Pen name issues

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DancingMaenid

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I continue to be very conflicted about pen name use, and I feel like it's inhibiting me.

On the one hand, I'm a private person. My real name is uncommon. I like the idea of having a little separation (even if I'm not committed to keeping myself unidentifiable). I chose a pen name for that reason.

On the other hand, I'm active in my local writing community, and everyone knows me by my real name. I don't think I really want to go by my pen name. I'm not even sure if I like the pen name I came up with (it's connected to my real name but not close enough that people would associate it with me if they knew my real name). I haven't been published under it yet, but this is making it difficult to do stuff like start a blog or have a social media presence.

I'm not sure what I should do. I was hoping that I'd figure it out after coming up with a pen name, but I feel like I can't move forward.

Any thoughts? Suggestions?
 

Ari Meermans

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It's really only a decision you can make, especially since you aren't sure you like the pen name you've chosen. We can tell you our own situations, but that's about it.

My name here and across social media is the pen name I chose. Mac, Lisa, and the rest of modville know who I am. Probably four or five family members know who I am when they see me online. Other than that, I'm pretty much divorced from my online life as I go about my everyday life.
 
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DancingMaenid

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It's really only a decision you can make, especially since you aren't sure you like the pen name you've chosen. We can tell you our own situations, but that's about it.

My name here and across social media is the pen name I chose. Mac, Lisa, and the rest of modville know who I am. Probably four or five family members know who I am when they see me online. Other than that, I'm pretty much divorced from my online life as I go about my everyday life.

Thanks. You're right, of course, that there's no universal answer to this.

I already keep my online life very separate from my offline life for the most part (my Facebook is very locked-down), and I think that's partly why I like the idea of using a pen name. What's tricky, though, is that most of the people I follow, say, on Twitter are people I know in real life from writing communities, and I feel weird that there's no simple way of sharing stuff like that with new people I meet without going out of my way to do so, and that it's harder to follow other people without seeming like a stranger at first. To be fair, that issue might exist if I used my initials or something, too. But maybe then it would be easier to organically share with people, and it might be more logical. I really don't want to use my initials, though.
 

Bacchus

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I continue to be very conflicted about pen name use, and I feel like it's inhibiting me.

On the one hand, I'm a private person. My real name is uncommon. I like the idea of having a little separation (even if I'm not committed to keeping myself unidentifiable). I chose a pen name for that reason.

On the other hand, I'm active in my local writing community, and everyone knows me by my real name. I don't think I really want to go by my pen name. I'm not even sure if I like the pen name I came up with (it's connected to my real name but not close enough that people would associate it with me if they knew my real name). I haven't been published under it yet, but this is making it difficult to do stuff like start a blog or have a social media presence.

I'm not sure what I should do. I was hoping that I'd figure it out after coming up with a pen name, but I feel like I can't move forward.

Any thoughts? Suggestions?

Not sure I really see the immediate problem. If your writer's group knows you as Bob Smith, what's the harm in telling them that you write musical mysteries as Wolfgang Hendrix? Or erotica as Jimi Mozart? They won't care.

The bigger problem might be brand-building I suppose, but the advantage of building a brand under a pseudonym must surely be that if it works, great, build it bigger, but if, for whatever reason, it flops you could quietly bury it... or just run it as a background hobby...
 

Polenth

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Using your real name doesn't mean you suddenly have to tell people every detail of your life. You can still share as much or as little as you want.
 

sandree

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I will be interested to see the responses to this question as I just chose a pen name for myself. I was wondering if people generally put their photo on their pen name’s website or do some people skip even posting a photo?
 

DancingMaenid

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Not sure I really see the immediate problem. If your writer's group knows you as Bob Smith, what's the harm in telling them that you write musical mysteries as Wolfgang Hendrix? Or erotica as Jimi Mozart? They won't care.

It's not too much of a problem. The issue is that if I meet someone at a conference, for example, they'd never be able to find my blog or anything by googling me. Also, I'm a member of some groups under my real name, which makes it a little trickier from a networking standpoint.

