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The oddest thoughts enter my head from time to time. Last night, it was why some people choose the names they're published under. Or why they choose variations, like three names or initials or somesuch.
Take Orson Scott Card, our patron and compadre. Why three names? I can see a certain eye-catching ability in that, but wouldn't "Orson Card" have done as well? It seems just as memorable. (As far as I know, it's his real name---correct me if I'm wrong.)
Have any of you given any thought to your name or pen name and how it will appear in print?
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I'm blessed or cursed with a distinctive last name (the curse part kicks in around Christmas time). I do have a middle name, but I don't use it save under rare circumstances. I considered using my middle name, but another SF writer used my first and middle names first. (No, it's not "Heinlein.")
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Card reported goes by "Scott" with friends and family. I don't understand why, in that context, he hangs on to the "Orson".
My pen name may prove to be too cute to endure, I may have to soften it to a "Frances". I mean, I could stick with Franc if I never ever use a pun in a title, but I think that might kill me.
My real middle name is a chinese assemblage that various amateur translators have told me means "pregnant flying fish" or some variant. For years I have told people my middle inital was "F as in Frank." When I played with Frances as a moniker for my autobiographical self, I one day decided it would be great to make my pen name "Franc". "Li" was the surname I was already using for my ficitonal family of origin.
I can't remember now why I abandoned "Frances" as my autobiographical name. I've been through a ton of them, and am currently using "Matilda." I have high hopes it will stick.
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I think some use initials because they don't think they're actual name sounds good. Others, because they go by their middle name. My name is Roy Matthew Ware. I have always gone by Matthew (Roy is my father's name, but I'm not a junior). I thought about going by Matthew Ware as my pen name, but it didn't sound right. For one, I was leaving out my first name. So I decided on R Matthew Ware to emphasize Matthew, but not to leave out Roy.
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I think that if I ever got published I'd use my formal, birth certificate name of "Ronald" rather than the "Ronnie" that my friends and family call me.
As for the pro's... I have never understood pen names. Why use 'em, when you have a perfectly good name already?
quote: As for the pro's... I have never understood pen names. Why use 'em, when you have a perfectly good name already?
Because sometimes that is how you get published. There's a published author under a pen name that his agent and he made up. The agnet lectures and will tell you she did it for two main reasons. First, they'd shopped so much of his work under his "real name" and had it rejected they were worried about getting rejections because the publishing house remembered the name. And second, while he writes middle-eastern quotes/ sayings of the day, his "real" name wasn't middle-eastern and didn't lend him any credibiilty. Under the "new" name, he was published.
quote:Why use 'em, when you have a perfectly good name already?
Just because it's yours does not make it a perfectly good name. I happen to believe I was actually named after the wife of a disgraced president, in that my brother and I were born during that administration, and my parents shared their names, and so on some level they decided their names were cool enough to bequeath on their most unfortunate children. My mother denies it, but I'm old enough now to know you can easily forget something like that if it becomes unpleasant to recollect. Also, my mother has tried to get published a few times using the name we share. Unwarranted credit offers = good. Unwarranted rejections from sci fi magazines = awesome.
But mainly, due to my writing autobiographical fiction about my mental illnesses, I'd rather have the freedom to say what I want and have taken at least a token of precaution against my family being identified.
[This message has been edited by franc li (edited February 22, 2007).]
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One other reason for a pen name is if you're writing in two separate genres. If you get really famous, then the book will say John Doe Writing As Frank Roe.
Personally, I want credit for everything I published, so I'm stuck with my real name. On the other hand, I have two available last names (nee and ex-).
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Hmm. I'm trying to envision what I'd be willing to publish under the last name of an ex-.
I actually really love my married name. If we ever got divorced I'd probably go by a made up name. And no fair breaking us up just to see if I'll make good on it. I'm thinking "Omphalos" is memorable Too bad it isn't made-up.
Someone recently told me you can use any name you want as long as there is no intent to deceive. She didn't like her first name so she just started using a different one without getting it legally changed. Her credit report is under her adopted name.
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As far as OCS going by "Scott", there is really nothing odd or surprising about that. Nearly everyone I know who is named Scott, is actually using their middle name, including myself. Usually when someone asks me why I don't use my first name I relpy; "Would you go the name Duayne?" They usually laugh.
The truth is that using a middle name and ignoring a first is a tradition with Irish families. Now I have no idea wheather OCS is Irish or not, nor do I care, but I am Irish. My father was named John David -- everyone called him Dave. His brother was named John Paul -- He was uncle Paul. My grandfather was, believe it or not, named John John. No kidding. He went by John, go figure.
