pen name is Mellissa Green. It just came natural to me. I'm a budding entrepreneur who happens to be blind with a hearing impairment. I write Intergalactic Culinary thrillers. I also write Scriptural poems, but I have nopublic profile for that yet.
Awesome video and love your fun happy attitude! Would you be able to kindly do a video on marketing for writers who are using pseudonym and do not want to give a face to the name for various reasons. Thanks!
I am loving your writing tips videos. I am working on my first book that is not in my previously published genre and have been debating the use of a pseudonym - only because I don't want a second author platform to keep up with, haha.
I started writing under a pen name because my real name is Chris Jackson and there are a quadrillion, billion Chris Jacksons! For writing and all of my social media I started going by C. J. Korryn. Now....anytime you search me, I am pretty much right at the top of the search lists. A win for me!!!!
What an interesting and funny insight into authorship and their alter egos! I've often though about creating a different name that suits a particular style// mood when creating content ( not books yet though ) , had reservations but after realising that it IS you but from a different perspective, I'm going to go on and explore that now especially after watching this video. Thanks for the insights!
Interesting and something to consider. Thank you. Also, you could have mentioned Andre Norton, the first woman to be inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. I have recently begun reading her work and it's quite good.
You should definitely get J F Penn on for an interview! 😂 In all seriousness though, thanks for this video...I have a few genre’s I love and love to write - not to mention the fact that I love to write non fiction food writing. So it’s good to know that it’s possible and doable if I wanted to go down this road.
I love your video and the truth that you said when a man wants to write romance novels, I have an author page in Amazon but my books are about Horoscopes, I want to write something different but I'm not sure if Amazon will lead the readers to my main page. Thank you so much.
If you could go back in time and choose another name for your fiction, what would you choose? I'm also interested in hearing more on the way having initials made things challenging for you. I've always liked the idea of using my full name for non-fiction, and my initials plus surname for fiction. But hearing your feedback on this, I'm starting to rethink this option.
My reasons for choosing a pseudonym are simplicity for the reader and self-protection. I first thought about a pseudonym because as I travelled in English speaking and French speaking countries, people were confused with my name; they couldn't tell which nationality it derived from, they couldn't even tell if my first name was a boys or girls name, and the worst of all, pronouncing my last name was seemingly impossible for them. It starts with an H and there is this wonderful "ö"-letter in it too. Even in my home country people spell my name wrong. So obviously I wanted something that was easy to pronounce for a variety of readers. Now that I have started studying the law, and my name is quite unique, I wanted to seperate my identity as a writer (erotic, occasionally steam-punky fantasy) from my future professional identity.
I'm curious about your stance on pseudonyms that don't sound like actual names, for example the late Japanese author Project Itoh. They seem very uncommon across the board, but I'm interested in pursuing that option. I love your channel, by the way. It's very helpful.
This is very helpful, thank you! I am considering using a pseudonym and really appreciate this detailed discussion. This might be different between the US and UK, but does each brand constitute a separate business, needing a separate business license?
If you are self-publishing you may want to set up different publishing company names though (just a separate ficticious business name account under your existing business not a different LLC or company). This is only if it's important to keep your anonymity. This is only because someone can search the books on Amazon by the publishing company so it's easy to see what other books you released if you use the same 'publisher' when you upload your books. Small detail I realize but figured I'd mention it.
I absolutely love your videos! I was just wondering about writing under a different name how to establish some sort of copyright for your work? Thanks.
You have the copyright as the creator. If you want to register it, there are fields for other names. For any legal concerns, check out creativelawcenter.com/
The Creative Penn oh thank you so much. I honestly didn't know that copyright is already established as the creator of work. I thought that there had to be an extensive process! Thanks again!
An interesting and practical consideration, thanks for this one. I'm wondering, my name is the same as that of a known musician in Australia, but he's not known as an author, so would it be a problem if I used my own name then?
Only you can decide whether it might be an issue - but have a look at the domain name/URL - can you get your name or some variation of it, or if does he dominate? e.g. I wouldn't use Ed Sheeran as an author name because the musician will always dominate.
