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Pen Names & Privacy

3K views 22 replies 15 participants last post by  SirNobody 
#1 ·
Ok, here's another prawny question from me:

I teach at a large state university, publish academic stuff, and even have a couple modestly successful nonfiction books out from when I still worked in industry. So...

As I get ready to self-publish some fiction, I'm interested in privacy. Don't want my students or colleagues laughing at me!  :eek: So I'd kind of like to keep my identity private.

Is it enough to simply publish an eBook with a pen name? I've heard that in the past there were instances in which writer's real details were accidentally put online. Is that true? How frequently? How recently?

Maybe a better question is how do you handle privacy, at least those of you who do?
 
#2 ·
From what I remember reading on this board, iBooks was bad for putting the author's real name on the book listing instead of the pen name, if they went direct.

If you want to have a website with a proper domain name, you'll need to pay extra to not have your name listed in the WhoIs database.
 
#3 ·
Count on unintentional disclosures, especially in marketing efforts. The question then becomes will anyone notice. That depends on how well your fiction takes off; or, alternatively, if your day job and your fiction create a media-worthy contrast, like you teach religion and write hardcore erotica. Most people aren't running background checks daily; and despite Internet archives, stuff gets buried quickly. That said, only publish what you're willing to stand behind in the public's eye. A writer must never feel shame for their work.
 
#4 ·
Website with privacy registration, Pen name, distributing to iBooks through a third party, and if you must setup a publishing company for whatever reason (perhaps the material you're publishing is racy), I'd suggest registering in Delaware and having a PO there that forwards. Delaware is pretty keen on keeping registrations private. You can get a registered agent to act on your behalf and that's what people will see if they look up the info. Other states, such as California, make it simple to look up who's who. You could always pay your attorney to act on your behalf, and their name will show up instead of yours.
 
#6 ·
My first novels were rather racy and I worked as a contractor to a federal agency with a security clearance. All I did was use initials, though I did consider a pen name. My brief forays into erotica are under a pen name. In general, I don't think anyone cares who you are. If you don't tell people, they're probably not going to know. If you hit Stephen King success, you're not going to care. ;)
 
#7 ·
I've published through the KDP from the beginning, and have used four author names including my own. Short of a court case, say with the IRS on the other side, I don't think there's any risk that you would be outed by Amazon. (I didn't know about Apple, but since I'm not an Appler except for my phone, I've always distributed to them through Draft2Digital. I don't have websites for my pen names, though I do have a blog for Notjohn that serves much the same purpose.

Basically it's your own carelessness that you have to worry about. I have three Author Central accounts on Amazon, which I find is useful in preventing me from speaking in the wrong voice. I have a Gmail address for Notjohn, with the emails forwarded to my main address, so I must be careful not to reply from my own mailbox. (I don't think there's any danger in letting Notjohn's readers know that I publish Literature, but I'd just as soon not have my Literary readers know that I publish as Notjohn or another of my noms du web.)

Students, though.... Don't ever let your students know that you write naughty stuff for fun! They will certainly suss you out.
 
#8 ·
brkingsolver said:
My first novels were rather racy and I worked as a contractor to a federal agency with a security clearance. All I did was use initials, though I did consider a pen name. My brief forays into erotica are under a pen name. In general, I don't think anyone cares who you are. If you don't tell people, they're probably not going to know. If you hit Stephen King success, you're not going to care. ;)
I did federal contracting before going back to academia myself. I don't intend to write anything terribly racy. Just want to keep things private for the time being. Not being tenured, I'd kind of like to keep my extracurricular work to myself, at least for the time being.
 
#9 ·
notjohn said:
I've published through the KDP from the beginning, and have used four author names including my own. Short of a court case, say with the IRS on the other side, I don't think there's any risk that you would be outed by Amazon. (I didn't know about Apple, but since I'm not an Appler except for my phone, I've always distributed to them through Draft2Digital. I don't have websites for my pen names, though I do have a blog for Notjohn that serves much the same purpose.
After doing a little research, it seems that just using a pen name might be the simplest route to privacy. As long as Amazon doesn't glitch and let the cat out of the bag. Other options are likely to leave digital trails.

notjohn said:
Students, though.... Don't ever let your students know that you write naughty stuff for fun! They will certainly suss you out.
Exactly. It's sort of crazy, but students will figure out all sorts of things. A couple of other folks have been "outed" as erotica writers, and one guy as belonging to a cult like church. Students hit Google and follow the links...
 
#11 ·
Pennames are great for your own sense of security. They're also great for introducing totally unrelated genres into your offerings.

