…I do have two pen names. I did that because the genres are so very different. For example, I wrote a short story for a super spice dark fantasy retelling of fairy tales (and that’s code words for erotica) in case you don’t know. I did that because I don’t know that my fans of adventureThriller would want to read super spicy dark fantasy.
Often when we find an author we like, we’ll read everything they’ve ever published, so I don’t want to lead a reader to something they might not want to read.
The same goes for my one off campy horror story. All of my stories have strong female characters, but it takes someone who enjoys movies like Tremors to appreciate Evil Nuns from Space.
There are a variety of reasons to use a pen name. I know one author who likes having a separate persona as an author, so I don’t even know her real name. Other authors like to keep it a secret that They’re a woman because of the bias of readers. I’ve heard more than one person say they don’t read books by women. Some people keep those pen names completely secret.
Tamsin Silver, Author of The Curse of Billy the Kid, has always used a pen name and this is what she said about it “I use a pen name for 2 reasons. The first reason is because at the time I started writing, I was running a theater company in New York City and I was trying to keep my two side hustles separate. The second reason is because my father is very involved as a Lay Minister in the Catholic Church, and I never wanted him to have to answer for anything I wrote. That shouldn’t ever be his job. So I figured a pen name was just a good idea.”
The process of using a pen name is actually pretty easy.
First, You should definitely check around on Amazon and Google to make sure your not picking an author’s name that’s not already out there.
When you sign up in to Amazon KDP to publish or whatever publishing program you’re using – you’re signed in as you. so you’re getting paid for whatever you publish.
So when you publish a book, there’s always a field called Author name so that you assign it to whatever author name you want to use.
So for Evil Nuns from Space, it’s published in my KDP account, but I assigned CH West as the pen name.
Just make your pen name is on the cover of the book. And that’s the process.
Show notes:
Tamsin Silver is author of:
Cecilia Garland is author of:
You can find WTWA gift certificates here: https://womensthrillerwriters.com/writer-gift-win-at-gifting-your-writer-friend/