The Pros and Cons of Writing Under a Pen Name

If you are considering using a pen name for your work, there are a few things to keep in mind. Book marketing expert and author Desiree Duffy chose to write under the pen name Vanta M. Black because her professional brand was vastly different from her author brand. She didn’t do it to keep her identity a secret, but some may choose a pen name for this reason. In that case, an author must consider how he or she is going to market and promote. Having to completely hide your identity will limit publicity opportunities. Using a pen name, secretly or not, also means you now have two identities to manage. You’ll have double the social media profiles, and possibly multiple websites. This can be a huge undertaking. Finally, a pen name forces an author to split his or her personality, having to jump back and forth between two mindsets and communication strategies. While it’s not impossible to successfully write under a pen name, considering these factors and deciding how you will be able to handle it is an important first step.

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  • Hi, I'm Michael Charles Emmert, aka "Burnin' Mike Hill".  The "pen" name is for my guitar pickin' show.  I regretted succumbing to pressure to use a fake name, especially when it came to copyrights.  I wrote 75 songs, not all great classics, but I bothered copyrighting 16, and several of these were pretty good.  There's one exception came when I slammed a car door on my little finger.  Just prior to this I was practicing hammer ons with my little finger and I couldn't do that until the injury healed; but I wound up doing it anyway.  So I decided to protect the finger with a guitar slide.  I had one week to learn how to play slide guitar.  (paragraph).  I decided it would be easier to write a song than to try to tackle somebody like Roy Rogers.  I got a request several years before from actor Jack Webb, portraying Sgt. Joe Friday in the police reality re-enactment series "Dragnet" ("from the files of the Los Angeles Police Department").  Patrol hauled in three antiwar protesters over one broken window.  Friday told them, "50,000 people get killed every year on the highways.  That's worse than the Vietnam war, why don't you protest THAT?"  I did antiwar songs, so OK, "Don't Drive 105".  "Cruising down the highway doin' 105 -  blacktop burnin' under overdrive - gotta go fast if I'm gonna stay alive - but the rythym of the engine keeps my soul alive  (chorus [plot spoiler])  Trooper got me spotted on his radar gun - black box burnin' gonna have some fun ..."  Ms. Duffy/Black, do you think you can delete the posts where I tried to make paragraphs?  "Enter to comment" is a pretty stupid idea.
  • Hi, I'm Michael Charles Emmert, aka "Burnin' Mike Hill".  The "pen" name is for my guitar pickin' show.  I regretted succumbing to pressure to use a fake name, especially when it came to copyrights.  I wrote 75 songs, not all great classics, but I bothered copyrighting 16, and several of these were pretty good.  There's one exception came when I slammed a car door on my little finger.  Just prior to this I was practicing hammer ons with my little finger and I couldn't do that until the injury healed; but I wound up doing it anyway.  So I decided to protect the finger with a guitar slide.  I had one week to learn how to play slide guitar.  (paragraph).  I decided it would be easier to write a song than to try to tackle somebody like Roy Rogers.  I got a request several years before from actor Jack Webb, portraying Sgt. Joe Friday in the police reality re-enactment series "Dragnet" ("from the files of the Los Angeles Police Department").  Patrol hauled in three antiwar protesters over one broken window.  Friday told them, "50,000 people get killed every year on the highways.  That's worse than the Vietnam war, why don't you protest THAT?"  I did antiwar songs, so OK, "Don't Drive 105".  "Cruising down the highway doin' 105 -  blacktop burnin' under overdrive - gotta go fast if I'm gonna stay alive - 

  • Hi, I'm Michael Charles Emmert, aka "Burnin' Mike Hill".  The "pen" name is for my guitar pickin' show.  I regretted succumbing to pressure to use a fake name, especially when it came to copyrights.  I wrote 75 songs, not all great classics, but I bothered copyrighting 16, and several of these were pretty good.  There's one exception came when I slammed a car door on my little finger.  Just prior to this I was practicing hammer ons with my little finger and I couldn't do that until the injury healed; but I wound up doing it anyway.  So I decided to protect the finger with a guitar slide.  I had one week to learn how to play slide guitar.

  • Hi, I'm Michael Charles Emmert, aka "Burnin' Mike Hill".  The "pen" name is for my guitar pickin' show.  I regretted succumbing to pressure to use a fake name, especially when it came to copyrights.  I wrote 75 songs, not all great classics, but I bothered copyrighting 16, and several of these were pretty good.  There's one exception came when I slammed a car door on my little finger.  Just prior to this I was practicing hammer ons with my little finger and I couldn't do that until the injury healed; but I wound up doing it anyway.  So I decided to protect the finger with a guitar slide.  I had one week to learn how to play slide guitar.

  • I am choosing a Penn name to use examples of people in a dating guide book to help others decide if this type of person is really the "One" to which you want to say "I Do."  I have had some painful relationships and if I can save other women the agony, then my mission is complete.  I even out my ex, but in the book, he is Ellen Reed's ex, not Suzanne's ex.  Ok, I can't do television shows, but what about Christian podcasts?  In my mind, I am spiritually Ellen Reed.