As is mildly obvious, I use the pen name Catrin Lewis for my romantic suspense fiction novels. But I've always intended to use a form of my real name for my nonfiction and poetry. The same form for both? I hadn't made up my mind. Now I ought to decide, because I'm on the verge of getting a domain-extension email address for the Catrin Lewis brand to add to my general Contact email, but the provider package comes with 3 addresses and I need to come up with a name for the one remaining. Not that anyone here will be in the market for church helps (including plays and skits for kids), but if you were, which of these author names would give you the greatest sense of confidence? Full first name (9 letters, 3 syllables; standard woman's name, solid, traditional) + last name (8 letters, 2 syllables; Germanic); Full first name + middle initial + last name; Nickname (typical American one ending with -y) + last name; or First and middle initials + last name. And how much should the warmth factor come into it? I mean, the initials would look authoritative and would take the question of gender out of it. But would it be too stiff if I'm publishing stuff for adults to use with kids? The other question is, should I publish my poetry under my real name or my pen name? Thanks!
If you don't mind me asking, before I take a stab at answering this question, 1. what is your real name? P.M. if you'd rather not have it tossed about on a public forum. I'm sure it's fine - unless your last name is "Hitler" or something infamous for an evil reason. 2. Is anything you write going to be seriously offensive to your main reading audience of Christians? If your main audience is Christian romantics and you plan to write something about God not existing in your poetry, you may want to keep the two separate. 3. With regards to initials, some people will *NOT* read anything by females because apparently females can't write....yah, right! This was reportedly one of the reasons why J.K. Rowling used her initials when she wrote the "Harry Potter" series because her publisher thought people would not buy fantasy about a boy wizard from a female author. This is one thing that comes to mind when I think about initials. I would like to think that I am open minded enough to read anything by anyone regardless of gender but I'm a male. If I wanted to know about men's issues/problems, I would pay more attention to an author with a male sounding name or initialized before I would pay attention to anything by a female author. **Just me being a bit of an overprotective ass perhaps here, but I just read a book which discussed some problems with identity theft. I would not put out anything with my full legal name just so nobody can google me, find out my birthdate and then knowing my full legal name take out mortgages or credit cards in my name. I'm not sure how serious a concern that is, but....the last thing I need is someone contacting me to say I'm being sued for non payment of the mortgage on my mansion.** My thoughts.....
I don't think writers are at any more risk of identity theft than anyone else. Sorry, but I think that has to be the most ridiculous reason I've ever heard for using a pen name.
I understand why Cdn Writer is asking to see your name. A lot depends on how it look/sounds. I don't mean we need to see it, if you don't want to give it out. But something like JK Rowling has a good, authorial 'ring' to it—despite the initials. So does Peter May, Iain Banks, Rosemary Sutcliff. Something like Fanny Pratt or Horace Myneer (both real names, actually!) might not.
Regards initials, there is a famous poster put out by the Easter Seals organization which tries to raise awareness of disability issues. The picture itself is two people shaking hands but one hand is an artificial hand while the other is a real hand. The caption on the poster is: "Sometimes the worst thing about having a disability is that people meet my disability before they meet me." Whether people like it or not, we all have prejudices and stereotypes. When I see a female sounding name on a book about men's issues, I tend not to take it seriously. The publisher of J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series apparently wanted her to use initials because they thought people would not buy a book about a boy wizard from a female author - that's one story I've heard and true or not, I can see it. This factor, taking the author's gender out of the equation is one of the strongest arguments for using initials. I think that is one way to reach the widest possible audience and then your work has to stand on its own.....but at least it has the chance to do that if the reader (who will never read a fe/male author) has picked it up and started to read it.
Thanks for the feedback. I'm getting closer to making a decision. A related question, though: I have Option 1 on my publisher site as my publisher name. Should the form I write under be different (different roles, different hats), or would it work for it to be the same?
Personally, I've never been turned off by an author's name on a book. One of my favorite authors of all times has a hard to pronounce and very non-American sounding and looking name. But she's published several important and engaging books with big American publishing houses. After reading one of her novels I had to read all her books. I remember at the bookstore trying my hardest to pronounce her name correctly. Now, I have spent a good amount of time in other places around the world so I knew I was at least close when I said her name. "Can you spell that?" the bookseller asked. Of course, I had it written down. And all of the books I've read by her have been amazing. Special treat -- I was in a different bookstore when she had a new book come out. "You know she comes in here sometimes," this bookseller said to me. What? In America? In my part of the country? In this bookstore that I had been to so many times? I never did cross paths with her, but I thought that was pretty cool. I'm just saying that I don't think a name makes or breaks a book. Some of the books by this author could be seen as controversial both in terms of her fiction and nonfiction. Other books are straight up fiction (not based and no obvious connection to reality). One is even kind of creepy and and not like her other stuff at all, but I still loved it. If she had used a different name for different types of books, I never would have discovered some of the other gems she had written. I understand that some people want to use a pen name and have a more author sounding name than the one they were born with, but that really doesn't matter at all when it comes down to it, IMO. A friend who works in publishing is sending me several new books by writers he thinks I'll like. (Got to love having friends in publishing. )And among those names are some doozies. Still, I'm eager to read these books. As a reader, I will learn the name -- how to say it and how to spell it -- when they've got me under their literary spell. And isn't that true of all authors regardless of their byline?
Is this an attempt to mask self publishing? I wouldn't think you would have to change it. I think the more names you're going under for different books and different roles could get confusing, especially since it's all you. Are you thinking of trying trade publishers at all? Nonfiction books are sold on a proposal which gives you a third of your advance upfront before you've even written the book. Same with getting an agent, all you need is the proposal. With poetry, I would try sending some poems to places like Poetry Magazine and other literary journals. Plus, there are some niche poetry publications and university presses that could be interested in your work. Or if you've got the self publishing thing down, I wish you the best. Good luck on your new adventure of branching out with your writing.
I think if your 'publisher' is publishing two or more of your pseudonyms, then a publisher name sort of makes sense. Otherwise it's getting a little contrived... I would probably roll my eyes seeing that a for a single author.
Actually, thinking about it a bit more, I can understand having a couple (or more) pen-names, if you write a in a couple of distinctively different genres. If you try to use the same name for all of them, some of your readers might become annoyed that the book isn't what they expected. It doesn't have anything to do with hiding your identity; it has to do with telling your readers what the book contains. A good example is Iain Banks, the author of contemporary Scottish-laid literary fiction and at least one book of non-fiction. However, he also wrote space opera Sci-Fi. His pen name for the Sci-Fi was Iain M Banks. People quickly learned the difference. They knew it was him, of course, but the two lines of books were distinctly different.
So far Catrin is writing Christian romantic suspense, poetry, and Christian materials for use by church groups. Plus she's a publisher...... She already wears a lot of hats. Different names can help with separating the roles and help people know what they are buying as well, Jannert is right about that.
I've pretty well decided to keep the Catrin Lewis pen name for the poetry as well. A lot of it was inspired by situations where I'd just as soon remain, um, incognito. In order to express myself freely and not cause embarrassment, if you know what I mean.
