancing Defamation
Some writers wrongly believe that if they attack their enemies in writing under a pseudonym, they can avoid being sued for libel or slander. Though using a pen name may make it harder for plaintiffs to find you, or prove that you (pen person) are you (real person), if they're persistent they'll get you.
Concealing Contract Breaches
Most book publishing agreements require authors to give the publisher a first look at their next book and not to publish anything competitive. Will a pen name avoid these restrictions? Generally, no. (However, publishers sometimes waive certain restrictions for works published under a pseudonym; don't be afraid to ask.)
Exploiting Another’s Identity
Don’t try passing yourself off as another (real) person to capitalize on their good will and notoriety.
This is “identity theft” and it can get you sued. If the name is trademarked, you can be federally prosecuted for forgery. It may also cause confusion, anger publishers and prevent you from gaining your own loyal readership.
Trimming Your Taxes
Most dangerous of all would be to use a pen name to lower your taxable income.
If the next $1000 is paid to “Will Shakespeare,” thinks the playwright, “it needn’t appear on Edward de Vere's Schedule C.” That, ladies and gentlemen, is tax fraud. Avoid it.
Even if your reasons for using a pen name are sound, there are still potential drawbacks, including:
Processing your advances and royalties gets complicated: you'll need a trusted agent or cooperative bank.
Pseudonyms can complicate the sale of reprint and subsidiary rights, as well as the administration of your estate -- collecting your literary assets and transferring title to your heirs -- after you die.
Since today so much promotion is personal, consider the effect of a pen name on your ability to market your book: How will you attend readings or signings, or appear on Oprah, if you don't want the world to learn who you are?
A major reason for writing is to see your name in print. Your name in print. Do you want to endure the frustrations of a Clark Kent or Peter Parker, unable to tell your friends that that superhero writer is YOU, or unable to convince them it IS you after you confess?
As the article explains, failure to register your pen name with the Copyright Office could shorten you copyright protection.
In short, though it can be fun to use a pen name, and often a smart thing to do, be sure your reasons are sound and offset any drawbacks.
If you would like to discuss the issues of using a pseudonym, please feel free to contact Howard G. Zaharoff
Pen Names: When to Use Them, When Not to Use Them
by John Kremer on Sunday, April 10th, 2011 | No Comments
Question:
My question has to do with pen names, and when they’re appropriate to use.
I work in finance, and am writing a marital book for young couples. The issue I’m having is I work full time in finance, and don’t want to be ridiculed for writing a marital book. I also want to write a series of personal finance books, and I want to keep the two subjects separate.
If I do use a pen name and then attempt to arrange marketing interviews, who are they interviewing – me or the pen name?
You must know that I can’t hold back writing this book. I can’t sleep at night and I have to get this book out and into the world. Please help!
John’s Answer:
Well, in the interest of marital peace, I guess I’ll have to answer your question. I presume you are keeping your wife up at night as well since you can’t sleep.
You can use pen names any time you want to hide your identity. There are a number of reasons to use a pen name:
1. As you noted, you want to keep your two literary lives separate. That’s a very good reason to use a pen name for one of those identities. Mathematician Charles Dodgson wrote a number of fantasies under the pen name of Lewis Carroll but wrote his more serious tomes under his real name.
2. You want to write a different kind of work. Romance author Nora Roberts uses the pen name J.D. Robb for her erotic thrillers. Later in her career Pearl Buck wrote five novels under the name of James Sedges.
3. You produce so much that you have to write under two names to keep your publisher happy – so you don’t over-saturate the market under one name. Some prolific authors have to use two names because publishers are afraid that the reading public won’t buy more than one novel per year from an author. Novelist Stephen King wrote four novels under the pen name of Richard Bachman. When he first started out, science fiction author Robert Heinlein wrote under a number of pen names so he could have more than one story appear in a single issue of a magazine.
3. You need to keep your identity hidden because someone is out to kill you, imprison you, or do other dastardly deeds upon your person. Dissident Muslims often use the pen name of Ibn Warraq to hide their identities.
4. You just like the sound of a new pen name. Samuel Langhorne Clemens wrote many of his works under the pen name of Mark Twain, but he also used the pen name Sieur Louis de Conte for other works.
5. You want to hide your sexual identity. In the early 1800s, it was considered unseemly for a woman to write books. As a result, Mary Ann Evans wrote under the pen name of George Eliot. Amandine Aurore Lucile Dupin wrote as George Sand (a popular name that George). The Brontë sisters wrote under male names ending with Bell.
Even in this century, Karen Blixen originally published Out of Africa under the pen name of Isak Dinesen. A number of women science fiction authors originally wrote under male names because the genre was so male-dominated in its early years. Alice Bradley Sheldon wrote as James Tiptree Jr. (she was also a bisexual career intelligence officer, so she had other reasons to hide her identity).
On the other side, Tom E. Huff wrote romance novels under the pen names of Jennifer Wilde and Edwinna Marlowe. Harold Lowry wrote romances under the name of Leigh Greenwood, Vince Brach under the name of Fran Vincent, and Mike Hinkemeyer under the name of Vanessa Royall.
6. You’re forbidden to write books under the terms of your work contract. Brian O’Nolan used several pen names (Flann O’Brien and Miles na gCopaleen to hide his identity because Irish civil servants at the time were not permitted to publish works under their own names.
7. You use the name of a character as your pen name. Daniel Handler wrote the Lemony Snicket young adult novels as purported memoirs of an acquaintance of the main characters.
8. Book series are often written under one name even though multiple authors might have contributed books to the series. The Bobbsey Twins series was credited to Laura Lee Hope, the Nancy Drew mystery series to Carolyn Keene, and The Hardy Boys mysteries to Franklin W. Dixon although all three series had multiple authors.
9. It’s not uncommon for multiple authors to write under one pen name. For instance, Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee wrote mysteries under the pen name of Ellery Queen (which became a brand name under which they also published a magazine). Similarly, Cherith Baldry, Kate Cary, and Victoria Holmes wrote their Warrior series under the pen name of Erin Hunter. James Madison, John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton wrote The Federalist Papers under the name of Publius.
10. You take a pen name to fit your genre better. For example, Pearl Gray wrote westerns under the name of Zane Gray (a more manly sounding name).
11. You want to state stronger opinions than your contemporaries might tolerate. Diplomat, business man, and patriot Benjamin Franklin wrote Poor Richard’s Almanac under the pseudonym of Richard Sauders so he could write more caustically.
12. You’re an insider but are not ready to reveal your identity. Joe Klein wrote Primary Colors, a novel about the Clinton presidency under the name of Anonymous.
13. Your family doesn’t approve of your writing. Eric Blair’s family was opposed to his writing as beneath him so he began writing his novels under the pseudonym of George Orwell. Louisa May Alcott’s family would never have approved of her stories of mayhem, romance, and death so she used pseudonyms like Flora Fairfield and A. M. Barnard.
14. Your name is hard to remember. Thrill writer Jim Cjazkowski wrote under the name James Rollins.
Well, as you can see, many successful authors have published under pen names. Now, as to your other question. When you are being interviewed, you will be interviewed under your pen name – at least until you are ready to admit your true identity.
For the legal side of this question, please see attorney Ivan Hoffman’s excellent discussion of the legal and copyright ramifications of pen names: http://www.ivanhoffman.com/pennames.html.