Pen names

Go for it, I use a pen name for reasons similar to yours.

I tihnk it would be really weird to have people that already know you see what you write, especially if they hated it. I would definately write under a pen name. My friends don't know that half of the stuff I've 'gotten off a website' is actually mine because I want to know their honest opinion.

Me too, my 2007 Nano will be under a pen name because of sensitive material. I think if someone really wants to find out who you are they could. However no one needs to know it's a pen name.

New question:

How do you pick a pen name?

What I've tried is mpicking out words with atmosphere aand translating them into ancient greek. However, they sound really weird.

So how do you pick one out?

I use a pen name, and am also in high school, but not for quite the same reason. I don't mind what I write, and would be proud to show it off were it to be published. But I don't like my real name and prefer the shortened version (Bree), but since that's what all of my friends call me, I started calling myself Bre J. Smith for a pen name.
But I think pen names are nice. Go for it.

I say try mixing up the letters in your name. Or just go for some name that you really like. I mean...lots of major authors used pen names, but they were nothing special or strange sounding.

Indeed, it doesn't have to be in ancient greek. It'll be less obvious if it sounds more 'normal' (though it can still have what is in your opinion a nice sound to it)

I played around with the letters in my name and came up with something completely japanese sounding. In fact, it means "lonely before separation" in japanese, which I think is weird.

I used my first and middle name to make "Tamae Kairi"

Any other suggestions? I don't really want it to sound foreign.

I'm in 2 minds about pen names.

I find that people look down on young adult and childrens books, which are the ones I enjoy writing - and reading - (I'm 24) so if it came to getting a YA published, I was considering a pen name, but I'm not so sure anymore. I want to be proud of my work, you know? And hope people that know me, or knew me way back when would be proud of me too, because it takes a lot of work to write a novel AND get it published.

However, I'm writing contemporary YA at the moment, but I also do fantasy.
Something that worries me is a fan of contemporay YA would go: "oh cool, a book by Sarah Billington" and pick up the fantasy, and it's completely different to their tastes.

So I think if it ever gets to that, I'll use a pen name for the fantasy. I wanted something that sounded a bit fantastical, so I looked through my celtic baby names books (great for fantasy characters)

If you come across a book by Morgan Llewellyn in the future - that's me!

Sairz

"What's in a name?"

Everything, actually. From experience as a reader, I am not particular about author names. However, I read so voraciously that if I am going to read a second book from an author, their name needs to be memorable. A book written by Katy Smith probably won't stick with me as it is too common. However, memorable doesn't mean weird. And funky spellings make books hard to track down.

Secondly, who is your target market? Boys typically will not read a book from an obvious girl author. Henceforth, the J. K. of the Potter series. Fantasy books can have funkier names. Romance a soft, mysterious name, while action/adventure might require something a little more masculine/strong. It's all about marketing.

Subtlety is key. Readers do not want to feel tricked. I. M. Best may not be a great pen name; unless you are creating a niche market that ties into your not so subtle statement. And if your books are anything but the best, you will seriously turn off readers.

Another mistake is making a name unpronouncible. It is hard to ask the librarian to track down an author if you both prounounce the name very differently. Therefore, having a difficult God given name could be a big reason to write under a pen name. My last name is such that it has been pronounced about 14 different ways. I love my name and would be proud to write under it, but I'm afraid it would garner a lot of confusion to readers.

Writers may want to keep their identity hidden. It is amazing how often poeple assume that you write from experience/desire. As if all murder mystery writers have a) actually murdered someone or b) want to. Likewise for the romance writers. No, we are not walking hormones, and fantasy writers do not live in an alter reality, while not all poets want to kill themselves. However, these are valid reasons to take on a pen name.

And many authors write under different names for different types of books. It may be hard to "cross over" without alienating your previous readers. Also, new readers may not touch your new genre book as they will associate your name with something else they are not interested in.

I hope this helps answer your question. And on a more personal level, how did you pick your NaNo name? This may give you insight into picking a pen name. For instance, lexicon holds appeal for me because it is easy to remember, it's a combination of my kids' names and it has an actual meaning (dictionary) which relates to my personality and love of words.

