Ultimate Guide To Author Pen Names

Aspire to be an author where you write stories and share these books with your loved ones?

Well, one of the important things that you need to consider is your author name.

You don’t have to use your actual full name as your author name. You could create a pen name. If you write books in various genres, you might even consider creating a few different pen names.

Here are some tips for creating pen names and questions to ask yourself.

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Questions To Ask Yourself

When deciding on your author name, ask yourself these questions.

Do you mind being associated with your books?

For example, you’re a goody two-shoes but you love writing violent, gore and explicit stories. Your books thus contradict what you’re like in actual life and you might not want your real name to appear on the front cover of your books.

Why don’t you want to use your real name in the first place? List the reason(s).

For instance, you might not want these books to affect your career or family. Or perhaps, you don’t want people to find out the books you write. There could be many reasons why you don’t want to use your actual name. But just write down these reasons first. Based on these reasons, you can decide how similar or dissimilar you want your pen name to be to your real name.

How many pen names do you need?

So this depends on the type and genre of books you write. If you write fiction and non-fiction, you might want to get 2 pen names. Likewise, if you write in a few genres, you might want to create a few pen names for each genre. Of course, you can choose to have 1 pen name only and everything you write will be connected to this pen name. In my case, I write paranormal, fantasy and science fiction stories but they’re all linked to 1 pen name.

Remember, it’s not simply a pen name issue. With every pen name you create, you might have to create a website and newsletter for each pen name. You’ll probably also have to create Amazon and Goodreads profiles for each pen name. This also includes marketing for each pen name and staying connected to the fans of each pen name. So do think long-term: decide what is important to you and whether you can fulfill the responsibilities that come with each pen name.

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Consider Your Goals & Readers

When deciding on your pen name, take your goals and readers into account.

For example, if you write English books, you probably want an English name so your English readers will find the name familiar and perhaps, feel closer and connected to you. If your books are mostly set in Victorian era, you might choose a Victorian name like Elizabeth, Charlotte or Elijah. Your pen name thus gives that Victorian vibe and hints at the time period and genre. On the other hand, let’s say you write English books but set in Korea, you might consider using a Korean name to make your books sound more authentic.

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Similar To Real Name: Using Initials & Parents’ Names

If you prefer a pen name similar to your real name, you can consider using initials or your parents’ names.

Just like J. K. Rowling, you can keep your first name or last name and use initials for the rest. Or you could replace some part with your parents’ names, instead of your own.

The good thing about this is that you still partially retain some of your original name. It’s not totally lost. So you can still identify and relate to this pen name.

This was what I did. I wanted to keep a part of my name and yet, I also didn’t want to make it obvious that this author was me.

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Fictitious, Totally Made Up Name

Another alternative is to create a new fictitious name. It’s totally made up by you so as long as you like it, it can be your pen name. There’s definitely no right or wrong answer here. You only need to decide on your pen name. However, because you’ll be using this pen name for all your books, just make sure that you like the name. It’ll confuse your readers if you suddenly or frequently change your author name.

If you’re looking for inspiration, you can consider names you like. For example, names of celebrities you adore or writers you respect. Rather than using their full names (which might mislead people to assume that the books are written by these celebrities and writers), it’s probably better to use part of their names like first or last name. Or use a similar name.

You could also come up with a unique name that has never been used by anyone.

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Bonus Tip: Choose A Name That’s Easy To Spell, Pronounce & Remember

It doesn’t matter whether your pen name is based on real names or totally made up. What matters is that this pen name needs to be easy to spell, pronounce and remember. It needs to be memorable to your readers. You want them to walk away while remembering who wrote this book. If they want to learn more about you or your books, they can easily search your name on the internet.

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Bonus Tip: Ensure That No Author Shares The Same Pen Name

Always search for your desired pen name and ensure that no author shares the same name. This includes searching domain names, social media usernames, email addresses etc.

If there’s another author with the same name, it’ll complicate things. Book retailers like Amazon might wrongly assume that both of you are the same person and your books might be wrongly attributed to the other author.

Try to use a unique author name if possible.

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Now It’s Your Turn

There’s no right answer when choosing your pen name. But because this pen name is part of your author image, do take as much time as you need to decide on a pen name that you like. It’ll probably follow you throughout your author journey so it should be something you love and enjoy people calling you by.

Figure out what’s important to you and from there, you should be able to decide on your pen name.