Wednesday, September 19, 2007

PEN NAMES aka PSEUDONYMS

Recently a new author emailed to ask what I thought about using a pseudonym. She wondered if it confused readers.

I told her absolutely not! The purpose is to separate different genres and so PREVENT confusion for readers. There's great precedence for this.

Although I don't recall the name, Dean Koontz' first books were under a pseudonym. I believe they've been released now as written by Dean Koontz.

James Oliver Rigney Jr. wrote "The Wheel of Time" fantasy series and "Conan the Destroyer" as Robert Howard. He wrote a trio of historical novels set in Charleston as Reagan O'Neil. He published a western under the name of Jackson O'Reilly. (Sadly, the 9/19 "Los Angeles Times" carries an obituary for him. He was 58, and working on the final book in his "Wheel" series when he died of a blood disease that strikes only one in a million people.)

Barbara Mertz, Ph.D. in Egyptology, writes non fiction under that name. As Elizabeth Peters, she writes the historical Amelia Peabody and contemporary Vicky Bliss series. Her contemporary suspense books are under Barbara Michaels. I love Amelia Peabody, but I'm not so enthralled with Vicky Bliss. Sometimes I think Michaels is compelling, other times not so.

Jayne Ann Krentz writes under that name, and she pens historicals as Amanda Quick (love these). I don't know what she writes as Jayne Castle, Jayne Bentley, Jayne Taylor and Stephanie James.

Famous Nora Roberts writes contemporary romance, but her sci fi mysteries are as J.D. Robb. If you don't like sci fi, but you love Nora Roberts' romances, you aren't going to buy a Robb book. If you did, you'd be very disappointed. I happen to enjoy them both.

Readers often seek out the pen names and try those books, but they know they'll be reading in a different genre and may not like them as well.

Have a great day,
Dee Ann

heists2683@mypacks.net
http://www.deeannpalmer.com
http://www.myspace.com/deeannpalmerwriter

Posted by Dee Ann Palmer 10:15 AM 1 Comments:

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