Very helpful video - thank you! I use my own name for my books in self-help genre but I want to publish fiction in a completely different genre under a pen name. I assume the way to do this is to upload new titles with my pen name as the author into Create Space/KDP using my main Amazon account. Then do I set up a completely new author central account with a different email address? I can't see any other way of keeping them separate otherwise.
On Author Central, you can have different names under one account. You just claim the book and it will prompt you to create a new Author Central bio page. So not a problem using one account.
Hi Joanna! It's me again! :P I just have a question. I'm a scientist, and I have scientific articles published under my real name. However, I also plan to publish my novels in the future using also my real name. My brand would be a "scientist by day, writer by night" sort of thing. Do you think that would work? Or would it be better to do the same as C.J. Lyons?
I've been trying to decide whether to use multiple names. I write crime thrillers and high fantasy. I've been told some readers read both genres so I don't need to have separate names. But it really depends on who you talk to. Feeling a little lost.
Only you can decide. I have dark fantasy and thrillers under the same name, and my readers don't cross over much. It's a pain to manage multiple names, so only do it if your audience is really really really different. Otherwise, just make it very clear from the branding they are different books. I'd err on that side if I were you!
what if you have a pen name on the cover but then want to put a copyright page after as well? what name do you use on the copyright page? if it is your full legal name then doesn't it contradicts your pen name on the cover?
I have a important question at least for me ;-) : I'm an french author and I'm ready to publish in english but I still hesitate to change my name knowing that it would be difficult to be choose as a foreigner writer. So, do you recommand to change author names if we want to reach a different market (language) or it would be ok ? to let you know, I've already made a name on the french market. Love your videos and podcast. Thanks !
I think you'd be fine using the same name - unless you wanted to build a new platform e.g. have a new website in English or anything - but you could just do that with a landing page on your French site. It's definitely something you need to work through for your individual situation.
This is good stuff to know. I like writing under different names for various websites. I've used all kinds of off the beat names. I like the name Penny Appleton. How did you come up with that one? I work on various branding in order to try out different areas of interests. How did you start out? Did you start by creating a main business name for everything? It seems going by different names here in the US is getting more difficult to do. Especially where google is concerned. I never wanted my real name out there, but with some social media they require it. I try to do very little under my real name. I like the name TheCreativePenn. That's real clever too! We follow each other on twitter. You have a very attractive way about you.. Awesome teaching style.
Thanks :) I came up with my business name years ago - when I had to fold another site that was book-based that I had grown out of. I wanted a site I could use forever, something not tied to one thing. For Penny Appleton - I wanted to use Penn - and then wanted something English-sounding, and that wasn't taken already. These things take time!
Oh yeah, I didn't see Penn in the name Penny Appleton. VERY COOL! I go by Hanieb which is the last part of my first name. You say, "it takes time" Oh boy- don't I know it. Seems business online is twice the work of traditional home-based business. There is all that you'd do normally and then all that needs to be done to be found in a pool of gazillions of people on the world wide web. When the ball gets going, it's exciting isn't it? Thanks for the reply. I'm enjoying your peppy spirit!
I was talking about this with a friend a couple of weeks ago. She just published her second romantic comedy, a very funny one. She was considering the idea to publish a couple of older (and not funny at all) historical romance. I told her to consider a slightly different name to differentiate the audience. Her answer was that it surely wasn't a bad idea, but many other Italian indie writers are writing different genres, and none of them is using different names. I don't know if they are doing all wrong (which is very likely, I've seen several big mistakes in fellows indie writers, among the Italian community) or if maybe their audience is still the same 🤔
My main tip is to avoid different names if necessary, and as these 2 books are both romance, I don't see why you'd bother creating a new platform & name for it. It's only really for completely different audiences as mine are for non-fiction, thrillers and sweet romance IMHO
I'm in the UK, and I think this is more of a US legal question :) I use multiple names and don't need to do that here. It will depend on your situation, so please ask your accountant/lawyer
You don't need to do anything to "set it up." Just find one that no one else is using, and then you add it into the author name when you publish. If you want to take it further, then of course, you do what you would for any author name - get a domain name e.g. www.JFPenn.com, and then set up email, and social media etc etc - but you'd need to do that regardless. You don't need to register anything specific to write under a pen name.
