Hey,

One of the most frequent questions I get is around the use of pen names. But before we dive into that, a quick word on this here newsletter – which has been quite sporadic of late where it was once a bastion of consistency in a world gone mad.

I won’t go into all the details around why I have been unable to work as much recently, but let’s just say that I’ve had a series of disruptions over the past year involving health issues, legal entanglements, housing problems, and some personal stuff as well. None of it earth-shattering individually but having to deal with it all together was overwhelming.

Most of it is in the rearview mirror now and the rest should be manageable enough without continuing to do a royal number on my work schedule. I’m sorry about all that, I just wanted you to know this newsletter is much one of the last things that gets canned when the pressure is on. (But when you can’t work… you can’t work.)

OK, back to it: pen names. There can be a variety of reasons for using another name on the front of your books or sticking with your legal name. Ultimately, it’s a personal decision for each author to make.

Things can get more complicated when moving into a new genre. Should you keep the same name or adopt a new one?

Aspects of this decision can be personal too but most writers contacting me are struggling with more commercial concerns.

• Is it better branding to have different names for each genre?
• Will it hurt you in the eyes of Amazon’s all-seeing algorithms to have a varied output under one single name?
• Do you need separate mailing lists and websites and email addresses and Facebook Groups for all these identities?

It depends.

Everyone wants a simple answer to this question but there are pros and cons here which must be considered, ones which can be tricky to get read on without getting your hands dirty.

When I started writing professionally, it never occurred to me that I could write under another name. My reading was all over the map; it was quite natural to start turning out stories in different genres.

Even when I became a little more commercially minded – i.e. after I began self-publishing – I never even considered that I could, say, launch myself in another genre under a fresh name.

As I gained more experience, and began networking with a wide range of authors, I realized this thing I was chasing called a Career in Writing wasn’t some kind of gold ring to possess, but a patchwork quilt that people cobbled together over time, each quite a bit different from the next.

One of the continual conversations among this wildly diverse bunch we call writers is whether it’s beneficial to use multiple pen names – if it’s worth the hassle, to be more exact.

Self-publishers are an adventurous bunch – particularly romance authors – who aren’t shy about trying new things or sharing the results. As such, we have seen hordes of writers try publishing under multiple names in different genres, as well as others turning out books in very different categories, all under the same name.

Not only that, but the hardiest of you have also gone back-and-forth, trying to see what works best, or made radical changes later on in their careers. Some long-time, single-name self-publishers have grasped the nettle and gone through the difficult job of separating their catalogues along genre lines – choosing names, commissioning new covers, designing new websites, and creating new email lists for their new monikers. Others with that structure already in place have gone the other direction, simplifying their lives by putting everything under one roof, and coming out to their readers as AKA.

Despite all this diligent data collection, it would be wrong to say a consensus has emerged – which I suppose is not that surprising, given that the vast population of diverse authors will naturally have a wildly varying set of skills and circumstances.

Speaking personally, I previously published everything under one name, and now I have my non-fiction and historical fiction separated somewhat through the judicious use of a middle initial (and have even un-published some work which didn’t fit under either reconfigured name).

I also have a less obvious pen name which I haven’t disclosed. I won’t be doing that today, he says to some pantomime grumbling in the crowd, but the truth is there’s nothing that saucy to reveal anyway; I haven’t done very much with it. And the reasons why I initially decided on this path – and some of the struggles I’ve had executing my plan – speak directly to the pros and cons of using pen names.

You will get a range of views on this issue, so I think it’s important to talk to your fellow authors and ask them about their experiences – the benefits they have seen, the difficulties they faced, the problems it solved, and the unexpected challenges – so you elicit different opinions along the spectrum.

My own view is that there are benefits to using pen names when you are writing in very different genres. However, you shouldn’t underestimate the amount of extra work this can create or the amount of time this greedily gobbles.

Which begs a question. Why would writers – who already have a never-ending To Do list – volunteer for extra work? What pot of gold is at the end of this rainbow?

The Benefits of Splitting Up

There is a certain logic to using different names in different genres – although not all of it is immediately intuitive. First, the obvious stuff.

Readers tend to have well defined tastes and power readers in particular can be extremely specific about what they like… and what they don’t. While writers might have quite eclectic tastes– something which might naturally reflect in their output – it would be a mistake to assume the average reader is equally adventurous. They might follow their favorite authors into unfamiliar territory, sometimes, but they don’t tend to do that for just anyone.

In other words, if you write epic fantasy and are pondering a move into thrillers, don’t assume you can bring your audience with you – even if you keep the same name. And if you publish both types of books under one name, you will probably get readers accidentally buying a thriller when they wanted to be read an epic fantasy.

Branding each type of book more distinctly is easier when you write them under different names. Covers, titles, and blurbs will also add to that distinction but using a different name makes that demarcation much cleaner, more obvious, and reduces reader confusion. Which is a euphemistic term for reader unhappiness… with the attending cranky reviews and emails.

Not only that, these days we serve two masters – robots as well as readers. I’ve written about this topic extensively in my book Amazon Decoded but you’ll get the gist of the argument in this blog post: Amazon Recommendations & Also Boughts.

