What's in a pen name?

By Raymond Chandler (Just joking) Patricia Smiley here…

Some time ago, I met an author who gave me a postcard announcing the release of her first novel. Printed boldly on the card was, “by Jane Doe Writing as Mary Smith.” What was the point, I wondered, of a first-time author using a pen name while divulging her real name, as well?

I have always wondered what motivates people to change their names whether for marriage, fun, work, or as a form of rebellion. Actors frequently adopt alternate names for a variety of reasons, mostly relating to marketing. In general, Tony Curtis sounds sexier than Bernard Schwartz does. Here are other examples:

Carlos Irwin Estévez: Charlie Sheen
Natalie Hershlag: Natalie Portman
Caryn Elaine Johnson: Whoopi Goldberg
Allen Stewart Konigsberg: Woody Allen
Ilyena Vasilievna Mironov: Helen Mirren
Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg: Jane Seymour
Reginald Kenneth Dwight: Elton John

Before I became part of the writing community, I was vaguely aware that some authors who wrote several series or in different genres used pen names so they wouldn’t confuse readers who might pick up a book expecting a cozy mystery about crime-solving cats only to find themselves knee deep in erotica. One of the most famous users of literary doubles, aside from our own James O. Born (police procedurals) who also writes as James O’Neal (science fiction), is Salvatore Alberto Lombino who wrote as Ed McBain, Curt Cannon, Hunt Collins, Ezra Hannon, Evan Hunter, and Richard Marsten.

This site unveils the pen names of various authors, including:

• Elizabeth MacKintosh: best known as Josephine Tey, Gordon Daviot
• Barbara Mertz : Elizabeth Peters (Egyptology series) Barbara Michaels (romantic suspense, gothic)
• Michael Crichton: Michael Douglas, Jeffrey Hudson, John Lange
• Dean Koontz: David Axton, Leonard Chris, Brian Coffey, Deanna Dwyer, K.R. Dwyer, Leigh Nichols, Arthur North, Richard Page, Owen West
• Stephen King: Richard Bachman (most well-known), John Swithen
• David John Moore Cornwell: John Le Carre
• Nora Roberts: J. D. Robb (mysteries)
  

There are other reasons why authors use pen names:

1. An author writes multiple books per year and fears the public will begin to think they are typed by computer savvy chimpanzees.
2. An author’s sales are disappointing. A name change may “trick” bookstore computers into ordering the new book.
3. An author has a name like Harry Butz or Spafford Fiddlefart. Another name might read better for marketing reasons.
4. An author pens unflattering things about people he knows. A friend of mine once told me that his next book, a thinly veiled fiction about his dysfunction family, would surely cost him his inheritance.
5. An author writes about events that could jeopardize his job, i.e., a conservative minister spins a lurid tale about a sex and drug-filled weekend with a hooker in Belize.
6. If your real name is James Patterson, your publisher might encourage you to consider an alternative.
7. The name Peaches LaRue might not be taken seriously as the author of a thriller about a secret society of international assassins. Richard Slasher may work better.

Maybe a nom de plume should reflect the novel’s content. In a nod to our very own Paul Levine who is something of an anagram savant, I offer the following scrambled literary doubles for Patricia Smiley and the accompanying story lines:

• Calamity I. Piers (a woman brings misfortune to her classmates)
• Maria Elicit Spy (The von Trapp matriarch comes in from the cold)
• Tiara Pic Smiley (a beauty queen learns to laugh again)
• Caries Pay Limit (the story of a dentist’s clash with a cold-hearted insurance company)
• Cilia Raspy Emit (the loss of her voice ends an opera singer's career)
• Alicia Pyre-Mist (an arsonist is foiled by a monsoon)
• Eric Y. Salami-Pit (a young man dreams of writing the Great American Novel while working in his family’s deli)
• Ace Amir Tipsily (a Top Gun faces his addictions)
• Malice Tarsi Yip (There is something very Jane Austen-y about this name. I love the sound of it rolling off my tongue.)
  

What do you think about pen names?

Happy Monday!