Writer's Block: Pen Name

Having a penname is pretty common now-a-days.  Sometimes it no more than keeping your maiden name, or substituting your middle name for your first, but other times it can be something completely different.

Writers use pennames for a variety of reasons.  Maybe they just don’t think they’re name looks good on a book (like me) or there’s a name they’ve always wanted instead.  Maybe it will help the book to sell- a name on the front that sticks in your mind is always good.

Besides ascetic appeal there are several publishing related reasons.  One is when a writer from one genre writes a book in another.  For example, an adult author going on to write a children or YA book.  They may not want they’re two “lives” intermingling.  Another popular reason is to keep more of their books on a shelf.  Unless you’re a really popular author a bookstore will only keep so many of their books in stock.  By using a penname, both the books from the original name and the new one will be kept around longer.

Still, it could be that an author just wants to hide their identity.  Take J.K. Rowling.  For one of her books (and I’m sure you’ve all heard about this by now) she used the pseudonym Robert Galbraith for the sake of keeping her identity private.

After deciding you’re going to use one comes the fun part: actually picking it.

Here are some famous pen names just for fun:

J.K. Rowling- her real name is actually just Joanne Rowling, the K. came when she published Harry Potter.  So really, she’s pulling a double pen name

Stephen King- he masqueraded under the name Richard Bachman for a stint

Stan Lee- his real name is actually Stanley Martin Lieber; the pen name is a lot easier to remember, let alone say!

Mark Twain- Samuel Clemens

Dr. Seuss- his real name is Theodore Seuss Geisel