Multiple Personalities

[KanoasDestiny]

Do you like or dislike when authors use more then one pen name? I can understand having 'one', to distance their public life from their personal one. But I just saw an author who has written under seven or eight names. How on earth does she remember what she has written under what name? And why? If I really like an author, I tend to collect their work. But when they write under multiple names, that can complicate things.

 

[ohmt]

I guess I don't really understand the reasoning behind it. I get why the female writers like the Bronte sisters wrote under multiple personalities way back when, but that doesn't need to be done these days.

Maybe writers do it to ensure that their stories are read purely because of good writing and not just on a name? I could respect a reasoning like that.

I'm like you-when I like an author, I tend to make a collection of their writings

 

[susanne]

Having seen how the public can object to an author writing in a style outside their previous work, I can understand why they might use multiple names. Some people are driven to write to different markets, say literary fiction on the one hand and mystery on the other. Perhaps they are known for their "serious" writing that brings acclaim but little money and decide to cash in on a popular fiction title.

Another reason can be their publisher worries that they are confusing their audience; I certainly wouldn't expect them to choose one or the other. I personally wish Jane Smiley would use separate names to differentiate her books for adults from her books for teens.

As long as the author can keep the multiple styles and names straight, I have no problem with it.

 

[Kendra]

Sometimes, a new pen name for an author is a question of sales - if their final book with one publisher didn't sell out, then another publisher isn't likely to take a chance on them, no matter how impressive their sales were in early books. They need a new pen name for a fresh start, and it might happen more than once.

Writing in a different genre is another good reason for a pen name. I suspect JD Robbs "In Death" series might not have done as well with its target readership if they'd known at first that the writer was romance queen Nora Roberts. And an author who writes for kids or teens under one name, probably is very wise to have a completely new identity for their erotic romance or horror. ;-)

 

[KanoasDestiny]

You all make some good points that I hadn't thought about. Especially when an author writes for both kids and adults. I can see why parents may be reluctant to buy their kids books from an author who is known to write adult novels. I guess it just doesn't make much sense in the age of the internet, because doing a quick search of a writer you can find out who they really are and everything they've written. When I looked up the lady last night, it was like 'whoa, she practically has a different name for everything she's written.' In all honesty, my first thought was that she must not be a very good writer if she doesnt want anything attributed to her or people to know she's responsible for other books. Lol.

 

[Sonya]

Didn't Koontz write under a few different names?..and then once he made the best seller lists, he stuck with Koontz. I can see why they would do it starting out...too easy to be typecasted so to speak.