Using your real name doesn't mean you suddenly have to tell people every detail of your life. You can still share as much or as little as you want.

My name is very unique. If you google it, I'm literally the only person who comes up. I'm not really comfortable with random strangers looking me up and easily finding my day job and exact office address and phone number and whatnot. People I've met and know socially, fine. Someone who's read my story in an anthology or come across me on Twitter, not so much. Especially with the cases of marginalized people sometimes being doxxed and harassed.
 

veinglory

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It's very common for people you interact with to know your real name and also the name you write under, but for the real name not to appear online or for the general public. As someone with a career outside of writing I find it very useful to keep the two separated by name.
 

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If you are a private person I understand the hesitation completely, and if I were in that situation I would continue to use a pen name until you know the choice is right for you. Then you can merge the two easier by posting something with your pen name in a public place friends, family and coworkers can see. I wouldn't worry just yet!
 

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I've always used a pen name, so right from the beginning the folks I met online would only know me via my pseud or similar sounding handles I've used over the years (ironically, the one I use on AW is the most far-removed of all of them!). My offline writing circle was in very different circumstances/genres etc. so there was never much overlap, and we've lost touch since anyway. Aside from my publishers, I can think of maybe four or five people who know I'm behind my pen name.

If I did connect with an offline writing group now, I genuinely don't know what I'd do. I'm a very private person, but there also comes a point where it's difficult to stay 'anonymous' whilst talking about e.g. publishing experiences without seeming vague and contrived.

My main issue these days is trying to establish a social media presence around my pen name. I'm trying to be authentic, and warm, and, well, me, but that's a hard balance to strike when you don't want to share much personal info. And as for a photo of me? Oh hell no. Never gonna happen.
 

DancingMaenid

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Thanks again, everyone. I think I'm going to try to stick it out with my pen name and trust that my friends and people I network with can remember.

I'm not really worried about remaining anonymous. It's never worried me too much if people I know in real life know about my writing (even if it is a little surreal and vulnerability-creating sometimes). I think 95% of my concern is just that I feel weird being super google-able under my real name.
 

Elenitsa

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I am using a pen name,without hiding my real one. I think people can google more about me under my pen name than my real name. I have a photo on my pen name internet pages and on the back of the book, because I was told by the publishers and not only by them that readers want to see a picture, to see it's a real person writing, not a robot :p .
 
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shadowsminder

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It's not too much of a problem. The issue is that if I meet someone at a conference, for example, they'd never be able to find my blog or anything by googling me. Also, I'm a member of some groups under my real name, which makes it a little trickier from a networking standpoint.

My name is very unique. If you google it, I'm literally the only person who comes up. I'm not really comfortable with random strangers looking me up and easily finding my day job and exact office address and phone number and whatnot. People I've met and know socially, fine. Someone who's read my story in an anthology or come across me on Twitter, not so much. Especially with the cases of marginalized people sometimes being doxxed and harassed.

With what you're saying here, my suggestion is that you use your initials or middle name with your real surname. That's enough to tell algorithms what's Writer Maenid and what's Day Job Maenid while keeping introductions simple. Remember that you can hand out business cards or bookmarks at conferences to help new contacts find you online, no matter what name(s) you use.
 

DancingMaenid

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With what you're saying here, my suggestion is that you use your initials or middle name with your real surname. That's enough to tell algorithms what's Writer Maenid and what's Day Job Maenid while keeping introductions simple. Remember that you can hand out business cards or bookmarks at conferences to help new contacts find you online, no matter what name(s) you use.

Middle name isn't an option because it's what I go by (and my first name is a giant NOPE for me). I could use my initials, but I've never been super fond of that format.

