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Allonyms Anonymous
This week's A Word a Day theme is words about words and included allonym, explained as
allonym (AL-uh-nim) nounAnd later, Anu Garg wrote:
The name of a person, usually historical, taken by an author as a pen name (as opposed to using a fictional pseudonym).
My question is why? Why have a pen name at all? Does anyone other than serial romance or mystery writers use them? It is sad that so many women writers still use initials to disguise gender, but why would you not want to be known by your works? [pen names] Listen to this articleWriting a great novel might be a breeze but choosing what to call your pseudonym, that's not easy! You could simply call it your pen name or byname. If you wish to appear sophisticated, you might say it is your nom de plume or nom de guerre. If you reversed your own name to coin a nickname, it would be an ananym. But why not take a walk in the library, browse the spines, and select an allonym?
posted by Georganna Hancock M.S. | 9:32 AM
4 Comments:
I guess some people feel better when they have a seperation between their writing life and the more tangible variety.
Several of my staff use pen names (and I suspect others who have written for of having done the same). I seperate my suit life from my word life by working under my first name in one and not the other.
Other reasons off the top of my head:
It's easier to be honest when no one knows you're you.
The mob is after you for a cut of your profits.
Your writing is to embarassing for your real life.
Your real life is to embarassing for your writing life.
Disassociative Disorder.
Racial bigotry (I read once than an Italian-American crime novelist had to change his last name to be published in Italy due to a standing Italian stereotype that Italians couldn't write...).
Fear.
Artistic Merit.
Oh, money? Reaching a wider readership? A name easily becomes a brand, one that is not always as transferable as a writer might want. That's why many writers work in various genres with "other" names. Often their publishers initiate the request. Your name can work for you and a'gin ya, depending on the allure it has or the baggage it brings.
Sometimes authors don't like their names. Sometimes authors want to separate their writing so one does not bleed into the other, often for personal reasons. Sometimes authors have published and the sales expectations were not met, so they choose another name to try to circumvent the problem with publishers and potential readers.
How many ways . . .? Let me count 'em.
For a long time I considered using a pen name. I had it picked out and everything.
My main concern is that if I publish in the GLBT genre but later want to finish the YA/adolescent book I've got sitting around, then how accepted would my work be? Then I decided that if I were famous enough that straight folk with kids recognized my name as being a lesbian writer, then do I really care? I mean, the big bucks would be rolling in.
My name is so unusual, there would be no doubt as to the author is. There are a few other Paula Offutt's out there. There are actually several Offutt writers.
But I decided I'd rather see my own name on the book, and not some fictional name.
Perhaps I couldn't understand pen names because of my devotion to honesty and transparency and a longtime attempt to live an integrated life.
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