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Sunday, March 27, 2011

Pen Names



It's finished!

Almost a year ago, I had an idea. After months of revision, reworking, and rewriting, along with critiques by two people, (Thanks Courtney Rene and my brutally honest daughter, Amanda!) my adult novel is finally ready for the next step...the agent queries.

I have several published children's stories and am also working on my first YA novel. My completed novel (title withheld-hence, The Novel) is for adult audiences and should I be lucky enough to get it published, I plan on using a pseudonym or pen-name.

Nora Roberts, one of my favorite authors, uses a pseudonym for  her "In Death" series. Stephen King, another of my favorites, used a pseudonym for various titles. Even Samuel L. Clemens is best known as Mark Twain.

It took awhile to create a name I felt comfortable with but the pseudonym creation process felt easier than typing the name onto my manuscript.

The Novel is one of my babies. I lost sleep over the plots, ignored my housework while my characters revealed themselves, and missed more than a few hours of work to rewrite scenes. Somehow, it seems wrong to put a name other than my own as the author. It almost feels as if I'm putting my work up for adoption.

I know, I know, it is in my best interests to use a pen name if I ever hope to publish more children's stories. Still...

Do any of you write for both children and adults? What are your thoughts on pseudonyms? Do you use one? If so, what were your feelings the first time you used it on one of your manuscripts?

3 comments:

  1. This is a hard question, one that I struggled with myself. I write for all ages. I write animal stories for the youngest of readers and I write graphic horror for the older readers, and I have an adult story that is quite rough out on submission. However, through it all I have used my same name....Courtney Rene. I think if any of the markets had a problem with me doing a bit of everything under one name, someone would have mentioned it by now. I can't make the decision for you, but really? In my own opinion, for whatever it's worth, you should be proud of what you write, you should be able to put your name on it. Whatever name you desire.

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  2. CONGRATULATIONS on completing your novel. Kristen Lamb wrote an interesting post on the topic pen names; check it out here: http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2011/03/25/why-pen-names-suck-can-make-us-crazy/. If I were to write erotica, I would probably use a pen name; otherwise, I plan to use my real name on all my fiction, adult or otherwise. Ultimately, you have to do whatever feels right for YOU. I am happy to meet you and look forward to keeping up with you here as I am following your blog. If you have a minute, I hope you will come by and visit mine. Continued success!

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  3. Hi Pam,
    Welcome and thanks for following!
    I hopped on over to your blog and am looking forward to reading more of your posts.
    I've submitted some short adult fiction to magazines and kept my name but yes, my completed novel is erotica.
    Kristen Lamb's post on pen names gave me some great insight. She also believes YA and erotica don't mix. She went as far as saying a writer probably shouldn't dabble in both of those genres. Now, I don't know if I'll write anymore erotica, or even if it will ever get published,so it may all be for nothing. But I guess I'll see what happens.

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