Pen Name or Actual Name?

Hillary said:

I always thought "I have such a memorable last name, I can use that!"

Too bad my mother beat me to it. By the time I get anything published (*crosses fingers*) she'll have at LEAST sixteen children's books out under that last name. And that's if she never sells another manuscript ever again.

Then I thought "Well, okay... I'll just use her maiden name (and my middle name) as a last name."

Too bad she just used that one too, for her debut fiction novel.

*sigh* Back to the drawing board.

Click to expand...

Wow, that's rough!

Claire Bell.
xD

No, thats not my penname but for some reason thats the first name that came to mind when seeing this thread.

Its the farthest thing from my real name. XD

If (when , darnit!) I get published, I will not be using my "real" last name...too many family issues. Instead, I will use my first two initials and the name I was born under (I was adopted). Besides, Thompson (my original last name) has a nice homey feel to it!

BigRed

jodiodi said:

My pen names bear no relation to my name whatsoever. I don't want my 'real' life mixed up with my writing life (which, to me, is an unrealized 'dream life' so far). I just want privacy.

Click to expand...

I'm with you, there. I still haven't decided on a pen name, though. My username is an example of a rather bland pen name I thought up, but I'm not happy with it. I figure I'll pick one when/if I get published.

I've decided to use a pen name when I realized that I can only sign my name legal signature--which is a foolish idea in this era of identity theft.

"Susan" is my middle name. AW is the only place I've really used it, at least so far. My first name is gender neutral, and if anything more often considered a male name. I used to hate it when I was younger.

The first+last name I use for most purposes (the name I was born with) is so Scottish it sounds made up! That's what I'll use if my book gets published, though it's occurred to me I might want to add the "Susan" to make my gender clear.

My legal last name is actually hyphenated--and a crazy long mouthful. My maiden name plus my husband's, a decision I made in a burst of seventies' feminism. So I've got one strange long legal name, a gender and ethnic hodgepodge

I've enjoyed using my real name. I never thought about using a pen name.

The only thing I can't decide about now is whether I want to use my married name, or stick with my maiden name, once I get married.

I write under my real name, but am not adverse to a pen name. When my agent gets a look at this weird-ass zombie book I'm writing (seriously) she might either (a) laugh in my face or (2) suggest a pen name and then laugh in my face.

Never gave any thought to what my pen name might be, though.

*ponders introspectively*

MeowGirl said:

I adopted a pen name after being bugged one too many times by an over-enthusiastic reader. He creeped me out.

Click to expand...

Oh that would be a great reason to use a pen name! Since I already have creepy people overly interested in me *without* being published, I guess I'll just stick with my real name.

I have notes on a story I want to do about a house cleaner. I've been cleaning houses w/my hubby for over 6 years now, and have had some crazy experiences. I would never use my real name for that.

My username is my porn name. (childhood pet and street I grew up on...I'm not really in porn)

I've taken on a pen name for the humor I write only because I do write darker, more serious stuff that I want to use a semblance of my real name for. So it's Kate Boddie for the comedy. Boddie is a "nickname" for the surname Bordonaro that I came up with and I just like the name Kate. The more I hear Kate Boddie, the more I like it. For my other stuff, I'll probably use Donna Siriani. Donna's my first name and Siriani is a family name. My legal last name is way too rare and the only people with it are related to me. The last thing I want is some crazy after me so Siriani it is, and it's a very common Italian last name.

I love my real name, but there's already several authors in different genres with it/very similar names. My maiden name is also the last name of a popular person in my genre. So, it's a pen name for me.

Here's my question, though--which name do you sign at book signings?

Nope. No pen name. Everything I've done (or plan to do) has my own moniker on it. As plain as white milk, but for good or ill, there it stands...