Why I Launched a Secret Pen Name
By Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy)
So, umm…surprise. I have a pen name.
She published two novels and one novella in 2016 with the third in her series already complete and ready to go in a few weeks. In 2017, if all goes according to plan, she’ll put out books 4-6 in the same series as well.
Up until now, few people have known about her existence, and even fewer know her name. I’m not going to share her name in this post. I’m not sure yet if I’m ever going to openly “own it,” even though I’m proud of everything she’s written.
But I decided I wanted to explain my reasons for creating her and some of the lessons I learned from publishing her books in the hope that it can help others. Even if you’re 100% opposed to writing under a pen name (whether that be a pen name in addition to your real name or whether you write solely under a single pen name), I still think some of these items are things every writer should consider. Some of my reasons were business-related. Some of them had to do with fear and broken confidence.
As you might have guessed, this is going to be a multi-part series. As I add each part, I’ll link them here for newcomers. Here’s the roadmap:
Reason #1 – Part of a writer’s brand is their name.
Reason #2 – I wanted to run an experiment on how to gain visibility and sell books.
Reason #3 – I wanted my crayons back.
Today I’m going to look at Reason #1.
After this mini-series finishes, I’ll be diving in to some of the craft topics that you voted for in my recent survey. (If you haven’t voted yet, there’s still time. If you want to choose more than one option, you can select the “Other” option and write in your answer too.)
REASON #1 – PART OF A WRITER’S BRAND IS THEIR NAME
As Marcy Kennedy, I’m the author of non-fiction books for writers, and my long-term goal has always been to publish science fiction and fantasy.
That’s already a divided platform and public image because many of you won’t be interested in my fiction. You read my blog for writing advice and you buy my non-fiction books about the writing craft, but you’re not speculative fiction fans. When fiction readers come to my website after reading one of my future novels, they’re not likely to be interested in my writing craft posts.
So I’m already trying to find the tenuous balance between my two audiences. Half the time, I don’t know what to share on social media because I keep thinking about the part of my audience I’m either alienating or failing to build. I hate that.
The genre I wanted to write in with my pen name isn’t science fiction or fantasy. In fact, it’s so far from those two genres that the odds of many people crossing over were slim. So if I hadn’t used a pen name, I would have been creating yet another distinct segment to my audience.
Some writers choose to put all their genres together under the same name anyway with the idea that readers will simply ignore what they aren’t interested in. That might be true. I know some writers make it work.
But I had qualms about this for me.
(1) I’ve been studying other successful creatives—writers, artists, and musicians. What many of them have in common is a clearly defined brand.
They’re specialists. They don’t try to appeal to everyone. They don’t need to in order to make a good living from their work. What they need to do is connect with their people—the ones who “get” what they’re doing and love it.
This specialization makes them memorable and instantly recognizable. You know a piece of their art when you see it. You know what you’re getting when you download their new album. Their name is almost synonymous with their genre. Everything about them online and in person fits this brand.
It makes them a go-to for their audience and easy to recommend to people with similar interests.
Which leads in to my next point…
(2) I want to become an auto-buy for readers.
They see that I’ve put something out and they purchase it because they trust and enjoy my writing. I want them to know they’re safe investing their time and money in me. The promises I’ve made to them with my past work will be kept in the newest work. I don’t want them to have to pause and figure out whether this particular new release is in a genre they enjoy or will be a type of story they’ll enjoy. (I’ve written more about this at Janice Hardy’s blog if you’re interested.)
I also don’t want them to get into the habit of sometimes ignoring me. I want them to expect that everything I produce—whether it be a Facebook post, a blog, or a book—will interest them.
(3) I’d already made the mistake once of publishing something where the tone was different from my other work.
In a recent Creative Penn podcast, Kristine Kathryn Rusch mentioned that one important criteria for whether or not you need a pen name is tone, not genre. Readers will often read across genre if the tone is the same. They’ll be upset if they pick up one of your books and the tone is very different from what they’ve come to expect from you.
When I released my book of short stories (Frozen) a few years back, I made the mistake of not considering content and tone. Those short stories are suspense, and they’re darker and more disturbing than my fantasy or science fiction, and the feedback I got after releasing them was that people (some positively, some negatively) now expected that same feeling from my fantasy. And my fantasy isn’t like that.
