The Pros and Cons of Adopting Pen Names Part II
Suit Up that Pseudonym
Having gone through the don'ts of adopting a pen name, let us now examine situations where a nom de plume might be suitable or even necessary.
1. Protecting Your Professional Reputation
In the same way a pen name can adversely impact your professional credibility, it can also be employed to protect your image within your professional circle. For instance, a college professor's academic reputation could well get a trashing if he were to be revealed as a pulp fiction writer, if it just happens to be a hobby. The public maintains a wide range of preconceived prejudices about how writing should be and who are qualified to write them. In this case, it's not only advisable to separate your literary ambitions from your profession, it may well even be necessary.
2. When Writing in Another Genre
If you have already published in one genre and desire to start on the challenge of another, you may want to consider doing so as a new figure. This is most importantly recommended if those genres are poles apart; lunging from ghastly horror novels to children's fairytales, for instance. Dame Agatha Christie is a major example of this. We unveiled her above as Mary Westmacott. This was her pseudonym for composing romance novels. A long way from the murder mysteries for which she is world renowned.
3. To Meet Reader and Genre Expectations
Have you ever read The Masked Marauding Mangler by Desiree Valentine or Lovely Little Lilies by Mike Hardstone? Obviously not.
4. To Make it Snappier
Alternatively if your readers can't recall or articulate your name this is going to badly affect your book marketing. If your name is Catherine-Marguerite Fraquharson-Carruthers, for example, you might want to consider enhancing it to something like Cathy Carr or Catherine Margaret.
5. To Keep Up with Production
Being a respected writer might actually work against your book marketing. If you start to turn out books at too fast a rate, readers might start to doubt the effort that is going into them.; was the reason behind Stephen King adopting his Richard Bachman pen name.
5 Things to keep in mind
And thus if you are contemplating about writing under a pen name, remember these points to make your pen name work for your book marketing campaign:
1. Keep it distinctive
2. Keep it genre-related
3. Keep it reader-specific
4. Make it easy to pronounce
5. Keep it unique
Having gone through the don'ts of adopting a pen name, let us now examine situations where a nom de plume might be suitable or even necessary.
1. Protecting Your Professional Reputation
In the same way a pen name can adversely impact your professional credibility, it can also be employed to protect your image within your professional circle. For instance, a college professor's academic reputation could well get a trashing if he were to be revealed as a pulp fiction writer, if it just happens to be a hobby. The public maintains a wide range of preconceived prejudices about how writing should be and who are qualified to write them. In this case, it's not only advisable to separate your literary ambitions from your profession, it may well even be necessary.
2. When Writing in Another Genre
If you have already published in one genre and desire to start on the challenge of another, you may want to consider doing so as a new figure. This is most importantly recommended if those genres are poles apart; lunging from ghastly horror novels to children's fairytales, for instance. Dame Agatha Christie is a major example of this. We unveiled her above as Mary Westmacott. This was her pseudonym for composing romance novels. A long way from the murder mysteries for which she is world renowned.
3. To Meet Reader and Genre Expectations
Have you ever read The Masked Marauding Mangler by Desiree Valentine or Lovely Little Lilies by Mike Hardstone? Obviously not.
4. To Make it Snappier
Alternatively if your readers can't recall or articulate your name this is going to badly affect your book marketing. If your name is Catherine-Marguerite Fraquharson-Carruthers, for example, you might want to consider enhancing it to something like Cathy Carr or Catherine Margaret.
5. To Keep Up with Production
Being a respected writer might actually work against your book marketing. If you start to turn out books at too fast a rate, readers might start to doubt the effort that is going into them.; was the reason behind Stephen King adopting his Richard Bachman pen name.
5 Things to keep in mind
And thus if you are contemplating about writing under a pen name, remember these points to make your pen name work for your book marketing campaign:
1. Keep it distinctive
2. Keep it genre-related
3. Keep it reader-specific
4. Make it easy to pronounce
5. Keep it unique