What’s in a (pen) name?

Jane Wenham-Jones has advice for a writer who would like to conceal her true identity behind a pseudonym

Ia long break. Previously, am returning to writing after and pride when I felt a mixture of embarrassment seen one of my someone at work mentioned they’d publication in a articles. Pride to have achieved because I felt recognised magazine and embarrassed showing a lack of like I’d been caught out moonlighting, even though my boss knew commitment for my ‘real job’, about my writing.

some poetry, short stories This time around, I hope to have

These forms of writing feel and ultimately a novel published.

they will give an insight into rather more personal to me as

to some of the experiences my innermost thoughts and link

I’m wondering about using and people I’ve encountered. So,

consider when choosing a a pen name. What do I need to

and publishers find it pseudonym and will some publications

to use my real name? concerning that I’m not prepared

LESLEY HUNTER

York

To answer your last question first, Lesley, no they won’t. Many writers use a pen name. In fact, I didn’t realise quite how many, until I put a shout out to my colleagues in the Romantic Novelists’ Association to gather some insights for you. And received a veritable flood of emails by return, from authors who have chosen to adopt a pseudonym or even several of them. The reasons for this are manifold. Helena Dixon, author of Murder on the Dance Floor (Bookouture), who has also written as Nell Dixon, did it because her real name is difficult to spell.

Nancy Peach is a GP. She also writes mumhasdementia.com

– a blog about her mother’s Alzheimer’s, and wanted to be free to be ‘totally honest’ about the disease.

Philippa Carey is really Philip Shaw but feels a female name is more suitable for the historical romantic Pocket Novels he writes for DC Thomson. (The latest is The Best Gift for Christmas.)

Tracy Baines, who is most recently published by Ebury Press/ Penguin with Christmas with the Variety Girls, now writes under her real name, but started out as a womag writer under a pseudonym. She says that looking back, she thinks it was a way of protecting herself. ‘It wasn’t really me getting the rejections, after all, was it?’

Georgia Hill, who writes contemporary and timeslip romance, has just signed a three-book contract with Harper Collins’ imprint One More Chapter. She didn’t want to use her own name when she was first published in 2009 because her day job was teaching very small children and there were ‘a few hot sex scenes’ in that first book.

This is a similar story to that of Kay Jaybee aka Jenny Kane aka Jennifer Ash, who says her first pseudonym ‘came out of a moment of panic.’

‘I had – against my better judgement, and entirely by accident – written an erotic short story,’ she explains cheerfully. ‘And as I had small children, there was no question of using my real name.’ When ‘Kay’ moved onto mainstream fiction, she wanted to keep it separate from what she calls her ‘kinkloving audience’ so she became Jenny Kane, adapting this to Jennifer Ash when she changed again to historical fiction. This is one prolific lady I can tell you. She’s written over 200 short stories, six audio scripts and her 24th novel – a Jenny Kane – is Autumn Leaves at Mill Grange (Aria).

Yet, she explains: ‘I’m very shy and couldn’t possibly read stories live on Facebook, stand up and talk at a literary festival or sign books for fans. Luckily, Kay, Jenny and Jennifer are very much braver than me, so I just let them take over. They even have their own ways of dressing. The locals in my home town know who I’m “being” that day by what I’m wearing.’

Many writers choose different names if they write in different genres, trying to find one with the right ‘feel’. Catherine Jones used her maiden name Lace – as Kate Lace – for her romantic fiction, and the Brigadier’s-wife-sounding Fiona Field for her army books. She’s back to Catherine Jones now for her entertaining Little Woodford series (Head of Zeus).

A spot of research first can be crucial.

Doctor Sue Cook decided to write under her married name so her patients wouldn’t make the connection, but now realises

that this wasn’t the best possible choice as anyone Googling will find another, much more famous, Sue Cook first.

‘Always check for other people with the pen name!’ advises Ruth Frances Long who also writes as Jessica Thorne. Try to avoid names that are too popular, or sound like a pun (unless intentional).

RJ Gould went for his name for reasons of Google search too. ‘Richard Gould would have relegated me below a prominent scientist and a cricket administrator of some importance!’ he explains. Georgia Hill thought about bookshops. ‘On a bookshop shelf, I’m usually right at eye level – not too high and out of reach, or so low that you have to bend down.’

Others, however, have quirkier motives.

Jeevani Chakira is based on part of the author’s real name, but is different from the one she uses for her work in the university sector. Her books are multicultural women’s fiction, tending to deal with dark themes. For her lighter romances, she has adopted the name Rhoda Baxter and chose this ‘after the bacteria that I studied for my PhD – Rhodobacter sphaeroides’, explaining that ‘it amused me greatly at the time to give a nod my nerd side.’

Are there any downsides to having all these names? Most authors who write under something different will tell you about the extra work.

‘I have to run two websites and two sets of social media and I’m not great at either,’ says Joanna Courtney (not her real name) who is also Anna Stuart. ‘It also means having different signatures and remembering which one to use when.’ She once signed her son’s permission slip for school in the wrong name, which ‘created some confusion’.

This is a problem which Morton Gray, who writes as such for Choc Lit, is familiar with. ‘It can get confusing managing different email addresses. I’m forever sending messages to my son’s school from Morton Gray by accident. Thankfully they know who I am now and some have even read my books.’

But despite the extra attention needed, many writers still prefer to draw that line between the professional and personal. Even Kay Jaybee/Jennifer Ash/Jenny Kane, who jokes that ‘Life is too short to be one person,’ will admit that ‘it is wonderful at the end of the working day, to simply be the nonwriter me, who remains private and quiet – keeping my real life apart from my fictional existence.’

I hope you find the right name for you, to write under, and you enjoy all it brings. Good luck!