It hurt my brand. There are people who won’t read my fantasy when it releases because they think it’ll be grim dark. If my short stories hadn’t given them a false impression, they would have been more likely to read my fantasy and would have seen that it’s much more noble bright, full of hope and people who want to be good and honorable making hard choices in difficult situations.
Likewise, the difference between what I have planned for release under my real name and what I was thinking of writing under my pen name goes deeper than genre. I instinctively knew there’d be differences in tone as well. My pen name writing has more humor in it. It’s quirky. It’s more light-hearted. It’s the girl-who-wears-funny-socks-and-dances-around-her-kitchen side. It reflects a side of me that didn’t fit with the fantasy stories I wanted to write.
If I released this pen name series under my real name, I knew I’d be making the same mistake as I had before, but on a much bigger scale. I’d be muddying up people’s expectations—losing potential future readers of my fantasy and, later, disappointing current readers when my fantasy wasn’t the same as my books in the other genre.
(4) Amazon’s Also-Boughts and Algorithms can help make you or they can bury you in obscurity.
Right under the description of a book on Amazon, you’ll see a section called “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought.” It’s a selling tool. The theory behind it is that people’s buying habits are predictive. If a lot of people who buy a certain book also buy your book, then other people who like that first book should also like your book.
The best-case scenario is that your book will appear in the Also Boughts of other popular books in its genre and that your book’s Also Boughts will be filled with other books by you in the same series or genre.
But if you write in multiple genres, then the Also Boughts stop serving their purpose as a sales tool. I didn’t want that kind of Also Bought pollution happening to my fantasy books or to my other genre books.
When you write in multiple genres, Amazon’s algorithms also have a more difficult time figuring out who to show your books to. And if they show your books to people who don’t buy them, eventually they stop showing them to anyone at all.
So there you have it. I’d love to hear what you think. Are you in favor of pen names or against them? Do you find it frustrating when one of your favorite authors starts writing in a new genre (one you’re not interested in)? Have I missed anything that you think writers should consider when it comes to pen names?
Interested in more ways to improve your writing? Check out my Busy Writer’s Guides such as Description, Deep Point of View, or Showing and Telling in Fiction.
Image Credit: Torli Roberts/www.freeimages.com
Jan 19, 2017 @ 19:33:24
I love that you have this secret identity that nobody knows about, as if you’ve gone undercover. And I don’t blame you. It must be so freeing to be able to write what you want not having to worry about genre or losing readers. Good for you Marcy. I’ll be looking forward to the follow up articles. Best wishes for much success! ?
Jan 20, 2017 @ 10:00:00
I talk more about that in the third post, but it’s incredibly freeing. I didn’t have to tie myself up in knots worrying. I just wrote for the joy of it, and if the experiment failed, I could scrap it all and start over with a different name 🙂
Jan 19, 2017 @ 20:22:25
This is seriously interesting. The first person I thought of was Kristine Kathryn Rusch, who you then mentioned, because of her various pen names – but I like that she also brings it all together and there’s an umbrella option that lets you know what’s released by which of them – and you get to choose what you read because it’s clear up top which hat she has on. Meanwhile, I love everything I’ve read from her. This is across several genres, but I haven’t read across all she’s published in yet – she’s so prolific! The same with Anne Bishop’s fantasy vs sci fi – I found that the characters and story were as compelling, though so different, and was just thrilled to find more of her writing, regardless of the genre and the difference in style / tone – and it was her name being on it made me pick it up to start off with, otherwise I might never have read it and it would have been a loss … I guess what this is leading up to is that I completely understand all your reasons – especially the split audience one – however, especially now you’re letting on that there’s more fiction out there from you, what if someone wants to read it or would love it if they had the chance – but they don’t get to find it?
Jan 20, 2017 @ 10:12:09
If I end up being open about my pen name in the future, this will be the reason, and in that case, I’d handle it similarly to Kristine Kathryn Rusch. (She has a lot of business wisdom on so many topics.) If I go that route, it wouldn’t happen until at least after my fantasy series launches this fall and has a chance to get established on its own. I do have an “umbrella plan” that I’m tentatively working on for if/when that day comes, and I hope that plan will help keep things “clean” but also allow readers who would want to read across names to do so.