Good luck and have fun with it...and your writing! ~Lex

I use words that are related to me, but the meaning might be really, really, REALLY subtle. For example:

My middle name, Erica (which I hate because it doesn't sound right with my first name AT ALL), is apparently the Latin for Heather. Found that in a baby name book under one of those names. One of my book characters has the last name "Close". I only have her last name to keep things straight in my head, since one of her brothers has the same nickname as another character's actual name (making for hilarious results in their one scene together), but her last name is never used. So I have Heather Close for a possible pen name.

See if you can find a name that you really like, or is related to you somehow (maybe your actual middle name). Then find a last name from a TV show, a book (but please God not Potter!), or even from a character's obscure last name from your own works.

That's how I do it anyhow.

Some suggestions for first names (for girl names) to maybe get you started- Mae (May), Kat, Mai (My), Tea (Tay-uh, might want an accent mark), Serenity, Sheena, Presea, Mia, Mist, Marcia, Astrid, Tanith, Carill, Lucia.

Well, I used to pick out character names by looking up '1000 most common first (last) names in America' (or a similar search), then go through the list and pick names that appeal to me the most for the character :D

That's pretty much the only suggestion I have XD Good luck with your name-picking!

Sairz- you might want to pick another name for your fantasy writing, as there is already a Morgan Llywelyn who is quite famous writing historical fiction, historical fantasy, and historical non-fiction. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_Llywelyn

:)

I don't see myself using a pen name. In fact, the name I put on my '07 NaNo draft is my full name- first, middle initial, last. I'm proud of what I've written and have no qualms about the world knowing it's me. I could see how, in certain situations, it might be advisable to use a pen name.

Maybe try taking your middle name and using a nickname from that. For instance, if your middle name is Mary, call yourself Molly. For a last name, how about a female relative's maiden name? That way it is still connected to you, but also has a ring of normality and truth to it.

You can make your pen name from your first or last name spelled backward, like me :p

Or your favorite songs; lines, or the titles even.

How about phrases? FE: MaybeYesandMaybeNo

Good luck.

I use a pen name for almost the exact same reason you do! Except that I share my story with my friends, I don't mind them reading it, they understand me, as weird as this may sound, I'm afraid of all the people I don't know!
I my pen name is K.A. Dawn, it stands for Katherine Anne Dawn. I chose it for several reasons,
I chose Katherine, because that is my real name, and I don't know why, but I've always said I would use it since I was nine (that's when I started writing, but I haven't been writing romance that whole time, I only started that about a year ago)
I chose Anne, because I love Anne of the Island! If you haven't read it, then you should, it's the third book about Anne of Green Gables, and it's very romantic, and nice.
And then I chose Dawn because that was my great great grandmother's first name, and even thought I never met her, I really admire her.
But Katherine Anne Dawn was to long I thought, so I shortened it to K.A. Dawn, just like two of my favorite authors have done, J.R.R. Tolkien, and L.M. Montgomery.
Hope this helps!
~ K.A Dawn

My pen name (Elisabeth) is pretty useless around my friends and family because they all know that I write and many know what I am writing right now. But when I do get published, I am going to use it to keep my personal life and publishing life seperate.

I chose Elisabeth because it's my given middle name. I really don't have a last name chosen yet. I've been playing around with last names that run on both sides of my family.
A good place to find names and "alternate" names is behindthename.com. I use that for finding character names, but you could use it for your own names, too.

Mai is my name! x3 Kind of...it's actually a bit longer (Maike), but I shorten it to 'Mai' for online stuff.

Hmm...I can see where you're going if you're writing for fantasy novels. For me, personally, I'd probably go with my real name, just because I want to be proud of my work, and my name...well, nobody can tell if it's male of female, much less pronounce it. xD Which /could/ be a problem, but I'm really really far away from getting anything close to published, so meh, I'm not worrying about it now.

Savannah Swann is my pen name. I just randomly picked it, i liked the alliteration of the S sounds and Savannah is one of my favorite names. I don't know if i'd actually use it if i got published. I'd probably use my own name because, as someone said, i'm proud of my work. But for the editing process where i pass my work around to friends, i think it'd be easier to say "A friend i met on a forum wrote this and wanted me to edit it. What do you think about it?" that way, they don't read it with the mindset that it's your work.