WHY DO WRITERS USE PEN NAMES? LET ME COUNT THE WAYS…

       A friend of mine who wants to be a writer is thinking of creating an account on Wattpad and put his short stories there and hes’ planning on using a pen name—he’s been whacking his brains for days and he hasn’t come up with one.  

       “Is William Shakesfear good?” he asked me.

       “Nah,  I don’t think so,” I said.

       “But I’m writing horror stories, tales that will make people shake with fear.”

       “Regardless.”

       I asked him why the need for a pen name, and he couldn’t really articulate on it; some kind of writer, my friend is.

       So why do some writers use pen names? I asked the tambays here and this is what they told me: aside from the fact that some publishers require it for marketing purposes, some writers use pseudonyms because they think that their real names aren’t ‘literary’ enough (for example, Manny Mayweather seems to belong to a boxing ring, not in literature. Nhicolas Pecpec, a Filipino name, is a bit embarrassing. Nhicolas, of course, channels Nicholas Sparks with the ‘h’ deftly placed in a different position, while Pecpec, well, let me just tell you that it's a surname that, uhm, sort of stinks.

       Some writers use names from the opposite sex as their nom de plume to attract more readers. Some male authors use female aliases when writing romance stories because of the belief that readers prefer female romance writers while some female authors use male names when writing thrillers and adventure stories because of the belief that readers prefer male writers for these type of stories.

       Some writers use pen names to hide their identity, others, ( like J. K. Rowling who used the pen name Robert Galbraith on the book “The Cuckoo’s Calling”) use one to see if they can still sell books without the hype of their popular names. Incidentally, “The Cuckoo’s Calling" didn’t sell that much, the sales only shooting up when it was revealed that Robert Galbraith was really J. K. Rowling.

       Then there are wordsmiths who wily use both their real name and a pen name: the real name for works they think are masterpieces and the pen names for works which are, well, less of a masterpiece.

       Others have pen names so they could produce more works. Stephen King used a pen name because of the belief that readers will only buy one book from an author within a year.

       Some famous writers who used pen names include Stephen King (Richard Bachman), Isaac Asimov (Paul French), Dr. Seuss (Theo LeSieg) and Agatha Christie(Mary Westmacott).

       So how do writers create a pen name? Ricardo Eliecer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto’s father disapproved of his interest in writing so he needed a pen name to hide his works from his dad, and he chose Pablo Neruda, with Neruda a homage to Jan Neruda, a Czech poet.

       A writer I know once used Roj David as a pen name, Roj from Roger Waters and David from David Gilmour, both of the rock band Pink Floyd.

       At the end of the day, a writer’s name (and gender, for that matter) doesn’t really matter when it comes to writing—what matters is the story and how it was written. But if a pen name can help in attracting more readers, then, by all means, create one or two. Some writers have only one nom de guerre while others have several. Any pen name will most likely do as long as it sounds wholesome and not vulgar or racist (I don’t think a pen name like Will KillBlacks is palatable).

       Pen names with sexual overtones like Wet Pussy or Love Pussy and the likes should be dumped immediately,especially if you have a wholesome market and you’re working with a female editor/publisher, unless you’re trying to send a (lewd) message there or you’re trying to hit on your editor/publisher, but she’s too decent or naïve to realize it. Even if you’re writing erotic stories, I don’t think an obscene and disrespectful pen name is advisable.

       A pen name should always sound interesting, quite unique(meaning, not similar to other authors’ name) and decent—and of course, easy to spell and pronounce.

       Remember, how you create your pen name shows a hint of your personality.

       “Hey,” my friend yelled, “I’ve finally decided on a pen name, I think it’s very good.”

       “What is it?” I asked.

       “Ernesto Hemingway.”