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Good Christmas Eve afternoon to you!
Since you’re all out doing battle in malls, cutting your way through the crowds with a machete,
I’d like to make a quick point with this quick post:
Watch out for pen names. There’s a use for them, but there’s been some bad advice splashed around because of some weird over thinking about branding. I use my middle name and go by Robert Chazz Chute for this blog and my fiction submissions. I do this for the same reason Michael J. Fox has a J. There is a native American poet from Maine who goes by the name Robert Chute. He came first, so to avoid confusion and out of respect, I went with my middle name. I think that’s a good reason to use a nom de plume.
About the bad uses of pen names: In the past, agents, editors and publishers often advised writers to use pen names when writing for different genres. They feared brand confusion. That was silly. Consider the biggest book brand of them all: Stephen King. I’ve read all his horror. It turns out I have no interest in his Dark Tower series or the any of those graphic novels. But I did try them out because I like Stephen King books generally. If you like an author’s book, you might like their other books.
Too few people buy and read books to play games making it more difficult to find your work!
Consider James Patterson and his 157 or so books that are now out in different genres. One name provides cross-marketing and cross-pollination for his body of work. Isaac Asimov wrote what? 500 books? Much of it was non-fiction, too. (The most readable anatomy book I own is by Isaac Asimov.)
So if you’re going to use a nom de plume, do it for considered reasons. Don’t do it because you fear your romance audience won’t follow you to your fantasy epic.
People who read books get enthusiastic about particular authors, not just particular books.
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Filed under: authors, Publicity & Promotion, publishing, Rant, rules of writing, What about Chazz?, Writers, writing tips, authors, bad writing advice, Dark Tower, Isaac Asimov, James Patterson, Michael J. Fox, nom de plume, Pen name, Publish, Robert Chazz Chute, Robert Chute, Stephen King, When should I use a pen name, writers
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