Basket Writing: 10 Novels, 10 Pen Names

I had a crazy idea about creating 10 novels in a year under 10 different pen names and seeing which one sticks.

Maybe some sell poorly, maybe some sell better than the rest. The whole idea being not to dwell on any one novel because in the end, the market/people will decide which ones they love or hate anyways and your opinion and time could be wasted.

Think of it in terms of a Mutual Fund you invest in. In the end, it doesn't matter if you think it's a great company in the basket, the market will decide and price the stocks in the basket accordingly. But if you have a decent basket properly diversified, you may see some financial growth from your writing.

Obviously if you have a real gem that's not for the basket or in the basket, you can invest in it individually and give it the time and attention it deserves. But for the most part your writing portfolio would be very diversified.

And similar to a portfolio, you chase the winners with more support. So if one book does very well under one pen name, you continue to capitalize on that particular pen name, genre or theme.

I would speculate that famous writers throughout history have done this in some way. It's well known that a number of famous writers have used pen names, but who's to say they didn't have many pen names that nobody knew about and until they hit their best niche, did they settle down and announce publicly what their "official" pen name was. In other words, this technique may in fact be the historical norm for success and we'd never know.

In a way it sounds like cheating and some would say it's impossible to write 10 novels in a year. But if you don't put the pressure on yourself that it has to be perfect, I'm sure a novel could be written in a month or so. And if anything it may make the whole ordeal more fun and more creative. In the back of your mind you will think, it doesn't matter which avenue I take, cause in the next novel I can always utilize the other ideas that keep detouring me into the "writer's block zone".

The way I see it, writer's block is simply the idea that there are too many options or directions to take each moving point of action that you come to a complete stand still. Whereas if you know you are going to have 9 more novels thereafter, it doesn't really matter if you choose "A" or "B" or "C" or "D" because you can always use those ideas somewhere else in the next few novels.

What do you think?

That is very impressive James. I was thinking maybe spending a month per novel or book.

As Jules concluded, in the end you are somewhat throwing darts either way because you really don't know if all that polishing has improved it in the public's eyes. What if the polishing has made it worst? The lack of spontaneity, the fear of taking the risks of immediate ideas, or the fear of taking a certain direction because you don't feel you can sustain it, could make a novel duller than it should be.

Also you have to consider, a lot of writers take years for one book. All that time spent in that one book trying to polish it is filled with second guessing. One week the novel needs to be more user friendly and reach a wider audience, the next week the novel has to be more in touch with it's primary audience, the next week it has to be more edgy and the last week it has to be more thought provoking. The end result is a push away from original excitement of spontaneity and a writer who is too invested in the novel to be able to deal with it failing.

If it fails, the writer feels they have failed and wasted years of their life. And they will likely think, what if I took the second path here, or maybe if I did it this way instead it would have worked.

I just think it brutal. In the end, what it really comes down to, as an English professor once said to me, "who are you writing for, yourself or the people?"

If you are writing for yourself it has to be perfect. If you are writing for others, it has to be entertaining at the least. Nothing else really matters as long as they enjoyed it and a lot of people enjoy variety. 10 new novels may mean that they will pass by at least 1 and think, hmm.. that looks interesting, I think I'll give it a chance.

Also someone mentioned that by breaking up the pen names you may dilute your brand. Well, you have to consider it on both sides as well. If all 10 are on one brand and someone doesn't like one of the books, they are highly likely to not buy the other 9. Not only that, but as someone just starting, creating a pipeline of 10 pen names could lead to a solid business model for the next 20 years.

What if Stephen King wrote under 10 pen names when he first started? Perhaps he did from the start and that's why he is famous. The King pen name was most popular and he may have used his revenue from the other pen names to pour resources into the King products. Everyone knows he used other names, but what's to say he didn't have many more.

Also, we are seeing an increase in literary critics. If you receive a horrible review on one of your books out of 10 under the same pen name, it could ruin your career. They could say it was too immature, or offensive, or possibly racist, or their where too many typos, it was unprofessional, it was boring, it wasn't worth the paper it was printed on.

There you are, you've spent years on it and some critic wasn't entertained enough to overlook whatever small error you may have not caught. Because if you are entertained enough, you won't care what the price is. Or if there was a typo, or if it doesn't make sense. Think about how many movies are put out that are littered with errors. You can go to IMDB.com and review errors in all sorts of movies. These are million dollar budgets, with large staffs editing and producing the work. And one thing they know is, nothing is perfect, but it must be entertaining.

I'm just saying, it may be a lot like sales. And sales is a numbers game. It's like a telemarketer calling 100 people, 20 answer the phone, 10 are someone interested, 5 will meet with you, and maybe 3 will buy.

Also, you have to consider that most people don't trust novels. I for instance, don't trust novels, but I can trust people. What I mean is, I won't just go into a bookstore and grab a novel off the shelf randomly. I will thumb through a few without consideration of whe the writer is. Because most, to be honest, I don't know who they are anyways. So I'll thumb through, if the content relates to me in some way, is what I find humorous or entertaining...then I may give it a buy. Now if you are like me, this has nothing to do with name recognition. Because no name has yet been established.

Also if you are like me, you have went through about 20 or so books before you got to that one book. If I see a trend and that each book I pick up is by a certain author I don't like, I won't even give the title a shot. I will think, if they wrote something so silly over there, this will sure be just a ridiculous. I think in part, it is good originally not to associate yourself with yourself.

So everytime someone buys a novel they are assuming some sort of risk on the book. And that risk is taken based on the random exposure like a telemarketing call, the random word of mouth, or other avenues.

Also, I wanted to add, it may not be 10 exactly. It may be 5 in a year, it may be 7 or 12. It's the concept though that we are questioning.

All I'm saying is a lot of my writing somewhat pours out my mind. Some say it's a muse or something esoteric, but I think that those ideas should get a shot.

Could you imagine if the bible was written today. There God is trying to get you to put it down in writing, he's pouring it into your head, into your dreams, into your immediate reactions, and you spend 3 years pollishing it or waiting for something better to come along. Pollishing what, immediate inspiration? I say, just go for it.

I agree with you September skies, a professional writer would not let you know they did it.

I agree, one thing you sacrifice is your cross sell numbers. But in some ways that is good. What if the person shopping for a book isn't interested in your section in the bookstore. Let's say you have three novels and they are on the bottom shelf and nobody is ever interested in that section. Maybe there are titles around it that are boring and they quickly move past it.

Now lets say you have 10 titles scattered out in the novel section of a bookstore. Each row there is at least one of your titles. If they turn the corner, another book is there waiting to be seen. It's like a strategic war! Now I know, if you are a new writer, sure you may make it. But from what I hear, the majority don't. This strategy could prove successful. You risk losing your cross sell, but that's only initially.

A good example is, Coca-Cola. How many products do you think they make, that most people don't know are made by Coca Cola. I'm sure they even put on the container, "A Coca-Cola Product", yet most people still don't know. But they keep buying the products they like under the titles or series they like the most.

http://www2.coca-cola.com/brands/brandlist.html