by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
I read an interesting post recently by Chris Gerwel: A Question of Identity.
Chris stated that his last name was actually Modzelewski. He explains why he chose to write under his middle name:
How will a difficult-to-pronounce name affect word-of-mouth recommendations? How will a hard-to-spell name affect search-driven sales on Amazon? How will a tough name affect the likelihood of bloggers and online reviewers writing up my books? Will a tough name diminish booksellers’ propensity to hand-sell my titles? Will signing my super-long name on stock give me carpal tunnel syndrome?
A difficult name is not, of course, a deal-breaker for any of these concerns… But there’s a way to forestall any and all of these concerns, and that is to adopt a pen name.
Other reasons I’ve seen authors use a pen name:
Their names are already famous…because of a different author. (If your name was Stephen King, for example.)
They write material that might anger or upset their family or close friends.
They write books to appeal to the other gender (J.K. Rowling for the Harry Potter books, for example.) Porter Anderson, in his most recent Writing on the Ether, covered a very interesting experiment that writer Teresa Frohock made in his post Can You Tell ‘Male Writing’ from ‘Female?’
Their publisher asks them to. This would be why I have one series written as Riley Adams. As a side note, the publisher did allow me to choose my pen name and I went with family names. When I asked the publisher if they had a preference among several family names I offered, they immediately chose Adams for shelf-placement. I think shelf-placement is rapidly becoming less-important, however.
How big of a deal are author names? I think they’re very important for getting readers to find us for the first time. But after they’ve bought one of our books, online retailers like Amazon make it very easy for readers to find more books—they’ll pop up as recommended reads whenever they log in to the bookseller.
Writing under more than one name:
It can be tough writing under more than one name. Readers may find it difficult to keep up with the books that you write under other names, although sites like Goodreads can lessen the impact.
Technically, I’m writing under three different names: Riley Adams, Elizabeth Craig (the quilting mysteries), and Elizabeth Spann Craig. Goodreads allows me to add Elizabeth Spann Craig as a second author to the other two series so that all of my books are listed on the same page.
Amazon works a little differently. There I’ve got two separate author pages: one for Riley Adams and one for Elizabeth Spann Craig. Thank heavens they don’t make me have a third one for Elizabeth Craig. Oddly enough, if you search for my full name on Amazon, the Memphis Barbeque mysteries do pop up.
Have you had any author name challenges? Multiple genres? Difficult last name? Do you write under several names?
Elizabeth – What an interesting post! I actually write under my own name, but when I started writing, I wondered whether I should. My non-fiction – my academic stuff – is written under my own name, and people asked me whether it wouldn’t be confusing to have my crime fiction under the same name. But those things are marketed for the most part to different audiences, so I haven’t had a problem. Plus I’m lucky because my surname isn’t Smith or Brown or something that might be confused with the work of another author.
I’ve not considered a pen name. It’s an interesting post, though, I hadn’t considered this issue.
karen
There is a Diane L. Wolfe that writes cookbooks. She turns up in an Amazon search for me.
I went with my name as I use it because anyone who would remember me would see the L. Diane and know it was me. Didn’t think about the fact that “Wolfe” would land me at the bottom of every bookshelf. Since bookstores are dying, it’s not a big deal anymore.
Hi Elizabeth – interesting to learn about your three author names – makes sense though …
I remembered the name Victoria Holt as a pen name … she wrote historical novels .. and I see she wrote under various pseudonyms .. including Philippa Carr, and Jean Plaidy ..
In fact her real name was Eleanor Alice Burford Hibbert – and she died 20 years ago today .. one of those coincidences on checking Victoria’s name in Wikipedia!
Complex names are troublesome .. I’m so glad I worked with East Europeans, Africans and the European languages – at least I have some concept of pronunciation and spelling .. I hate being impolite and always like to call people by their proper name .. Modzelewski wouldn’t worry me – but Polish names don’t … another advantage of being an American, Canadian or Brit – as we’ve all crossed frontiers with immigrants along the way ..
Great post – enjoyed it .. Hilary
I understand the decision of choosing a name. I chose my full name, Kellie Larsen Murphy, because there is a journalist with the same name (Kellie Murphy). I also felt the full name lent itself easily to my genre. Great post!
Cursed by a NASCAR driver with my actual name.
Thus, pen names.
If I’d used my full name, it wouldn’t fit on my book covers!
Margot–Your name works well, I think–not difficult to remember, not common, easy to pronounce. :)
Diane–Ha! There’s an Elizabeth Craig (deceased, I believe) who wrote a LOT of cookbooks. :) That’s too funny that we would both face the same problem!
Hilary–Quite a coincidence! And quite a few pen names. Very interesting!
Oh, I’m like you–hate to mispronounce names! Yes, we’ve got lots of different types of names here in the States. :)
Kellie–And journalists can really get high Google rankings, since they post under their name so frequently. I think you had the right idea.
Karen–I think you’ve got a great name already!
Alex–Ha! My maiden name was like that. :)
I’ve got another reason… Tamera Hart-Johnson publishes scientific stuff in medical journals… I didn’t want the fiction to cloud the science, so I debated how I would reform my name. In the end, Hart is my favorite anyway, so adopting it as a first seemed a good choice. though like you, I also have my publisher requested pen name. AND I am debating using different names for YA and adult stuff.
My name is often misspelled. I’ve used it to publish scholarship, nonfiction and artsy journal fiction. I toyed with the idea of writing with a pen name for my mystery…but since it’s the first vietnamese american mystery ever, i guess it makes sense to stick to my same old vietnamese american name!
I started writing using my real name and transferred that name to my blog. So by the time I had a novel, it seemed like a no brainer to keep using it. I have thought about other names, and I have some ideas if a publisher or I ever decide it’s necessary or beneficial.
In my non-author life I’m Linda Leszczuk. I use my maiden name, Masterson, because several people in the publishing world advised against going with a spelling/pronunciation nightmare. I use my initials because there is already a published author by the name of Linda Masterson (children’s books).
Hart–I think you and I are both going to be saddled with gobs of names as we go forward. :)
Khanh Ho–Makes sense to me! And you’ve been out there building a presence on Google for a while, with the other things you’ve published.
LD Masterson–I think that’s smart.
j welling–Ha! Yes, no use fighting that one. :)
I decided to start blogging & tweeting one afternoon a few years back and realized I needed a pen name. As a teacher, my board would not be happy with me being a romance writer under my own name. I also used family names to ‘become’ Jemi Fraser. :)
Carol–You’ve got a good name. And you’d already built a platform around it, too.
Jemi–Good point in that there are professional reasons…reasons to do with our day jobs…that can influence our decision to have a pen name. :)
I am currently struggling with this issue now. No one remembered me under my maiden name of Lowman, but no one can spell or say this one. I love my unique name, which means surprise in Polish. It looks like the consensus is to go with the easier to spell/pronounce name though, yes?
That’s a lot of good advice!