pseud suits
I just posted this discussion topic to an X-Files list, but thought it might be worth bringing to Livejournal. It's an issue I've always wondered about, as someone whose writing pseudonym is frequently misspelled and mispronounced.
- How important is it to readers for an author to have an aesthetically-pleasing pseudonym? Something easy on the eyes, or easy to pronounce, or easy to type?
- Does the difficulty of an author's pseudonym affect your likeliness to read their work?
- If you do read the story anyway, does it prejudice your expectations of the writing?
- Would you be more likely to read someone with an interesting pseudonym?
- A pseud that sounds like a real-life name?
- Secondarily, are you more or less inclined to click on an author whose pseud is fannish, like "Scullyphile" or "Hermionefan"?)
ETA: Also, authors, feel free to chime in about how you picked your pseud(s), what thoughts went into the process, whether you regret the decision now or think you made the right choice.
It's possible I'm more sensitive to such things than the average fan reader, but I've never seen this discussed before. Then again, given the lifecycle of meta in fandom, it probably has been somewhere, at some point. I'd appreciate a link or a pointer if so.
Further ETA: Aha. We did discuss how people picked pseuds way back in the day on Glass_Onion, here.
Yours truly,
Jin-tee-yan
hess-ee-kaz-em
- How important is it to readers for an author to have an aesthetically-pleasing pseudonym? Something easy on the eyes, or easy to pronounce, or easy to type?
- Does the difficulty of an author's pseudonym affect your likeliness to read their work?
- If you do read the story anyway, does it prejudice your expectations of the writing?
- Would you be more likely to read someone with an interesting pseudonym?
- A pseud that sounds like a real-life name?
- Secondarily, are you more or less inclined to click on an author whose pseud is fannish, like "Scullyphile" or "Hermionefan"?)
ETA: Also, authors, feel free to chime in about how you picked your pseud(s), what thoughts went into the process, whether you regret the decision now or think you made the right choice.
It's possible I'm more sensitive to such things than the average fan reader, but I've never seen this discussed before. Then again, given the lifecycle of meta in fandom, it probably has been somewhere, at some point. I'd appreciate a link or a pointer if so.
Further ETA: Aha. We did discuss how people picked pseuds way back in the day on Glass_Onion, here.
Yours truly,
Jin-tee-yan
hess-ee-kaz-em