The short version is, the most influential tastemaker in book publishing is Amazon’s giant recommendation engine, which is continually making millions of book recommendations to readers around the world.

This system is largely personalized and reflects the browsing and purchasing and reading habits of each individual Amazon customer. However, like most such systems it is very good at crunching large data sets and not so good at context or nuance. Or when the data gets polluted by an author who pushes mystery readers towards science fiction.

Amazon’s recommendation engine places a lot of weight on customer purchases, and each one will potentially trigger a raft of new recommendations linked to that purchased book.

If you enjoy the work of someone like Kim Stanley Robinson, Amazon might recommend you something by Neal Stephenson, Cixin Liu, Any Weir, or Emily St. John Mandel next (and there’s a sporting chance you will enjoy it too). More specifically, Amazon’s system will know that people who purchased Red Planet tend to enjoy The Three Body Problem; Amazon’s system maps connections between books.

This works well for the most part, but authors can throw a giant spanner in the works by publishing multiple genres under one name. This can throw the recommendation engine for a loop, and result in a situation where Amazon is recommending your book to the wrong readers.

Adopting a new name for a fresh genre is one straightforward way of solving this problem – because you will be two distinct authors on Amazon, with separate author pages and your books neatly divided; you will essentially be two different people in the eyes of the algorithms. Simply adding an initial in your name (distinguishing between Iain Banks – the award-winning author of Scottish literary fiction – and Iain M. Banks – the bestselling space opera writer) has almost the same effect. You will be able to gin up separate author pages but do note that the names remain similar enough where both types of books will appear on a search for either author name.

Aside from serving readers and robots, the third plank in the argument for publishing different-genre books under distinct names is much more subjective, because it involves someone closer to home: you.

Some authors simply prefer having clean lines between different types of books in their catalog, allowing them to adopt a different mindset when working.

For example, they might instinctively know that their pseudonym Martha Peters writes historically grounded women’s fiction, generally involving some variation of the “love across the barricades” trope, typically with a heart-wrenching or bittersweet ending. This will be reflected not just in the covers but in the wistful tone of the newsletters.

However, under their Liza Tate moniker they write straight-up romantic comedy – lighter, quicker, more effervescent books, and ones which always, always have a happy ending. And, again, this isn’t just reflected in the books’ presentation, but how the bubbly way in which they interact with readers on Instagram and on their mailing list.

Housing everything under distinct names can help some authors switch from one approach to another without crossing the streams.

The Case For Staying Together

OMG it’s so much work.

The costs of managing separate names are not nothing. Depending on how you set things up, you might need some/all of: a new domain, email service, website, and then possibly things like covers too if you are updating anything which has been previously published, to say nothing of branded graphics for your new social channels, newsletter, website, etc.

It can add up but the biggest cost is time.

If you are adopting all the best practices that we like to bang on about, then you aren’t just looking at a new email service, but also new sign-up pages which have to be optimized, new automations which must be tested and monitored and tweaked, as well as regular content for this new mailing list to keep everyone engaged. Your website will need new content too, of course, along with any social media channels you will be operating under your new name. And then there is all sorts of bitty little things you can’t envisage in advance, like setting up a new email address – which will need to be checked regularly of course.

These things can take up valuable headspace as well as time on your schedule. The danger of spreading yourself too thin is considerable.

It can be easy to take on new projects when you are happy and rested and motivated and energetic. And it can be impossible to keep on top of everything you volunteered yourself for when life throws you a curveball (or three). Sometimes just dealing with all the business stuff or admin associated with all this can be draining. Of course, if book production slows down as a result, then all this work separating everything out is kind of wasted.

Okay, a lot of the cost/time invested is in set-up – that’s true. And it’s a structure you can benefit from over time, as you achieve better balance in the rest of your life – also true.

However, when you are weighing up the decision whether to use multiple pen names, don’t simply wave away the amount of extra work which you are volunteering for. Some writers have gone this route and it revolutionized their careers, and those are the stories you might hear more readily. But many others regretted it.

How To Decide For Yourself

It’s not an easy decision so take your time with it and canvass opinion widely.

The case for using multiple pen names is stronger when there is less natural crossover between the two genres (e.g. romance and science fiction vs. fantasy and science fiction). But also consider how much time you must sacrifice, grappling with all the extra work this will entail; that will be quite dependent on your personal circumstances.

I think it’s good to try new things, and perhaps the fresh genre you are eyeing up could be the one where you break out – and you won’t know unless you try. I always think of one of the first self-publishers I was hanging out with online – CD Reiss – who started out writing mysteries, but then dabbled in erotic romance and her career absolutely exploded.

Maybe you can find a middle ground here. There’s no reason why you can’t test the waters in a new genre before fully committing.

A writing career can be a long and varied thing and none of these routes are one-way streets. The book of your author life will have many chapters (and perhaps a confusing plot!). Be patient, try to spend your time doing what you love most, and adopt as many best practices in your author business as is reasonable.

No one can do everything. And no one needs to BTW.

Dave

P.S. Blowing off the cobwebs this week with Different Drum by the Stone Poneys.

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