Dear O'Abby: Can I Use a Pen Name to...

Dear O'Abby,

I read your piece about pen names last week with interest.  I have been toying with the idea of using a pen name because I am currently contracted to a publisher I'm not enjoying working with.  The contract I signed gives them the right of first-refusal on all my future books, but I don't really want to give them any more of my books.  Can I use a pseudonym to query agents or submit a new book to different publishers?

Yours,

Changing


Dear Changing,

Please do not do this.  It is dishonest and will likely land you in a world of legal trouble further down the track.

It sounds to me like you have a bigger problem here than choosing whether or not to use a pen name, and rather than trying to avoid that problem, you need to face it head on.  If you're unhappy with your publisher, you need to let them know that.  It may be that by opening the lines of communication, whatever your issues are with this publisher, you may be able to resolve them.

If not, then you need to terminate your contract with this publisher.  Only once this has been done can you offer your books, whether written under your own name or a pseudonym, to another publisher.

Using a pen name to try and avoid fulfilling a legal contract will never work because even if you do write and publish under a different name, any contracts will need to be signed using your legal name.  Royalties will be paid to an account associated with your legal name, even if you set up a separate 'trading as' account for your alter ego.  Even legally changing your name to match your pen name (which is a fairly extreme step to take) will leave a paper trail leading back to you.

Better to be honest and upfront with your publisher, get your grievances out in the open and move on with your career and your reputation intact.  And your name, which if you have already published books, may have a following you don't want to lose.

Best,

O'Abby

Dear O'Abby: Should I use a pen name?

Dear O'Abby,

I'm getting ready to start querying my novel, and I was wondering if I should use a pen name.  I'm a pretty private person, and while I don't have anything in particular to hide, I can't help feeling that I'd feel safer and happier about putting my work out there under a different name.

Do you have any advice?

Yours,

Nameless

Dear Nameless,

There are any number of reasons why someone might choose to use a pen name and protecting your privacy is as good a reason as any other.  I mean, you probably don't want Janet in accounts knowing that steamy romance she's been reading in the break room was written by yours truly, right?

Or maybe you're writing police procedurals and your main character is pretty scathing about the inefficiencies and injustices she sees daily in her own department.  And your day job just happens to be as a cop.  Probably don't want your boss to know you're airing the department's dirty laundry to the reading public.

Or perhaps you've been writing non-fiction for years and are something of an expert in your field.  But this is fiction and written to appeal to a completely different audience than the non-fiction you're known for.  By all means, use a pseudonym.

I use one myself because I write primarily YA, but I do, on occasion, write and publish other genres, including (once or twice) erotica.  I don't want my YA readers to accidentally stumble on one of those saucy zombie sex romps, so when writing that type of stuff, I publish it under a pen name.

So yes.  Use a pseudonym if it makes you more comfortable.

Just remember there are downsides too.

One you're published, promoting your book becomes that much harder if you're using a nom de plume.  You can't reach out easily to the people you already know and ask them to help with the promotion.  You can't use your already existing social media networks.  You can't easily organize in-person events (although, in this new COVID-19 world, the concept of in-person events feels somewhat far-fetched).

So think hard about going down this route.  If you've been carefully cultivating a social media following or engaging thoughtfully with the reading and writing communities throughout your writing journey, choosing to use a pen name now may lose you all the ground you've built.  You'll be starting a brand from scratch.

If you are an expert on a subject, or have real-life experience in the area you're writing about (for example, the cop mentioned above), by using a pen name, you're losing the ability to use that real-life experience as part of your pitch as to why people will want to read this book.  People value authenticity, and being able to say in your author bio that you've spent 25 years working in a specific city's police department gives cachet to whatever you're writing about police procedure and practice.  But if that city's police department has no record of someone by that name working there, you could be called a fraud by claiming that bio.

There is also the legal aspect to think about.  When you publish, do you want the copyright record to be under your legal name or the pen name?  At the querying stage, you will want to let the agent know both your pen name and your legal name as all contracting and payment will need to be to the legal name.

My advice would be to think carefully about your reasons for wanting to use a pen name.  If they are more compelling than any of the potential downsides, then go ahead.  If not, I would seriously consider using your real name.  It's just so much easier!

X O'Abby

Why I Lost a Y: On Pen Names

Now that my friends and family are finally getting their hands on DEADWOOD, they keep asking the same question:

What happened to the Y?

DEADWOOD by Kell Andrews (not Kelly!)
Order from Amazon now!

That's because I'm publishing under the name Kell Andrews, and all my real-life friends and acquaintances know me as Kelly, with a Y (not an I, IE, or EY). So let's get this straight: The missing Y is not a typo! It's a pen name.

As pen names go, this one isn't exactly a secret identity, but it has advantages. Kell is more gender-neutral, which is helpful since I'm trying to reach boy and girl readers with my middle-grade fiction. Kell Andrews is more unique --  I'm the only Kell Andrews in the U.S., while I'm one of 261 people (81.79% of us female) named Kelly Andrews -- not to mention Kelli, Kellie, and Kelley Andrews, and those in other countries around the world.