My pen name is the name I was thinking of legally changing my first name to but changed my mind. I still like it, actually. I guess I feel self-conscious because 1) most of my friends seem to use names that are more obviously "theirs," like a maiden name of their initials and 2) it turns out the name I chose seems popular among other trans guys/non-binary people, so I feel unoriginal. :p But it's probably confirmation bias. It's not like there are tons of people with that name.
 

Polenth

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My name is very unique. If you google it, I'm literally the only person who comes up. I'm not really comfortable with random strangers looking me up and easily finding my day job and exact office address and phone number and whatnot. People I've met and know socially, fine. Someone who's read my story in an anthology or come across me on Twitter, not so much. Especially with the cases of marginalized people sometimes being doxxed and harassed.

I'm also the only person for my name. A thing to consider is that people are likely to make the connection, especially if you are doing conferences and the like using your real name. If all that comes up for your real name is where you work and how to contact you there, it'll be easy to find. If endless pages of stuff about you turn up, it'll be harder for people to find that information. So pen name or not, I'd consider doing something under you real name that'll let you take over the results for that name.

In my case, I wrote things, so anything else about me is pushed way down the results.
 

Carrie in PA

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I'm a member of RWA and our local chapter. A good 75% of the members write under pen names. It's handled a variety of ways. I knew "Stacy" for 2 years before I found out that was her pen name. She simply goes by "Stacy" at any writing related thing she does. It's not a big secret, but she slips on her writer persona and that's who she is. Her personal social media is 100% locked down and is only for family and *close* friends. Her author social media is what's public and where her writer friends interact.

Another we literally call "Susie/Missy" because she flips back and forth between her pen name and real name so much and it's kind of cute.

Still another is Mary, writing as "June". Her business cards and social media is all under "June" but she goes by her real name in person.

Yet another has her real name and pen name closely linked, so business cards say "Christy Jones / Meredith Cooper" and you can find her either way.

My point is that however you handle it, it's NOT going to confuse anyone in your writing group(s) because it's not uncommon to have a pen name. When someone wants to connect on social media, you just say, "Great! You can find me under Daisy Periwinkle."

You do you. Everyone will adjust accordingly. :)
 

CathleenT

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One thing I've read on another forum is that it can be nonproductive to have a pen name that switches your sex (typically women writing as men, not just the amorphous initial thing like Rowling). People end up with all sorts of problems when it comes to author pics and bios. It comes down to some readers don't like it if they find out you've lied to them.

The real big problem, in terms of potential blowback, seems to be if you change sex and then write as a member of the LGBT crowd. This can be seen as being a poser and a fake, and readers have reacted poorly to writers who have been "outed" this way.
 
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DancingMaenid

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One thing I've read on another forum is that it can be nonproductive to have a pen name that switches your sex (typically women writing as men, not just the amorphous initial thing like Rowling). People end up with all sorts of problems when it comes to author pics and bios. It comes down to some readers don't like it if they find out you've lied to them.

The real big problem, in terms of potential blowback, seems to be if you change sex and then write as a member of the LGBT crowd. This can be seen as being a poser and a fake, and readers have reacted poorly to writers who have been "outed" this way.

I've weighed this out (I'm non-binary and have wavered back and forth on transitioning), and one of my priorities with a pen name was to have something a little androgynous to give me flexibility.

But honestly, I'm super out at this point. I'm not going to any effort to hide that I'm non-binary and I don't really care if a potential future author photo "outs" me as being AFAB. It's unlikely that there will ever be a "finish line" for me where I can pass as a cis woman or a cis man.

I'm also the only person for my name. A thing to consider is that people are likely to make the connection, especially if you are doing conferences and the like using your real name. If all that comes up for your real name is where you work and how to contact you there, it'll be easy to find. If endless pages of stuff about you turn up, it'll be harder for people to find that information. So pen name or not, I'd consider doing something under you real name that'll let you take over the results for that name.

In my case, I wrote things, so anything else about me is pushed way down the results.

That's an interesting point to consider that I hadn't thought about. I don't know how I'd feel about my writing being the thing that shows up, but this is a good thing to think about.
 
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