What do you think about authors going by their initials, like how JK Rowling and SE Hinton did? I'm seriously considering doing this for the same reason they did. I'm female, my main character is male, and I don't want to lose male readers. I have done research and have found that men prefer to read books by men, while it doesn't really matter to women. Also, for if I do decide this is what I want to do, should I query agents using my initials, or should I use my real name? I read for the most part that you should use your real name, but I just want to make sure. As a side note, my real name is actually universal, but I have never met a guy with my name, and a certain female singer kind of made it a predominately girls name, in my opinion. That's another reason why I think I would rather use my initials.
My first guess hearing that is Robin - which is an ex-bf's name. I intend to use initials when I return to the publishing game (I've previously published under my legal name and a (female) pen name) but that's more to do with my weird relationship with gender. I'd use my full legal name for making contact with people in the industry though.
I almost went with the initials concept but decided that it's been over done and my real last name is much more memerable. so be damned with the pen name..... for me at least. but yeah, personally I like to see the full name of the writer, even if its a pen name.
I know that PD James went by her initials precisely because she wanted credibility in the writing of her detective novels. Even though she had extensive knowledge of the field and an incredible talent, in those days it mattered. I don't think it does these days. Certainly in my universe of one, I don't care one bit about the gender of an author.