But the real problem was Google. Not only do other Kelly Andrews dominate, there are some that I definitely don't want to mix with on a search results page.

I'm not talking about Kelly Andrews who is the head of the Green Party in Northern Ireland. I wouldn’t mind being confused with her.

I mean Kelly Andrews, the English "glamour model" (wink, nudge), whose photos dominate the first page of Google and are definitely NSFW, and even less safe for a kidlit writer who is trying to reach 8- to 13-year-olds and their parents, teachers, and librarians.

So Kell I am, at least as far as my books go. My pen name is unique but easy. I own the domain www.kellandrews.com. It's recognizable to those who know me. And it's recognizable to ME, so that if someone calls me Kell, I don't look for someone standing behind me.

Good Reasons for Pen Names

Real name is too common. You might need something to distinguish you from similarly named writers -- although Dan Brown and Suzanne Collins did OK with boring names. 

Real name is too difficult. If your name is hard to spell, potential readers might not find you in search engines. If it's hard to say, they won't talk about you for fear of botching it.

You write in several genres. If you write in unrelated genres, like adult nonfiction and picture books, different names might allow you to distinguish your identities. This is common even with closely related subgenres, such as romance, where many writers use different names for contemporary versus historical or paranormal romances, or to indicated different heat levels.

Your day job (or your writing) is sensitive. Many writers like to keep their writing and career identities separate. This is especially common for the spicier genres.

You publish in several modes. Writers who publish with traditional presses and self-publish sometimes keep the identities separate, often for the same reasons as above.



What are your thoughts on pen names? Anybody famous (or infamous) have your name? What’s a good reason to write under an assumed name? Do you use your own name or another one?

And here's an article from Rachelle Gardner on this subject:

Should I Use a Nom de Plume?

Pseudonym or No Pseudonym...That is the Question

I write historical romances for Entangled Publishing. But I am also getting ready to turn in proposals for two paranormal romances. I know several authors who write different genres under different names and also some who write different genres under the same name.

I have no idea what I should do :D

Do you have a preference? If you had a favorite author who wrote Genre A, and then you did a search to find more Genre A and found Genre B, would you assume they no longer write Genre A and not keep up with their books? Would you try a different genre by an author you like even if it's not one you usually read?

Or does the name not matter at all? My main concern has always been confusion when trying to build my "brand" or for my readers when looking for my books. However, maybe that isn't such a big concern anymore (at least when it comes to searching.) After all, when you search for an author on Amazon or google, it pulls up all their books.

I'm just not sure :) I can see the merits for both using a pen name and keeping everything under my own name. This is a question I've bounced around a lot over the years, but it's something I may have to make a decision on soon and I'm a little stumped :)

If you were to write more than one genre, would you write them under separate names? Why or why not?

In Which She Ponders the Use of Pen Names

This is only my second blog post, but already I’m thinking about a pen name. Because after my first post, I Googled myself to see if this blog came up. It didn’t.

Almost all the links were for the other Kelly Andrews.

Not the one who is the head of the Green Party in Northern Ireland. I wouldn’t mind being confused with her. And not one of the 257 other women (and probably men) who share my name in the United States alone.

Kelly Andrews, the pr0n model.

I thought to choose your pr0n star name, you were supposed to take the name of your childhood pet and combine it with the first street you lived on. Turned out my real name was perfectly adequate.

I wouldn’t mind getting some extra traffic on the site from the other Kelly Andrews’s fans. This blog is new. We can't be picky about how readers find it.

But the problem goes the other way. Should I some day have future fans, they are likely to be middle-graders. And t0pl3ss photos on the search page aren’t a good way for a kid-lit writer to endear herself to parents, teachers, and librarians.

My agent tells me I shouldn’t worry about a pen name just yet. I should worry about writing books, she’ll worry about selling them, and then if I someday get a contract, we’ll think about a pen name. After all, writers potentially have longer careers than pr0n stars, so eventually my actual links may crowd hers right off the first page. And at the rate I write and this business moves, we have plenty of time.

But now I’m contemplating a change, maybe adding my husband’s name in combination, or using a made-up name. I like the sound of Kelly Andred, which is almost my name, but uses the old English word for “woods.” I came across it in The Children’s Book, which is a book about a children’s writer by my favorite grown-up author, A.S. Byatt.

It would make a great story to tell interviewers someday. Ah, someday.

Which makes me realize that my agent is probably right, as always. Thinking up pen names without a book contract is rather like filling up my notebook with doodles that read Kelly Andrews, NYT Bestselling Writer, or Kelly Andrews, Nobel Laureate – right next to where it says Mrs. Robert Pattinson. (Just kidding, silly. I would be Mrs. Taylor Lautner. )

It’s all just daydreaming. Which can be a writer's best friend, except when it's really procrastination.

But still, if I’m going to switch, might as well do it now. If I change later, I could end up confusing my tens of readers (although most of friends and family would probably figure it out).

What are your thoughts on pen names? Anybody famous (or infamous) have your name? What’s a good reason to write under an assumed name?

And in the spirit of writerly helpfulness, here is an article from Rachelle Gardner, who actually knows what she’s talking about:

Should I Use a Nom de Plume?