Why you don't get published.
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Q & A 37 I really want to use my pen name.
When you submit your partial or full, is it acceptable to put your real name on the cover letter, but your pen name on the manuscript? Or would that be a mistake, since the letter and the pages might get separated?
There seems to be some concern that if authors don't drill their pen names into their agent's/publisher's heads from day one, their books will come out with their real names, and their lives will be ruined. Even if your book were inexplicably put into production without your knowledge, you would still receive proofs to okay before it went to press. And considering how much time elapses between the time you submit a partial and the time the book goes to press, you may decide the pen name Lance Monroe would sell more books than the pen name you're favoring right now, Miroslav Hitler. If you must get that pen name onto your manuscript, put it under the title on your title page, and use your real name at the top, where your contact info is.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
11 comments:
(Calls publisher):
Sorry, I'm going to have to change my pen name. Yeah, Evil Editor went and made fun of it on his blog. So we'll have to come up with something other than Miroslav Hitler for my fantasy romance.
Darn! I really wanted to use Miroslav Hitler! (shakes fist in air) Darn you, EE!
Here's two more things to add about pen names:
1) some publishers require/recommend authors use a pen name
2) some authors don't even get to PICK their own pen name
So - I think of my "dream" pen name like the title of my manuscript. It's probably going to get changed anyway, so don't worry about it.
I have two pennames but I still submit queries/mss under my real name. I've yet to have a book published under the "wrong" name.
It's not worth worrying about at this point. Honest. If the editor contracts the ms, he or she will ask what name you wish to release it under.
I have heard that you want to get your pen name out into the open before your publisher can suggest that you need one. Otherwise, they would "own" that name and if you ever switched publishers you'd have to build up a new readership because you wouldn't be able to use your established pen name.
True?
Urban Legend?
Last try posting this comment (problems with the blogger today)...
Favorite pen names: Andre Le Plume and Philboyd Studge.
Andre Le Plume was once used by Oscar Madison on the old Odd Couple TV show.
Philboyd Studge first appears in Kurt Vonnegut's introduction to BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS:
"What do I myself think of this particular book? I feel lousy about it, but I always feel lousy about my books. My friend Knox Burger said one time that a certain cumbersome novel '...read as though it had been written by Philboyd Studge.' That's who I think I am when I write what I am seemingly programmed to write."
I've heard there was a time when category romance authors didn't own their names and risked losing them if they left. But I don't believe that goes on anymore. And there were (are??) children's and YA authors who wrote series under a publisher-owned pseudo, like Nancy Drew mysteries, Babysitters Club, etc. Or perhaps they were owned by the book packagers? Not clear on that one.
Philboyd Studge first appears in Kurt Vonnegut's introduction to BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS
Vonnegut will have taken the name from a short story by Saki. In Filboid Studge, the Story of the Mouse that helped, Filboid Studge is a breakfast cereal, which succeeds through distinctly unconventional advertising. A very funny story, to be found in The Chronicles of Clovis (1912).
I have heard that you want to get your pen name out into the open before your publisher can suggest that you need one. Otherwise, they would "own" that name.
If a publisher creates your pen name, your restrictions and obligations should be spelled out in a legal contract, the terms of which should be negotiable.
Stephen, I never knew that about Philboyd Studge -- great catch. I've been using the name for years as a gentle put-down. Example: When a kid I coach wanders off second base and gets picked off, I'll call him Philboyd Studge for an inning or two. I'll have to look that Saki story up. Thanks.
If you create your own pen name, it's unlikely you will have problems. Unless someone else has the same name and trademarks it. Of course if you choose "John Grisham" as a pen name, just to sell books to unsuspecting fans of JG, Evil Editor foresees legal troubles ahead.
How about Kilgore Trout?
Post a Comment