As you may already know, the title of this week’s blpgpost, “Noms de Plume,” is the French for “pen names,” not so often used now as the English term, but once very common, as was the practice of using pen names. They are also called “pseudonyms”: false names.
You may wonder, quite understandably, why any author would want to hide her/his light under a bushel—or under a faux byline. Actually there are many reasons, some of them quite good.
To begin with, let’s consider the purveyors of material that is at minimum racy if not downright “blue” (to use another term that is less often heard amid today’s relaxed standards). Most writers of erotica (not to mention outright porn) don’t want people looking askance at them in the neighborhood, the supermarket, the PTA, their conservative workplaces, or the church. (Yes, there are definitely churchgoing erotica writers—and I have known two ministers who were also porno editors.)
But sexually titillating materials are not the only literature that can shock some folks. Oh, no!
Authors who still have dayjobs and whose bosses are stridently conservative may be afraid of exposing themselves as having perpetrated tomes with decided liberal leanings. These may be political writings or writings with a social agenda, on such subjects as abortion, GLBTQ rights, immigration…and the list goes on. And while many liberals espouse a live-and-let-live philosophy, not all are so easygoing, and therefore many writers of conservative materials feel the need to hide their output from their bosses if the bosses hold views that are polarly opposite.
Then there are those authors whose books, on subjects either political or social, are decidedly to the right or left of center and whose families are far on the other side of that center line. If Mom, Dad, Grandpa, or Great-Aunt Agatha would have a lot to say—and none of it pleasant—if they found out that “Joe” or “Joan” had written a book espousing a viewpoint radically at odds with their own, it might be prudent for Joe or Joan to use a pseudonymous byline on the book and stow away his/her demonstrated pride of authorship.
But keeping the peace is not the only reason for hiding one’s authorship.
What of the woman who writes books in a male-dominated category, such as sci-fi or westerns? A male or ambiguous byline can hide the fact that the author is really <gasp> female. The secret is long since out, but at one time it wasn’t commonly known that J.D. Robb is really Nora Roberts. And of course the opposite is true: Men who write in typically female categories—notably but not exclusively romance—frequently choose to do so under female bylines.
Now let’s look at a different set of circumstances: writers who write in two different genres. Say an author writes romances (whether under her true name or a nom de plume) and has built up a following. She decides to venture out into new territory and write a mystery. If members of her following see that she’s had a new book published and assume it’s another romance, they may buy it from Amazon sight-unseen and without reading the description, and be disappointed, even pissed off, to find when it arrives that it’s not another romance at all. Conversely, mystery fans, if they recognize her name, may be dissuaded from buying the book because “She’s just a romance writer. What does she know about mysteries?” Better to use a different name for each of the two genres.
Finally, let’s look at that small group of people who, for whatever reasons, just don’t want to be known as writers at all. Whether they toil in a field populated by brawny men who scoff at writing as a “soft” profession, or they’re publicity-shy and quail at the prospect of even a modicum of merely local fame, they want to keep their literary output a deep secret. For these writers, too, a pen name is essential.
I’ll end on a personal note. I once had a publisher insist I use a pen name. I wasn’t happy about it, but if I was going to write 13 short educational books on assignment, to be released all in one season, the publisher demanded I write one of the two series of six books under a nom de plume. He conveyed to the editor that he just didn’t want to publish 13 books—two series of six and one odd one out—by the same author the same year. It struck me odd, but I went along in order to win the contract.
There are indeed a lot of reasons for using a nom de plume!