by Stephanie Morrill (or Olivia Piper)
Stephanie/Olivia writes young adult contemporary novels and is the creator of GoTeenWriters.com. Her novels include The Reinvention of Skylar Hoyt series (Revell) and The Revised Life of Ellie Sweet (Playlist). You can connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and check out samples of her work on her author website.
Even though I get asked this question on a regular basis, I’ve apparently never answered it on the blog. So today is the day! Should you use a pen name or your real name on your books? What are the benefits? How do you make it known to agents or publishers?
I’ve heard a variety of industry opinions over pen names, ranging from “they’re deceitful and shouldn’t be used” to, “Sure, go for it.”
Historically, pen names have been used for a variety of reasons. Female authors sometimes chose male pen names so they might be taken more seriously in the world of literature, like George Eliot author of Middlemarch. George Eliot’s real name was Mary Ann Evans. (My AP English teacher drilled into us that George Eliot was a woman, and that if we were given an essay question about George Eliot during the AP test, we were to refer to her as SHE. We were told this about once a week, I recall.)
Or Stanley Martin Lieber wanted to save his name for when he wrote novels, so for his comic book endeavors, he opted for a pen name – Stan Lee.
On a more corporate level, pen names often get adopted for series. The Nancy Drew books weren’t all written by Carolyn Keene, for example.
Maybe you just don’t like your name, or you want something a bit more jazzed up for book covers. Your last name might be way too common or virtually unpronounceable. Or maybe your name is Steve King, Stephanie Meyers, Sarah Dessan or something else that’s just a bit too close to an already established author.
Regardless of your reason, here are some things to take into consideration.
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