Welcome back to another Open Book Blog Hop!
Today’s topic is: Do you use or have you considered using different pen names for different genres of your writing?
And remember to visit my fellow writers to see what they have come up with. You can find their works here!
I know a lot of people use pen names. This can be for any number of reasons, all of which are valid. One reason I have heard of is when the author in question writes in more than one genre – to help create distance between their different works. As things stand, I’ve got one book out, and one more ready to publish shortly. Both of these are steampunk, part of a single series and from the same genre. So for the moment, these books are being published under my own name.
But what about The Twelve Days of Christmas? This is something quite different. It’s darker, a crime thriller. So what name will this one be published under? Honestly, I suspect my own name. I put a lot of effort into writing them, and am happy to make sure anyone reading them knows they are mine!
Steven Smith 
That’s the reason I write under 2 different names – one for fiction and one for non-fiction.
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I can see that being a good reason. I write only in fiction, so am not sure if my second genre will get different pen name.
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If it’s fiction then it’s probably not worth setting up another pseudonym.
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To be fair, it was an outside shot that I’d do it, I get too much joy seeing my name on my books!
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If I wrote any non-fiction, I might use my real name. Then I’d have to change everyone else’s.
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I write spectacular fiction. Don’t think I need to write under different names for horror, fantasy, and sci-fic.
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At the moment I’ve only written steampunk, but am also working on a crime thriller. Almost Saw like, in a way. I also have a published sci-fi short story in my name also.
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I agree. Speculative fiction has a lot of subcategories, but they’re all similar so why write under different pen names. And a pen name is itself a bit of fiction, which must be maintained.
One of my favorite authors was Barbara Michaels, who wrote mystery romances. She was a PhD in Egyptology, so she wrote scholarly books under her real name – Barbara Merz — but she also wrote other mysteries under Elizabeth Perkins. And I think there was a fourth one too. In those days, everybody went through the Big 5, so she probably had a publicist to do whatever branding was required. But I simply can’t afford all that time. Lela takes up enough. I’m been working on a history of our church and people keep saying I should publish it under my own name and I’m like “I don’t think so.” Not that I think anyone outside the church will be interested in this thing, but they can also know I’m Lela — most of them already do — and that allows the book (if I ever finish writing it) to be published under an established author name so if anyone outside the church is interested, it will get some exposure just by being part of a dozen or more novels.
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I haven’t found that readers are upset if I write something outside the genre they usually read, and I even have some crossover between my genres. If people like my work, they might be willing to try a new genre because they liked what I wrote in another one.
@samanthabwriter from<a href=”http://samanthabryant.com“>Balancing Act</a>
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This is kind of what I’m hoping will happen if/when I get some other stuff under my belt. Currently have steampunk, and a Saw inspired crime thriller in the works. Would love to turn my hand to some horror too.
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Exactly. I got the advice that men won’t read an apocalyptic written by a woman, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. And after they read the first one–judging from KENP Reads — they can’t wait to read the next one.
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There is joy in seeing your name on the cover of a book you worked hard to write!
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Exactly this! It may be a touch of vanity, but there is something special in seeing my own name on the front cover of something I poured so much of myself into.
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Even if it’s one you created. Absolutely!
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