Lol. I appreciate this video and the acknowledgement of the opposite gender stereotype. I am a happily married straight man that loves romances. In workshops I have often been told how sweet the story was. There all amazed a guy could write romances. So I use a different name even though Nicholas Sparks is a great male romance writer, and they do exist, it's easier for me to use an initial type name
Glad it helped :) and I think Nicholas Sparks is a 'love story' writer as I think his books don't all end happily e.g. The Notebook - whereas I always think that romance needs a happy-ever-after (HEA). I might be wrong :) but certainly Penny Appleton books have a HEA.
Then how does that tie with marketing? Obviously you are sharing your pen names here with your videos. However if you were to have a secret pen name would you not then have to do completely separate marketing.
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Penny Appleton is a really sweet name and goes really nicely with sweet romance
pen name is Mellissa Green. It just came natural to me. I'm a budding entrepreneur who happens to be blind with a hearing impairment. I write Intergalactic Culinary thrillers. I also write Scriptural poems, but I have nopublic profile for that yet.
Awesome video and love your fun happy attitude! Would you be able to kindly do a video on marketing for writers who are using pseudonym and do not want to give a face to the name for various reasons. Thanks!
I second this! :)
@@AwesomeCanadianHomes Haha 😄
I am loving your writing tips videos. I am working on my first book that is not in my previously published genre and have been debating the use of a pseudonym - only because I don't want a second author platform to keep up with, haha.
Wonderful as always!
Very nice. Thank you for taking the time.
This was very helpful. Thank you!
What a great video! Thank you very much!
I started writing under a pen name because my real name is Chris Jackson and there are a quadrillion, billion Chris Jacksons! For writing and all of my social media I started going by C. J. Korryn. Now....anytime you search me, I am pretty much right at the top of the search lists. A win for me!!!!
Great solution :) CJ is also a good initial combo - my friend CJ Lyons also uses that and it's easy to say out loud.
What an interesting and funny insight into authorship and their alter egos! I've often though about creating a different name that suits a particular style// mood when creating content ( not books yet though ) , had reservations but after realising that it IS you but from a different perspective, I'm going to go on and explore that now especially after watching this video. Thanks for the insights!
Yes, it's definitely you - just a different side of you - and a different promise to the reader
Interesting and something to consider. Thank you. Also, you could have mentioned Andre Norton, the first woman to be inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. I have recently begun reading her work and it's quite good.
You should definitely get J F Penn on for an interview! 😂 In all seriousness though, thanks for this video...I have a few genre’s I love and love to write - not to mention the fact that I love to write non fiction food writing. So it’s good to know that it’s possible and doable if I wanted to go down this road.
I'll ask her :)
Love you in this video. Thanks a lot.
I love your video and the truth that you said when a man wants to write romance novels, I have an author page in Amazon but my books are about Horoscopes, I want to write something different but I'm not sure if Amazon will lead the readers to my main page. Thank you so much.
when not making a book keep a name an identity not a story on paper or rules with a real owned identifiable name?
so all your pen names revolve around the name Penn :)
Indeed :) #bornforit
If you could go back in time and choose another name for your fiction, what would you choose? I'm also interested in hearing more on the way having initials made things challenging for you. I've always liked the idea of using my full name for non-fiction, and my initials plus surname for fiction. But hearing your feedback on this, I'm starting to rethink this option.
I am used to it now, but F as an initial said out loud can be mistaken for 'S' and also spacing in various systems can be difficult
My reasons for choosing a pseudonym are simplicity for the reader and self-protection.