I’ll talk a little more about why I’m continuing to keep it secret at present in the third part–what I’m currently calling “I wanted my crayons back.” That third reason was the real tipping point that made me decide to launch a secret pen name instead of an open one. I’m starting to get past the self-doubt and fear that made a pen name necessary, but I’m a work in progress 🙂
Jan 20, 2017 @ 12:28:37
Well I definitely look forward to reading the rest in this series. And more of your writing! I absolutely loved Frozen, and I’m looking forward to your fantasy. I think the best thing is that you’ve given yourself a choice – if it feels right, you can open it up, and if not, you don’t have to. All the best for your releases whichever way it goes!
Jan 26, 2017 @ 12:58:04
I enjoyed your post and I applaud your reasoning. I totally approve of having a pen name if you want to go away from you norm. Besides, mystery is fun and trying to figure out your pen name will exercise the “little grey cells.”
Nora Roberts comes to mind as having multiple pen names: J.D. Robb, Jill March, Sarah Hardesty. I read Nora’s romance and fantasy, occasionally some JD Robb that catches my interest, but I have never read any books from Jill March or Sarah Hardesty.
I will be happy to read any of your genres. I love your writing. Keep it up. I missed Frozen. Will look up the book now.
Apr 10, 2017 @ 05:02:30
This was an insightful post for me as I’m seriously considering using a pen name, and have been studying the pros and cons (for one thing, people have trouble spelling my last name).
As a reader, if I learn that an author I like writes in a different genre under a different name, I want to know what the pen name is so I can check out that series. I read in multiple genres, and if I like an author’s book in one genre, I’ll at least want to consider the author’s other works. For these reasons, it annoys me when writers keep their writings in one genre secret from their fans in another. Maybe not many people feel this way, but I do.
Apr 10, 2017 @ 08:45:17
I don’t think you’re that far from the norm. I don’t plan to keep my pen name secret forever. Tentatively, I plan to announce it early next year (2018).
Apr 16, 2017 @ 15:48:43
I very much enjoyed this post as well as the comments. I also have two pen names at this time, and am seriously planning at least one more – perhaps more. I freely acknowledge my other pen names, so if you simply like my unique take on the world – as one reader put it – you will find it in all of my books. But if you are someone who only reads mysteries, or perhaps you happen to be under 18 and read my kids books, you can go merrily along reading in your preferred genre without ever being “pestered” by my other pen names at all. So I found it heartening to read the several comments by people who read more than one genre, who have no problem following an author across multiple pen names.
I think this really may be the way to go for those of us who write in multiple genres – for the ease and consideration of our readers. So long as we have a blog or facebook or something to say – oh yes, she is me, and he is me, and we are all together – your readers will find it. And then if they read several genres they can chose to look for and read books under the other pen names. As a reader myself, I can say that some of my favorite authors write in more than one genre – including genres I don’t like or with a series I really like, and others I really don’t. This does create a stop. Oh! A book by so and so! I’ll have to get – oh wait – which series is it. Oh, her romance stuff, I don’t like that one. In this age of One Click Buying – i’d rather as a reader go – oh sos and so CLICK. As an author – I’d really like my readers to confidently go – oh sos and so CLICK.
At the same time so much is made of “branding” and how you have to be on every single social media. Well, if you have pen names, they need a social presence, too, following this reasoning – and it’s all I can do to post on my own blog let alone three or four more for other personas. How do you resolve this?
Thank you for the series and I will look forward to the rest of it. It’s educational to know what other authors and readers think about this issue.
Apr 17, 2017 @ 20:00:11
Thanks for such a great comment, Summer! I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to read the rest of the series yet, but I launched my pen name successfully without a platform of any kind. She doesn’t have a social media presence and she doesn’t blog. She still sells well, and that’s because I branded her in other ways and found her audience in other ways. Even as “me” I’m only on Facebook and Twitter. I think trying to be on every social media platform is a fast track to burning out. It’s better to pick a couple where our ideal readers are and stick to those. That’s my two cents anyway 🙂
Apr 18, 2017 @ 01:32:40
Have you ever noticed that sometimes we just need someone else to affirm to us by telling us what our own instincts are saying? I have now read the rest of the series and thank you again for sharing these thoughts and experiences. You have emboldened me to do what I know is actually right for me – which is write, publish, and write some more.