Choosing a pen name?

[melaho]

Did you choose a pen name for your books? If so how did you decide on them? Did you copyright the name?

 

[RJ Garside]

Thanks for your question. It's a great one! I chose a pen name when I first started writing years ago because I was working in healthcare and writing spicy paranormal romance. My boss at the time or the professional association I was a part of wouldn't have been thrilled with me if I had anything published under my real name. Still unpublished, but I write steamy so I like having the pen name so if I am ever published then I don't have my people connecting my books to my family life/world.

I struggled with finding something that I connected with so I pulled the last name from my grandmother's maiden name.

I didn't copyright the name, and actually I didn't even know that was a thing so I'll be watching this thread.

 

[Jodihenley]

Did you choose a pen name for your books? If so how did you decide on them? Did you copyright the name?

It's different for everyone, but a suggestion would be to look at other authors in your genre and find one that fits. A sweet old fashioned name would be awkward for a blazing hot erotica writer, and so would a double entendre if you write children's books. Sometimes what you want is already taken and you might have to change something. Or you can just pick something you like, or a name that reflects who you always wanted to be.

You can't copyright a name, although you can trademark one if your name is your "brand" and represents something to the general public. I don't know if you've ever read Flowers in the Attic? But after the writer died, the estate hired ghostwriters to continue her series. They weren't VC Andrew, but the estate (from my understanding) trademarked VC Andrews as a brand, then A&E came along and bought the brand and anything VC Andrews (the brand) might write in the future and past and spinoffs and whatever. It's a little more complicated then that, but it just means that if you were to call yourself VC Andrews and decided to write an MG novel, there wouldn't be a problem because you can't copyright a pen name. But if you were to call yourself VC Andrews and write gothic horror, you'd be infringing on their trademark because the VCAndrews brand is gothic horror and it's understood that the VC Andrews who writes gothic horror is the one owned by A&E.