But wait it gets worse! Uncle Paul named his first son, John Paul Jr. But we were never nice enough to call him that, he was, of course, John Paul II. Uncle Paul's second son was John James.
I felt mighty lucky that I was not named John. But Duayne Scott left me with only one choice for a username in life.
Someday I will be a famous writer named Scott Thayer, or Duayne Thayer, or Duayne S. Thayer, or maybe D. Scott Thayer, but no matter how good I get, I'll never surpass F. Scott Fitzgerald.
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I'm curious about why a person would choose a pseudonym like "Lemony Snicket." Obviously, it tends to go with the genre he writes. So I guess there is something to be said in a name that goes along with the genre, to a point. I doubt a sci-fi reader would get benefit writing under the name S'vock.
In the end, I think names and pseudonyms are matter of what sounds best.
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You have to be careful with pen names, though. In the case of Lemony Snicket, I heard a story of how he went to a book signing and presented himself by his real name. He said there was a woman there outraged that Lemony Snicket was just his pen name and that he had, in fact, written the novels. She wouldn't believe him. So it can backfire.
quote:Hmm. I'm trying to envision what I'd be willing to publish under the last name of an ex-.
Sometime it's the "ex" part that isn't envisioned when the writer first publishes. Then the breakup comes and the writer is stuck with a brand name. Ask the late Agatha Christie. (I guess this is a plague on women writers almost exclusively, unless a man has actually gone as far as changing his name, too.)
There's the parallel track of using online names. I imagine hardly anyone here will try to get published under their "handles."
(Yeah, I'd heard the "Scott Card" thingy before...remembering it only when it was brought to my attention. But why not "Scott Card" as a name to publish under?)
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OSC went by Scott all his life. But at one point, in college, when he was in a play, he noticed that "Scott Card" was the shortest name in the credits. He decided it was time he started to use the whole thing in any sort of professional situation.
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posted
Of course there's the old joke that only assassins have and use three names, much like the one about serial killers always having the middle name "Wayne." (One of my brothers has "Wayne" as a middle name. Haven't seen him lately to see what he's up to.)
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Name will go a long way towards how people will judge your book IMO . Look at some of the names of the greats , or at least great sellers , King , Rowling , Card, Brown ... you expect some poor sob to compete with a name like Vasquez or Muhammed? The same reason why Obama won't win elections with a name that rhymes with Osama, i think naming goes a long way towards people's perception of the book and writer, i'm pretty sure they'd prefer names that sound unique and intellectual, or might come from a similar racial backround as them. My last name is Bhagan... Sounds pretty arabic to me, any book i plan to publish will be under a psudonym of some kind... Plus it also gives you some anonymity, where i live kidnapping for ransom is a problem , if everyone knows you published a book that sold well you won't be able to live the same sort of life you did before, and in some cases it may be dangerous for you.
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I'm planning to publish under my married name (we've been married going on 37 years - I don't LIKE my married name, but I'm used to it). I used to write under the name "Lynda Burton Sappington" (maiden name and last name), but then I realized that I would have massive hand cramps signing THAT autograph! And at my age, I have hand cramps even just writing "Lynda Sappington" - I'm working on a "scrawl" type signature for when I'm really famous and have book-signings, LOL! When I started writing fanfic online (first try at fiction in 16 years), I had built up a rather well-known name in the art world with my sculpture and didn't want my "playtime" in Harry Potter's world to have any impact on my art business, so I used (and still use) the handle "Abraxan" (which I really like - an Abraxan is a huge winged horse - they pull the Beauxbatons carriage in "HP and the Goblet of Fire"). I won't publish original fiction as "Abraxan" but I will certain let all my HP readers know when the books are published (I already have quite a few wanting to pre-order my books, and I don't even have an agent yet, much less a publisher).
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Hmm... Interesting story about the name I would probably end up using.
Okay, my first name is Zachary. But I go by the usual nickname. My parents spell that Zach, and my aunt spells it Zac, and I usually use Zack (or used to). But whenever anyone asked me "H or K?" I would always reply "Yes."
One day, I was participating in an MTG tournament at a local comic shop, and the guy running it (a friend of mine) asked "H or K?" Of course, I said "Yes," so he listed me as Mr. Zachk (or checks as yes if it's both, so that works). Later it was suggested that we add a Q, and then an X if we want it to be possessive. So for a time I used Zachkqx. But with some videogames (SSBM for the most part) you're limited to a 4-letter name. That's when I just used Zaq.