I first thought about a pseudonym because as I travelled in English speaking and French speaking countries, people were confused with my name; they couldn't tell which nationality it derived from, they couldn't even tell if my first name was a boys or girls name, and the worst of all, pronouncing my last name was seemingly impossible for them. It starts with an H and there is this wonderful "ö"-letter in it too. Even in my home country people spell my name wrong. So obviously I wanted something that was easy to pronounce for a variety of readers.
Now that I have started studying the law, and my name is quite unique, I wanted to seperate my identity as a writer (erotic, occasionally steam-punky fantasy) from my future professional identity.
I'm curious about your stance on pseudonyms that don't sound like actual names, for example the late Japanese author Project Itoh. They seem very uncommon across the board, but I'm interested in pursuing that option.
I love your channel, by the way. It's very helpful.
I think you can do whatever you like - but make sure the name is not taken and that it is easy to pronounce and say out loud.
This is very helpful, thank you! I am considering using a pseudonym and really appreciate this detailed discussion. This might be different between the US and UK, but does each brand constitute a separate business, needing a separate business license?
No, you don't need a separate business per name. I only have one business, The Creative Penn Limited.
If you are self-publishing you may want to set up different publishing company names though (just a separate ficticious business name account under your existing business not a different LLC or company). This is only if it's important to keep your anonymity. This is only because someone can search the books on Amazon by the publishing company so it's easy to see what other books you released if you use the same 'publisher' when you upload your books. Small detail I realize but figured I'd mention it.
I absolutely love your videos! I was just wondering about writing under a different name how to establish some sort of copyright for your work? Thanks.
You have the copyright as the creator. If you want to register it, there are fields for other names. For any legal concerns, check out creativelawcenter.com/
The Creative Penn oh thank you so much. I honestly didn't know that copyright is already established as the creator of work. I thought that there had to be an extensive process! Thanks again!
An interesting and practical consideration, thanks for this one. I'm wondering, my name is the same as that of a known musician in Australia, but he's not known as an author, so would it be a problem if I used my own name then?
Only you can decide whether it might be an issue - but have a look at the domain name/URL - can you get your name or some variation of it, or if does he dominate? e.g. I wouldn't use Ed Sheeran as an author name because the musician will always dominate.
Very helpful video - thank you! I use my own name for my books in self-help genre but I want to publish fiction in a completely different genre under a pen name. I assume the way to do this is to upload new titles with my pen name as the author into Create Space/KDP using my main Amazon account. Then do I set up a completely new author central account with a different email address? I can't see any other way of keeping them separate otherwise.
On Author Central, you can have different names under one account. You just claim the book and it will prompt you to create a new Author Central bio page. So not a problem using one account.
Thank you Joanna - much appreciate your reply :-)
Hi Joanna! It's me again! :P I just have a question. I'm a scientist, and I have scientific articles published under my real name. However, I also plan to publish my novels in the future using also my real name. My brand would be a "scientist by day, writer by night" sort of thing. Do you think that would work? Or would it be better to do the same as C.J. Lyons?
It's really down to whether you want both to be linked together - only you can answer that :)
I've been trying to decide whether to use multiple names. I write crime thrillers and high fantasy. I've been told some readers read both genres so I don't need to have separate names. But it really depends on who you talk to. Feeling a little lost.
Only you can decide. I have dark fantasy and thrillers under the same name, and my readers don't cross over much. It's a pain to manage multiple names, so only do it if your audience is really really really different. Otherwise, just make it very clear from the branding they are different books. I'd err on that side if I were you!
@@thecreativepenn thank you! Very helpful.
@@thecreativepenn i made a video recently that mentions your channel. Please stop by and check it out! It was released today.
what if you have a pen name on the cover but then want to put a copyright page after as well?
what name do you use on the copyright page? if it is your full legal name then doesn't it contradicts your pen name on the cover?
I use my author name :) but some authors put their legal name there.
I have a important question at least for me ;-) : I'm an french author and I'm ready to publish in english but I still hesitate to change my name knowing that it would be difficult to be choose as a foreigner writer. So, do you recommand to change author names if we want to reach a different market (language) or it would be ok ? to let you know, I've already made a name on the french market. Love your videos and podcast. Thanks !
