Pen Names and Bios

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Tymolee

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So this is a bit of an odd question (and apologizes if it's in the wrong forum - I thought this might be the best fit).

I write my fiction under a pen name and I'm currently working on getting a website up and running. I want to put a bio in the website, but being that it's a pen name, should I try and keep it as true to my life as possible?

So... I'm just kind of curious - if you have a website and a pen name, how'd you write your bio? Did you keep it as true as possible or did you take liberties with it?

Thanks!!!
 

Jamesaritchie

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Web

So this is a bit of an odd question (and apologizes if it's in the wrong forum - I thought this might be the best fit).

I write my fiction under a pen name and I'm currently working on getting a website up and running. I want to put a bio in the website, but being that it's a pen name, should I try and keep it as true to my life as possible?

So... I'm just kind of curious - if you have a website and a pen name, how'd you write your bio? Did you keep it as true as possible or did you take liberties with it?

Thanks!!!

I have such a website. In fact, I have two of them. I don't take liberties, but I do reveal things on these websites that I would not credit to my real name.

By and large, I simply avoid the issue. I talk about the writing I've done under the pen name, not about the person behind the pen name.
 

Tymolee

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By and large, I simply avoid the issue. I talk about the writing I've done under the pen name, not about the person behind the pen name.

Thanks to both of you.

The website is concentrated on my writing, but including a small bio seems to be appropriate.... I'm just not sure how much information to reveal, I guess, without loosing my anonymity and the whole point of having a pen name. Writers' websites seem to run the gambit from sparse to overly detailed. I suppose it's entirely subjective.
 

Tymolee

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I think I'm just going to go very nonspecific and short.

Sometimes I think it'd be fun to pull a Lemonny Snicket and just make this whole new person up. But I'd never keep things straight! I can barely remember my own real name some days.
 

Maryn

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Just promise me you won't feature photos of your cat(s), okay? I've seen one too many author web pages which seem to place more importance on felines than titles or covers.

Maryn, who likes cats just fine
 

PeeDee

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Heck, Richard Bachman was a different 'person' than Stephen King, so was J.D. Robb. They had whole histories and marriages and everything. It's fun. I have a pen name who also has a whole history. Lemony Snicket is, of course, a great example.

I'd go have fun with it...but that's just me. Keep it true as you're comfortable with. :)
 

PeeDee

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Just promise me you won't feature photos of your cat(s), okay? I've seen one too many author web pages which seem to place more importance on felines than titles or covers.

Maryn, who likes cats just fine

Well, Neil Gaiman has cats on his web-site! So...so....so there!

:D

(she's right. The cat thing? It's a stiff fine.)
 

Leigh Walker

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I am so glad you posted the question, because I was wondering about it myself. I must say, I feel a little naive, I had no idea I could just make up a whole life for myself....

but what about education and degrees? if you use a pen name, do you give up the rights to any degrees you may have that may be relevant? Anyone could google and find out that your pen name didnt graduate from Yale with a Ph.D...
 

Tymolee

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Just promise me you won't feature photos of your cat(s), okay? I've seen one too many author web pages which seem to place more importance on felines than titles or covers.


Ok, Maryn and PeeDee, there shall be no cats. I was going to decorate every page with singing and dancing cats (I just had to find the perfect cats-related midi-music for the background), but I guess I'll make the sacrifice and cut them out. Spaz (my cat) will be so disappointed. He was the star. :D

Seriously, I'm trying to make it pretty streamlined. I hate when I go to a page and I can't navigate it to save my life. It's fairly basic.

I think I just feel weird about making up a whole new person for my writing... If I ever get famous (ha ha ha - I have to finish the book first) then, yeah... okay. But there just seems so much to it and so much to keep straight. And as Leigh said (and I have no idea as to the answer to your question, Leigh), when you make up this persona, how far do you take it? Degrees, education, where you live?

Thanks again, everyone!
 

PeeDee

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Lots of people might have a BA in English Lit. So if you and your pen name both do, no biggie.

Hell, my pen name's a middle-aged woman.
 

Shadow_Ferret

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oh, cool, now I have to go complete a bio for my pen name.

Jacob Herklotz was abandoned in the woods and raised by a pack of black-footed ferrets, which is strange since black-footed ferrets live on the prairie and a group of ferrets is actually a business.
 

PeeDee

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Worchester Adams was born and raised on a barge in the Louisiana swamps, barges being the only thing anyone lives on in Louisiana. He is pathologically afraid of lima beans.

Hm. This is fun.
 
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