The New World of Publishing:
Pen Names
Dean Wesley Smith
Copyright © 2012 by Dean Wesley Smith
Published by WMG Publishing
Cover illustration by Philcold/Dreamstime
Cover design copyright © 2012 WMG Publishing
Smashwords Edition
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.
This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Introduction
The following first appeared in a slightly varied form on my web site, www.deanwesleysmith.com. It’s still there to read for free if you would like.
The reason I wrote this was that I just couldn’t get away from dealing with the question about pen names any more. As a person who tries to help out writers on my blog, I got the "pen name" question more than any other question. Period.
I suppose that's because I am very open about writing under different names and I have varied reasons for doing so. And weirdly enough, I have written under pen names since I started writing.
Of all my onehundred-plus traditionally published novels, over half of them have been under pen names.
So after a few more varied questions about pen names in indie publishing all grouped into a few days, I figured it was about time I give a full and complete opinion on the topic. But let me be clear here once again. Ready?
No writer is the same as any other writer.
Or as a sign in our workshops say, "You are responsible for your own career."
Take my opinion on this topic as opinion. Nothing more. Then do what you damn well please because... well, because you can. And should.
There are no right answers on this topic and no wrong answers.
History
Pen names have been with fiction writing since the beginning. And the reasons for writers to take pen names is as varied as the writers doing the writing. I'm sure some of you English majors out there could even tell me a bunch of pen names of major literary writers through the centuries. But honestly, please don't. (grin)
The pulp era of popular fiction brought in thousands and thousands of pen names. There are entire books that have been done trying to track the pen names of the pulp writers, from Max Brand to Kenneth Robison to all the hundreds of pen names of Edward Stratemeyer and his "Syndicate" of writers. (You remember Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, and so on.)
Many of today's major writers wrote under pen names, sometimes many, many pen names over their careers. And almost always for different reasons. I don't think Robert Silverberg can even count all his pen names. Lawrence Block wrote under many, many names as well, sometimes in the erotic markets of their day. I was at Harlan Ellison's house one day and asked him off-handedly that if next trip I brought down a copy of Adam Magazine that he had a story in, would he sign it. He laughed and said sure, and he would sign two of the articles in the same issue as well, since he had written those under pen names. I was impressed he remembered.
In fact, in the high peak of science fiction magazines, there were often only one or two writers per issue, even though the magazine showed six or seven authors.
So pen names are nothing new. And the reasons for using a pen name or not using one are varied depending on the author, the time, the publication location, and so much more.