What is a Pen Name?
Many authors you know likely write under a pen name. Pen Names are used for various reasons. Everything from a author wanting to separate their personal life from their business, to authors who write in different genres. In my day job I work in the financial industry and my name is tied to that. I didn’t necessarily want anyone googling me from work and finding a steamy romance site or someone from my writer life googling and finding a bunch of boring finance stuff. That was the reason I decided on a Pen Name before I even published my first book.
Marketing and Pen Names
A lot of authors who write in multiple genres use more than one pan name. You wouldn’t want someone who is searching for a children’s book you wrote to stumble upon your phycological thrillers either. I recently listened to a author on TikTok explain the reason she used three different Pen Names was so her readers always knew what they were getting. If they searched each Pen Name they would find the books written under that genre they were looking for. The larger the backlog you have as an author, the more difficult it could be for someone to find what they needed. Additional Pen Names an help you market each book in their own way. Some audiences may be better found on Facebook where others would do best being reached via a Amazon ad.
So many people have perfected the way they handle their Pen Names it’s a natural and often unknown process for the readers. I have one author I had been following for a while who writes science fiction and paranormal romance. I enjoyed a few of her books she wrote but one day when she was talking about her Pen Name for romance I was beyond excited. As soon as I searched that new name I found a bunch of books that were right up my ally. At the time I knew what she was talking about but years ago when I read a lot of Ann Rice’s work I had a hard time understanding the point of her Pen Name.
I guess at the end of the day it’s up to the author how they decide to market. But for me, as a reader, I found it very helpful to find what I was looking for. As a author I enjoy the fact that I can be completely honest and uncensored with my readers rather then trying to be a person with a day job who just dabbles in writing steamy romance.
Do you have an author with a Pen name you love? If you do share below and we can check them out!
Happy Reading.
-Nikki Rome