So, in the end, I'd probably publish as Zaq or ZAQ. I like the first one because capital Q's suck, but the second one looks like it could be initials. Either way I've also taken to writing my name by underlining it with the bottom of the Z, so that would probably stay. Also, I've taken to a digital signature with a "~" in front of it. Now according to my discrete math class, "~" means "not," so when I sign stuff I say it's not me.
Anyway, if I had to choose right now, I'd use "~Zaq" with the "aq" underlined by the Z.
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Stephen King wrote under Richard Bachman, initially, as a test. He wanted to see if everyone was buying his books BECAUSE OF his good name.
Robert Jordan is a pseudonym for James Oliver Rigney II, he reserves his real name for his great opus.
John Sanford's real name is John Roswell Camp. In 1986 he won the Pulizter for a series of articles he wrote called "Life on the Land: An American Farm Family". Putnam asked him to create his pseudonym because he had another book (The Fool's Run) being published for Henry Holt at the same time as "Rules of Prey" was coming out.
Ray Bradbury used D.R. Banet, Edward Banks, and Leonard Douglas.
Edgar Rice Burroughs was a.k.a. Norman Bean.
Heinlien used Anson MacDonald and Caleb Saunders.
John D. MacDonald used the pseudonyms John Wade Farrell and Peter Reed.
Poul Anderson, Isaac Asimov, and even OSC has used them.
Agatha Christie is a pseudonym for Agatha Mary Clarissa, Lady Mallowan.
I guess there's as many reasons as there are authors who use them to have pseudonyms. But, to answer your topic's question--"What's in a name?"--sometimes, an entire career.
As for whether I am going to use a pseudonym, the answer is probably, and several it is likely.
[This message has been edited by InarticulateBabbler (edited February 26, 2007).]
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There are many good reasons for using a pseudonym, for at least some authors. For one thing, it can help avoid typecasting and let you have more control over your image. Let's say, just for an example, that you're big end-all dream is to be taken seriously as a writer of serious literary fiction. You might not want to make it too immediately obvious to your ultimate target market that in the meantime you've been selling genre romance to keep food in the cupboard and the wolf from the door. I don't know all the ins and outs of which genres snoot down their noses at other genres, but I do know that that sort of mindset does exist and can definitely affect an author's career.
Another reason to use a pen name is because it can help boost sales for some things. Some books or stories or articles might sell better, for example, if the public perceives that the writer is a man (or vice versa), whether 'he' actually is or not, or a story or article might sell better if the author is perceived to be of a particular ethnicity. A few people have pointed out examples of this type in the thread already.
A lot of people who write erotica professionally use pseudonyms, too. It doesn't mean you're not proud of your writing, but you might have a family situation in which it would at least be embarrassing. If your grandkid's friends, say, were messing around on the internet somewhere they had no business being, it wouldn't be fun for the grandkid to have it talked around the high school that his or her grandma had been spotted! Also, if a fan should want to 'reach' you, email or snailmail via your publisher is probably as close as you'd want to initially get. You're (at least for most people... every niche has its radicals and edgewalkers) not going to want to make it too easy for your readers to phone you or show up on your doorstep in the middle of the night! Pseudonyms in this niche market can be fun, too, as this particular area of pen-naming is particularly conducive to a certain amount of word play.
I sell using three pseudonyms, one femme, one masculine, and one androgynous. The femme one is primary, and is my primary net 'handle' in, shall we say, a land far away. It is fairly well-known in a little corner of that far away land, so it's mostly the one I use except in instances where a particular story is likely to sell better with one of the other names. All three names involve mild degrees of word-play, so they're kind of fun, and as long as my publisher keeps sending me checks in the mail every time I send him a story, I'll go along with whatever he thinks best along those lines! <grin>
At this point, I plan to use my real (and original, as I didn't change my name when I married) first and last names for anything 'mainstream' (as opposed to erotica). It's kind of plain, but it seems to be a relatively easy name for people to remember (and my last name, unlike some, is easy to pronounce!), and I'm comfortable with it. On the other hand, if a publisher or agent were to present a compelling argument for the use of a pen name on a particular piece of work, I would certainly be willing to listen. That money in the mail thing is pretty cool, and I'm all for cooperating to help it happen!
Regards,
SharonID... thinkin' a rose by any name might smell the same, but that doesn't mean they'll sell the same!
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Too bad it isn't made-up.
