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comment by kleinbl00
kleinbl00  ·  3554 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: If you wrote a book, would you adopt a nom de plume?

Pseudonyms incur a substantial publication penalty. They're harder to market in this day and age.

If you're publishing in a genre where pseudonyms are typical (erotica, etc) your market potential is already curtailed and it's less of a big deal. but if you'r'e going up in front of a real publisher, a pseudonym is a great way to ensure 50 cents on the dollar or less.

Source: my agent





tla  ·  3554 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Does that apply equally to using one's married name for writing while using one's maiden for everything else?

kleinbl00  ·  3554 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I honestly don't know. I didn't ask.

goo  ·  3554 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I've actually never heard of pseudonyms being harder to market! Why is it like this? Is building a background to an author's name extremely important to the success of a book? (forgive my ignorance on the subject)

kleinbl00  ·  3554 days ago  ·  link  ·  

It builds a wall between you and your fans. Nowadays there's no marketing budget whatsoever so you need to be the one with the livejournal, the book page, the tour, the radio station call-ins, etc and if you aren't "you" the whole affair comes off as forced and fake and nobody wants to hear from you.

Whatever reason you have for writing under a pseudonym, your fans will assume it's because you're a furry with a sexual attraction to tupperware and an arrest record a mile long for sexual assault on farm animals.

user-inactivated  ·  3554 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Livejournal is still enough of a thing that it matters for marketing purposes?

kleinbl00  ·  3554 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I know, right? Authors are weird.