I think you'd be fine using the same name - unless you wanted to build a new platform e.g. have a new website in English or anything - but you could just do that with a landing page on your French site. It's definitely something you need to work through for your individual situation.
thanks for your answer. it's helpful. ;-)
This is good stuff to know. I like writing under different names for various websites. I've used all kinds of off the beat names.
I like the name Penny Appleton. How did you come up with that one? I work on various branding in order to try out different areas of interests. How did you start out? Did you start by creating a main business name for everything? It seems going by different names here in the US is getting more difficult to do. Especially where google is concerned. I never wanted my real name out there, but with some social media they require it. I try to do very little under my real name. I like the name TheCreativePenn. That's real clever too! We follow each other on twitter. You have a very attractive way about you.. Awesome teaching style.
Thanks :) I came up with my business name years ago - when I had to fold another site that was book-based that I had grown out of. I wanted a site I could use forever, something not tied to one thing.
For Penny Appleton - I wanted to use Penn - and then wanted something English-sounding, and that wasn't taken already. These things take time!
Oh yeah, I didn't see Penn in the name Penny Appleton. VERY COOL! I go by Hanieb which is the last part of my first name.
You say, "it takes time" Oh boy- don't I know it. Seems business online is twice the work of traditional home-based business. There is all that you'd do normally and then all that needs to be done to be found in a pool of gazillions of people on the world wide web. When the ball gets going, it's exciting isn't it? Thanks for the reply. I'm enjoying your peppy spirit!
I was talking about this with a friend a couple of weeks ago. She just published her second romantic comedy, a very funny one. She was considering the idea to publish a couple of older (and not funny at all) historical romance. I told her to consider a slightly different name to differentiate the audience. Her answer was that it surely wasn't a bad idea, but many other Italian indie writers are writing different genres, and none of them is using different names.
I don't know if they are doing all wrong (which is very likely, I've seen several big mistakes in fellows indie writers, among the Italian community) or if maybe their audience is still the same 🤔
My main tip is to avoid different names if necessary, and as these 2 books are both romance, I don't see why you'd bother creating a new platform & name for it. It's only really for completely different audiences as mine are for non-fiction, thrillers and sweet romance IMHO
The Creative Penn that's the best advice. Thanks 👍
How do you let Amazin know these are your penn names. Do you have to register them?
You can use Amazon Author Central to claim names - just make sure they are not in use first! authorcentral.amazon.com/
You make your own not real name an totally unrecognizable but only not to you for a moment?
When you use a pseudonym, do you need a DBA for each name?
I'm in the UK, and I think this is more of a US legal question :)
I use multiple names and don't need to do that here. It will depend on your situation, so please ask your accountant/lawyer
What are the actual steps to setting up a pen name?
You don't need to do anything to "set it up." Just find one that no one else is using, and then you add it into the author name when you publish. If you want to take it further, then of course, you do what you would for any author name - get a domain name e.g. www.JFPenn.com, and then set up email, and social media etc etc - but you'd need to do that regardless. You don't need to register anything specific to write under a pen name.
do you file a ;DBA: for your pen names?
I didn't - but mine are actually my names and the other one wasn't taken :)
Lol. I appreciate this video and the acknowledgement of the opposite gender stereotype. I am a happily married straight man that loves romances. In workshops I have often been told how sweet the story was. There all amazed a guy could write romances. So I use a different name even though Nicholas Sparks is a great male romance writer, and they do exist, it's easier for me to use an initial type name
Glad it helped :) and I think Nicholas Sparks is a 'love story' writer as I think his books don't all end happily e.g. The Notebook - whereas I always think that romance needs a happy-ever-after (HEA). I might be wrong :) but certainly Penny Appleton books have a HEA.
oh, and for male romance, check out ML Buchman - also interviewed on this channel :)
Then how does that tie with marketing? Obviously you are sharing your pen names here with your videos. However if you were to have a secret pen name would you not then have to do completely separate marketing.
yes, you would have to do separate marketing - and probably not TH-cam :)