I currently publish under a pen name, in a desire to keep my real name separate. It's partially out of interest to keep it separate from my legal endeavors, but it's also because my real name is highly google-able and there would be no doubt it was me. This will afford me a level of privacy in the future.
My publisher has agreed that if I publish in a largely different genre that I can use a different pen name (although I am not obligated!).
I picked out several, talked them over with my agent, and we whittled them down to a couple. I chose one as my primary and keep the others in reserve for other areas. I like the pen name we settled on - it's the name of my late sister and my middle name. Personal, something I'll respond to, has a nice quality to it (it rolls off the tongue and has assonance), and it's short enough that signing it wouldn't be a huge pain in the ass. (That last point was brought up by my ever-practical agent!)
My publisher has agreed that if I publish in a largely different genre that I can use a different pen name (although I am not obligated!).
*nods* Way, way back when I was first writing fanfic, I was mono-fandom, and when I started in a second fandom I picked a different pen name for that one. With the third fandom, I decided not to bother, and have stuck with a single one ever since (although I still use the alternate name on the now-rare occasions when I write in that second fandom).
There are pluses and minuses to having multiple pen names, obviously.
I've published erotica under a pseudonym that I've also used on fan fiction, but 1) my name is very common and 2) somewhere there are copies of fan fiction stories that I stupidly published under my real name a hundred years ago, so if I were submitting a novel, it would be under a different pseudonym than I've used before.
And if, you know, I wrote a novel with you or something, we'd probably be told to use a single pseudonym -- I've been told that's common with multiple authors. *g*
Seems likely. Although there are at least a few dual-authored novels out there; I can think of several in the F&SF genre, anyhow.
Hee, it occurs to me that that could make things like author tours/signings tricky... what, one would write the first name and the other the last name of the pseudonym? *veg*
[Argh, I totally owe you some beta-ing. It fell off my radar for a while I'm afraid... I will try to get it back on my to-do list!]
Interesting question. I've never been shy about using my RL name in fandom, but I'm not sure I'd want to use i9t out of fandom. I'm in academia (or hope to be, if the dissertation ever progresses...) and I don't want the first thing other academics in general know about me to be my art. Somehow non-fanfic fic seems more "public."
I get that. Non-fanfic fic is (usually) published in more public ways, e.g. could be found at a bookstore, Amazon, etc. Therefore more visible to/findable by colleagues, and more potential for weirdness.
Also, an interesting factoid: fidesquaerens is to my mind the name of my blog. I am Marta, to my mind. I just set this up because I wanted a bit of distance from my blog being all fannish, when I started blogging more about politics and wanting to share it with RL friends.
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My publisher has agreed that if I publish in a largely different genre that I can use a different pen name (although I am not obligated!).
I picked out several, talked them over with my agent, and we whittled them down to a couple. I chose one as my primary and keep the others in reserve for other areas. I like the pen name we settled on - it's the name of my late sister and my middle name. Personal, something I'll respond to, has a nice quality to it (it rolls off the tongue and has assonance), and it's short enough that signing it wouldn't be a huge pain in the ass. (That last point was brought up by my ever-practical agent!)
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*nods* Way, way back when I was first writing fanfic, I was mono-fandom, and when I started in a second fandom I picked a different pen name for that one. With the third fandom, I decided not to bother, and have stuck with a single one ever since (although I still use the alternate name on the now-rare occasions when I write in that second fandom).
There are pluses and minuses to having multiple pen names, obviously.
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Hee, it occurs to me that that could make things like author tours/signings tricky... what, one would write the first name and the other the last name of the pseudonym? *veg*
[Argh, I totally owe you some beta-ing. It fell off my radar for a while I'm afraid... I will try to get it back on my to-do list!]
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