Pseudonym or no pseudonym?

It just depends on your goals, there is no universal answer. I have one because I prefer to keep my academic text books and werewolf erotica in different marketing streams.

I use a pseudonym in part to have a degree of separation between my "real" life and my writing life, but it's not like it's some big secret.

But for me, there was another consideration. My real name is REALLY common. Not quite as bad as "James Smith," but still common. The domain name for any variation of my real name is not available. It would be hard to find me by Googling. It has caused me multiple problems in the past (eg. went to school with a girl who had the same first+last name - all sort of issues), and everyone in my family has similar problems due to our popular last name. (Same name as former premier, famous cartoonist, someone on the no-fly list, someone with an overdue student loan, which resulted in a frozen bank account...etc) I've even had problems with royalty statements because of it.

My pseudonym is my real first name, plus a random last name. Many people do something similar.

I keep solid walls in between the worlds of professional, personal, and writing for fun. That's just the way it is. Already too complicated.

Added: And I just realized that Paragraphic =/= Para[metric]. I was wondering why Para[metric] was just coming to that realization.

Worth noting that Absolute Write only permits one username, so if there are people using multiple pseudonyms, it isn't as multiple users. Well, not supposed to be.

And added again: Well, with certain administerial exceptions that prove the rule.

Almost by accident, I have many pseuds. There's my real name, under which my artwork is cataloged by my art dealers, poster art companies, and WorldCat.org. No secret there. I've been 'Filigree' online for 21 years now. I blog under 'Crane Hana'. I write for one erotic romance publisher as 'MC Hana' and write other genres as 'M. Crane Hana'.

Couple of years ago I decided to risk getting cut out of some job considerations by linking all my identities, since people who were buying my art were interested in my writing, and vice versa. That's worked fairly well, and sets up a platform if any of my work becomes more sought-after.

The only time I'd consider getting a new pen name and making it as untraceable as possible, would be if I started writing childrens' books.

Filigree said:

..... I write for one erotic romance ...

...The only time I'd consider getting a new pen name and making it as untraceable as possible, would be if I started writing childrens' books.

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This cracked me up.

Paragraphic said:

I know I plan to write books in different genres but I'd rather do it all under my own name. Those of you with experience, are there any significant drawbacks to that to be considered? Or are pseudonyms really a matter of personal comfort and author privacy?

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Unless you're self-publishing everything, you may not have a choice about using pen names, if you want to write in different genres, and/or for different publishers.

I find different names work better, make marketing a heck of a lot easier, and makes sure every reader gets what he or she is expecting to get in association with a given name.

I used to write under my real name, but I haven't written as much as a short story or an article under my real name in at least ten years.

I didn't like the attention, so I put up solid walls. Even registration is under pseudonyms.

This may change soon because I've had an offer about writing in an old genre, and another editor wants me to write a novel based on a short story I sold several years ago under my real name. This means the new novels will also have to be under my real name.

I'm seriously considering doing both, but I love my anonymity, and I'm not sure yet whether I want to break it. Trouble is, because of some serious health problems I've had the last few years, i really could use the money.

I keep putting off the decision, but we'll see.

Anyway, there are many reasons to write under a pseudonym, one being just trying to earn a living. Dean Koontz wrote under ten or so pseudonyms the first several years of his career, and I've known writers to use twice that many.

And some really don't care about seeing their real name on short stories or novels. Some actively dislike it. Others use pseudonyms because using a real name could conflict with a career outside of writing.

Some write books that sell to publishers, but that flop, and they use a pseudonym to rebuild a career.

Right now, however, teh choice is one hundred percent yours, and worrying about it is really putting the cart before teh horse.

Paragraphic said:

I've never had any desire to use a pseudonym...

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Then don't. And don't worry about who has what and for what reasons until you find a reason you need one.

Jeff

I'm thinking of using two names: one for my MG and YA projects, and one for my adult projects.

Everything I have written and will write will be under my real name. I did the work. I want the credit.

My name sounds like a pseudonym, if that counts.

I use a pseud

I'm in the slightly unusual position of having written romance/erotic romance under my real name and fantasy under my pseud

There were/are several reasons for "Francis". One, genre separation. Two, and I don't like this but the books in my sig are written from a male first person POV and...and there are sadly many people in SFF who wouldn't read a book like that with a woman's name on the cover. Who won't read any book with a woman's name on the cover ><

My next series is a different sub genre, and has a mix of POVs. We were going to go with a third name, but in the end decided, what the hey, we'll use my real one -- it's been a few years since I pubbed any romance so the genre separation isn't so much of an issue (and actually my romances were mostly fantasy romances and pretty dark anyway)

I'm with Gettingby, but I only write in one genre except for screenplays.

Harry Turtledove started writing under a pseudonym because his first publisher thought that no-one would believe his real name was Turtledove....