Episode 231: The Benefits of Pen Names
This week, Fable and The Verbivore talk about the ins and outs of using pen names.
We open by discussing some of the reasons why people choose to use pen names. For instance:
Managing reader expectation across different genres, tones, or spice or violence levels of your stories
Separating out your writing work from your personal life or other professional work
Making it easier for readers to find you and your work in a search if you have a common name (like Johnson)
Using a name that is more memorable, easier to spell/pronounce, or more directly reflects the feel of your stories
In this episode, we cover a lot of ground about both the personal side and the logistical side of working with a pen name.
Things like the following:
Googling the proposed name to see how easy or difficult it would be to find you and if there could be things associated with the name that you would not want to reflect on your work
Remembering that this name will represent you and your writing for a period of time and choosing something that feels like a reflection of you or your brand and you wouldn’t mind directly being called or associated with
Deciding whether or not setting up an LLC under the pen name is a right choice for you and some resources for how to go about it
Copyrighting under a pen name and thinking what situations are worth defending and what ones aren’t worth the effort and financial outlay
Towards the end of this conversation, we note that there are no right answers if you decide to go this route, but that being informed of what some of the options are will help you make the most empowered decisions for you. And if you decide to use one or more pen names for your work, you’re in good company because many authors do.
We hope you enjoy listening to this episode and that you find it useful wherever you are at on your writing journey!
Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!
Into the woods,
Fable & The Verbivore
Notes:
Here are a couple resources mentioned in today’s episode:
The Verbivore references author Jenna Moreci’s YouTube video essay “My Book was Pirated on Amazon” about how her work was sold by an account that was not hers on Amazon and how she addressed it.
Fable recommends the site Kindlepreneur.com for information on self-publishing, logistics and forms for setting up a LLC, and different state laws.
Music from: https://filmmusic.io
’Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)