One of the questions I get asked the most is, “Should I use a pen name?”

As someone who has used a pen name for over a decade, I think most people shouldn’t use a pen name. Now there are some legitimate reasons to use pen name, but for most writers pen names cause a lot more trouble then they are worth.

Over 25% of the authors I work with want to use a pen name. I would also say that only about 3% of the pen name using authors I’ve worked with have published their work. Whereas with my students as a whole the publication rate is over 25%.

Here are the questions I think all authors should ask themselves before adopting a pen name:

How are you able to promote your own work if you are using a pen name?

So many agents and publishers (and some literary journals) are reluctant to work with authors that use pen names. Some even have policies in place to prevent submitting work under a pen name.

The reason why agents and and publishers are so reluctant to work with authors that use pen names is that most do not have a clear plan or way forward to promote their work. Most authors use their own name and reputation to create a platform to start supporting their work. They start by reaching out to friends and colleagues and acquaintances to promote the sales of their work and their author platform.

If an author is using a pen name, they are often much less likely to promote their work directly to anyone, because most people would then be able to make the connection from the pen name back to the author, and that would for most people, make the use of a pen name pointless.

Promotion is key to book sales, and even when working with an agent, and an established traditional publisher, the author is expected to put in serious work. Not just the effort of reaching out to friends and acquaintances, but interviews, readings, signings, panels, and other events that involve disclosing ones identity, or at least being present and recognizable as yourself (more on this later), which generally makes the name less effective.

Why do you want to use a pen name?

The answer to this question is so important. Using a pen name in most contexts adds a layer of complication and confusion, but for some people that is worth it.

If someone is hiding from an abusive former partner, or any other high stakes situation, there can be real reasons to use a pen name.

Personally, I started off using a pen name because I was reviewing literary journals and presses that I also sometimes was submitting to. I didn’t want my reviews to bias editors for or against the creative work I was submitting.

Over the years having a pen name also helped create a layer of distance from the sometimes awkward emails Emily Harstone has received. This includes more than one love poem as well as several death threats. Having the pen name there helps me to not take either very seriously.

It also helped that I never planned to publish creative work under this pen name and I also never planned on submitting work under this pen name to publications outside of Authors Publish.

What would you do if people found out the identity behind your pen name?

I have found that it is hard to keep your real identity a secret in the long run.

While I have never tried particularly hard to keep my identities separate, before Authors Publish started offering workshops and lectures, most people didn’t know the connection between my real identity and the pen name I used.

Now that is very much not the case, because of the number of people who have seen me on Zooms, and clearly know what I look like. I also always make the connection clear to my students.

While this is not ideal, I am mostly fine with people knowing my real identity, but if you are someone who really needs to protect and separate your real name from your pen name, that very much is something to keep in mind.

It is also important to note, even before I appeared live in lectures, many people had already figured out the connection between my pen name and real name.

Do you have enough energy to promote multiple identities?

This question does not apply to all writers who want to use a pen name, it is only relevant to writers who want to use more than one pen name or their own name, and a pen name (which is what I do).

Many writers are drawn to this approach because they write in very different genres and they want to be able to keep the different genres separate, so that they are able to promote their horror book to one audience and their kids book to another.

The issue with this is that it takes a lot time and energy to establish an author platform that you can use for self promotion, and so it’s hard to spread one person’s energy across multiple platforms.

Also, social media aside, it takes time to build one’s reputation as an author through publications and speaking events, etc. Some of my best and most exciting publications were made under pen name, and my pen name is more famous than my real name, which is tied to my creative work, which is far from ideal.

So instead of building one really impressive writer’s “resumé” my experience and accolades are split by my pen name.

Does your pen name imply something false about your identity?

A number of writers have gotten into trouble for writing under pen names that implies something that is not true about them. For example, the white author who chose a Chinese pen name for his poetry, or the male author who chose a female pen name and then submitted to literary journals that published women and non-binary authors only.

In Conclusion

Lots of the authors I know have chosen pen names lightly, and have come to regret it. Some authors I know have put lots of thought into crafting a pen name that keeps them safe, and they still worry about their real identity being discovered. This is a complex issue, and I can’t answer the questions for you, you have to answer them for yourself.