How Should Writers Choose Their Pseudonyms
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 มิ.ย. 2020
- Literary Agents Jessica Faust and James McGowan sat down to discuss pseudonyms, including what they are, how and when writers can choose them, and what they need to know before committing to a pseudonym.
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Jessica Faust’s love for books is what first brought her to open BookEnds Literary Agency. It is her desire to be an advocate for all authors that pushed her to create her blog, the BookEnds TH-cam channel and to maintain a vibrant presence on Twitter.
Jessica is proud to have grown BookEnds to an agency that represents authors of all genres for children and adults, allowing her to reach more readers and help more authors and illustrators achieve their dreams.
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Since interning at BookEnds as an undergrad in the summer of 2015, James has (basically) never left. He's just continuously level-up-ed inside of BookEnds. Now he is the Literary Assistant and Social Media Manager for the team. He’s been a reader since his mom gave him the first A Series of Unfortunate Events book and ordered the sequels regularly through Scholastic book orders.
James is currently growing his own list and is actively seeking submissions in adult literary and upmarket fiction, mystery, thrillers, and suspense. He is also actively building his picture book list.
Connect with BookEnds!
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Website: www.bookendsliterary.com
Connect with Jessica: bookendsjessica
Connect with James: jmcgowanbks
loool "why are you wearing a hat" was literally the first question that popped in my head xD
Me too!
sorry to be so offtopic but does someone know of a way to log back into an Instagram account??
I was stupid lost my password. I would appreciate any tips you can offer me!
@Jaiden Emanuel instablaster ;)
Haha, love this. I've been writing parenting books (non-fic) for years and then switched to romance. Now, one could assume parents know where the little children come from, but my agent and I figured, a pseudonym still would be a good idea. You can never have enough names in this business. (LOVE your videos, I've been bingeing them for a week now.)
Great topic and one I needed to hear. I've been thinking about my pseudonym being a variation of my maiden name because that's when I started writing, not after I got married. Thank you two as always for the great information and the fun way you deliver it.
I've decided to use a pseudonym, so this was timely for me. Thank you both.
Have been grappling with this one as well. Thank you for the informative insight!
You two are so funny and supportive and just awesome! Thank you
Thank you so much! Extremely helpful...
Your videos have been so helpful! thank you so much BookEnds Literary Agency
I'd noticed there were a lot of comments asking about this on your previous videos (whilst I caught up with all your older TH-cam videos last week), so I love that you're making this for everyone. I'll link them to this video for you the next time I see comments asking about this.
Back when I decided it was time to start letting people/readers know I existed, I simply went with a nickname I was already known as online. I added /Box/ as the last name because at the time I was doing a few different things online (web design, web hosting as well as writing). I knew I didn't want to use my real name as A ) my first name is far too feminine for me/makes me uncomfortable and people overthink the spelling options B ) there was no way anybody would ever remember how to spell my last name. C ) I wanted a shorter, more memorable name.
Sadly, I neglected to Google search my chosen/created pen name. When you type it in Amazon or Google, they both assume you meant to write, /draw box/, so I've jotted down alternative ideas to consider in the future for any traditionally (or indie) published projects, but I'll also keep them in mind after hearing what you share about using them as a clean slate after less successful projects and the resulting lower sales from booksellers.
PS: I watched all the way to the end too. I'm so used to TH-camrs getting where to point mixed up that I hadn't noticed you were doing it in any of your previous videos.
I'm just learning about this topic, ty 😀
I watch until the end so you will always have at least one there!
I'm one of your loyal subscribers. I use a pen name for my science-fiction manuscripts, because I don't like my legal name. Or at least I don't like my legal last name. GOOD VIDEO! I GAVE IT A THUMBS-UP! :-)
There are several people with my first and last name….even though my last name is not very common. One is an MD…others include a CEO of a company, a college professor, and a 1st cousin of mine.
You two are hilarious.
Thanks for the laughs.
6:40 I have a friend who has plans on publishing but the reason he is leaning towards pseudonyms is because back in 2002 he was cyberbullied, with his harassers making dozens fake accounts of him just so they could bash him on his "social media" without him knowing about it.
And like it's been years but I still wonder if you were to Google his name, if any of those fake accounts are still around. Just a sudden thought.
My pseunodym name rhymes nicely which readers will hopefully find easy to remember.
Thanks for this! One of the questions I've been meaning to ask is how does an author's experience with their agent differ if they live in the same country or overseas? Particularly regarding language use in editing, as one agent whose interview I watched said that for her UK clients, she likes to go through their manuscript and convert it to US English before submitting it to editors. Is this a common practice?
A good topic. I’m wondering if authors have been pressured by traditional publishers to change their name and if it might damage the relationship if the author were to refuse?
If your name is *Dan Brown,* you'll need to write under a pseudonym. 🤣
I've been debating!
Thank you so much for this very informative video. I plan to publish under my full maiden name because my parents actually named me my first name second. This leaves me other options if I need to change my pen name later. My query letter is signed Patricia Gallant and then below that "writing under the name of Mary Patricia Bird". Using my family name is important to me and, believe it or not, I am used to people calling me Mary because that is the way my name is printed on government I.D.
Problems I wish I had
Now you have to take the hat off. If you can't do it among friends who can you do it with? I use a nom de plume because of the legal aspects.
So, un Nom de Plume, a Pen Name. These have been around for decades and more. Interesting it is an issue now. Lee Child, is not Lee Child in real life. Which is why he can pass the 'Pen Name' on to his brother.
Can I write books under different genres at the same time under my pseudonym? Thx
You can certainly do that! Once you get to the point of selling your books with an agent's help, you and your agent can talk through strategies about how best to optimize cross-genre writing and pitching, as well as your ideal career trajectory!
This username you see here is my pseudonym.
Question: so, does this mean that I can query without putting my legal name on the query?
My reason: I like my anonymity, and surely when I get an agent they will know my legal name because, it's obvious, but for general querying, I would love to just sign as my pseudonym. I don't like when I get replies where they address me by my legal name.
Yes!
@@BookEndsLiterary what a relief! I won't use my legal name in queries anymore. Thank you!
Some genres have a gender bias. As an author with the "wrong" gender for my chosen genre, I probably need a pseudonym. Gender neutral seems like a great choice. Should my true gender be a massive secret? Nah... If a fan discovers who I really am, congratulations. Now let's keep it a secret between you and I (wink, wink).
How about Kim - its one of those names which can be male or female?
@@rosieradcliffe5578, I think I'll go with an initialism, such as C.J. Cherryh (a woman writing sci-fi starting in the 70s) or M.L. Buchman (a man writing romance) have done. Looking over the list of romance writers I see a Linda S. Howington, which almost looks like Howlington. Given my first is a paranormal romantic thriller, maybe Kim Howlington. ;-D
Double initialisms have a special appeal. Gotta love a name like Z.Z. Ward. It just oozes mystery and sex appeal. Z.Z. Ward is a contemporary blues singer (she has a number of videos up here on YT), who would ooze just as much sex appeal if she called herself Irma Blanchman. But why take the chance? Z.Z. is far more marketable. Given she sounds great (independent of how she looks) I have 2 of her CDs. (BTW, her real name is Zsuzsanna Ward.)
Maybe I should write under the name Irma Blanchman... Nah, Irma is too feminine. How about Gray Blanchman. That'll keep 'em on the shelf.
BTW, not using Blanchman, Howlington, or any variant, so feel free to use as a character names. I once used Blanch Black as a character name in a short story. She was a society matron and her husband was, of course, named Thurston.
My first last name?????
You mentioned that you Google authors who query and that if nothing comes up, it seems shady. How big of a dealbreaker is that for you?
My internet presence is pretty locked down due to some safety concerns (it probably won't be a big deal but it might be?) and at the moment if you Google my name you'll see about three or four people who aren't me and a mostly empty social media profile of mine. I'm open to building a larger internet presence once I have a pseudonym, but I don't want to make myself too easy for certain people to track down. That said, I don't want to let them stop me from pursuing my career goals. Should I mention this in my query letter or an offer call?
Hi! If you are writing fiction, this should not be a deal breaker! An agent that wants to represent your book is going to want to regardless of your internet presence. And talking about getting you a website set up is something you could probably do with an agent once you're working together.
Thank you so much for the response! That helps me feel a lot better.
Do you think the protest and Black Lives Matter movement will make black authors and black stories a hot market? I noticed that when transgender became a movement that agents and publishers are looking for stories with transgender characters and when Asian culture was big in the early 2000's that Asian literature was a hot market.
Andy Moore here's a short opinion based rant on the topic if you feel like reading a few sentences👍 it would seem based on reality that publishers do always look to make money off of tragedy and misfortune so possibly, if it will turn them a profit....
One thing is for certain they would not be in it to advance any cause or to try to help the world become a better place because that sort of nonsense doesn't make anyone any money.....
If making the world a better place was an actual objective then agents would legitimately consider books that "actually" addressed topics like the opiate epidemic in a way that actually explained what the goddamm problem is or the plight of Native Americans over the previous 150 years to such an extent that average Americans would begin to care about the poverty and incredible inequality on these reservations which they presently do not..... Nobody knows or cares that Covid19 is hitting these reservations proportionally harder than anywhere else either and believe me when I tell you that the average Americans will continue to not care and not become educated on the topic.... At all....
And it will not be addressed by Congress or the Senate this year or next, regardless of who the president happens to be..... Marlon Brando tried bringing attention to their plight decades ago but the educated and elite of Hollywood humiliated and shunned the poor Indigenous woman who was carrying the message and ignored every single word she said because she was beneath them..... They decide what is progressive and relevant and Native issues were not something which would turn a profit so she was likely immediately removed from the premises by security.... Which was of course the progressive and liberal thing to do because after all who the hell does Marlon Brando think he is ruining their celebration of themselves by bringing attention to people who live in poverty and that no one who matters cares about. They were there to get high, get laid and talk about how much better than everybody else they are not listen to some Debbie downer nonsense.
The #metoo movement started getting published but women who had a story to tell five and ten years ago would have been ignored because being power raped by Harvey Weinstein or Bill Cosby wouldn't have made anyone any money until so many dozens of hundreds of women came forward that it would have been bad business to ignore them..... Which is as terrible as it is pathetic but the world is a very violent and unfortunate place and nobody in a position to do anything about it cares what your message might happen to be......
but once it becomes probable that the book could become profitable there might be a chance..... Either way imo you should write about topics you're passionate about and not what might sell at this particular moment so don't go dabbling in nonsense creating trans-gendered characters and stories if it's not something you care about
One thing to consider though, is writing some exciting or adventurous novel and weaving into the story topics you do care about..... If it's an exciting and interesting story people will want to read it and if you include some issues you're passionate about you'll also get your message out there
Something Witchell this way comes 🧙
Very useful. There is a very successful (an excellent!) author with the same name as me. I don't want to disappoint anyone by being confused with her!
So, did Jessica know about the bad pandemic haircut and was calling you out?