Really, no one likely cares who you are and you use the penname to save face with family (as in my case) or work associates. Even if you were to use your real name, it's not likely someone is going to come up to you and say, "Hey, are you the same guy that writes that kinky series...?"
 
#12 ·
ShayneRutherford said:
If you want to have a website with a proper domain name, you'll need to pay extra to not have your name listed in the WhoIs database.
I transferred all my domains to Google registrar about a year ago, and the privacy feature is free and the price for registering a domain is lower than the other registrars, and they don't push new products on me all the time. I'm very happy parking my domains there. When I do a search for any of my domains on the https://whois.icann.org/en all it shows up is Google addresses, server and registrar information.

I don't know why they don't promote this service more, or any of the other services they offer. I guess they don't need the money. Anyway, I hope it helps if you want to save some cash on privacy domain services.

Here is the link if you want to check it out: https://domains.google.com/registrar
 
#13 ·
Blocked Writer said:
Ok, here's another prawny question from me:

I teach at a large state university, publish academic stuff, and even have a couple modestly successful nonfiction books out from when I still worked in industry. So...

As I get ready to self-publish some fiction, I'm interested in privacy. Don't want my students or colleagues laughing at me! :eek: So I'd kind of like to keep my identity private.

Is it enough to simply publish an eBook with a pen name? I've heard that in the past there were instances in which writer's real details were accidentally put online. Is that true? How frequently? How recently?

Maybe a better question is how do you handle privacy, at least those of you who do?
I first published while in a tenure-track job, and I didn't particularly want my colleagues knowing that I was writing fantasy during minutes I could've been working on my research (though they probably wouldn't've cared; they were cool). So I used a pen name. Even though I don't mind the store particularly carefully, no one at work has ever sussed out that I'm "Becca Mills" ... because, you know ... they just don't care. Unless you become famous, it's likely no one will care enough to look into your pen name's real identity. If I ever do write explicit sex into a book, I think I'll be glad not to have to look out across every class and wonder how many of them were tittering about it right before I walked in. :-[

The only insurmountable problem has been Facebook. You're only allowed to have a profile under your real identity, and they're not supposed to be used for business, so people create pages for their author selves. But there's no way to join groups via page, so every group I belong to, I belong to under my real-name profile. There's no good way around this problem. Either you have to break Fb's rules (and give up on the useful stats pages provide) or you have to forgo author groups.
 
#14 ·
I decided to use a pen name (in part) to keep my fiction away from my academic and research publications. As long as you don't go around baiting people ("i'm-a-writer-no-you-can't-know-my-penname"), it's unlikely anyone will find you out. Just don't tell people. Period.

Watch out that you don't accidentally out yourself, though--I'm my own worst enemy on social media, and especially where my smartphone is concerned because I can't always readily tell if I'm posting as *me* or as *other me*. It's resulted in a few hurried moments of cursing and quickly looking up how to delete something. Not that I was posting anything awful, either; I just didn't need to announce my new release to all of my unknowing friends and family or tell my fans the details of when I'm having my kid's birthday party.

If someone really digs, yes, they will find you. It's impossible to remain completely anonymous in this business when you need to provide tax and bank information or register a PO box for an email list. And when someone finds out, very much this:

whistlelock said:
There is a "chinese proverb" that says, "If you don't want anyone to find out, don't do it."

Nothing stays a secret forever. When it gets out, and it will, and someone asks you about it nod your head and treat it like someone asking if you drive a blue Ford.
 
#16 ·
Not sure how my real name got linked to my pen name, but it did. I paid extra for private domain registration, and use a third party to distribute to all retailers except Amazon. Yet when I Google my name my pen name comes up too. It doesn't really bother me. I'm at the point where I don't really care who knows, but I haven't figured out how to keep it totally private, even if I wanted to.
 
#17 ·
Yayoi said:
What about ecover designers and other people who will do jobs for you? Does anyone of you feel awkward having to use your fake name and your real name at the same time?
Nope. I admittedly hide behind my pen name for the first few screening emails when I'm contacting a new editor (or anyone else), but after that, it's a business relationship. I just send a note that it's a pen name, and this is my real name, and it's nice to do business with you, etc. No one has ever thought it was weird. I think once you've worked with enough writers it's just kind of business as usual.
 
#18 ·
Cheryl Douglas said:
Not sure how my real name got linked to my pen name, but it did. I paid extra for private domain registration, and use a third party to distribute to all retailers except Amazon. Yet when I Google my name my pen name comes up too. It doesn't really bother me. I'm at the point where I don't really care who knows, but I haven't figured out how to keep it totally private, even if I wanted to.
That's a problem of mine too. I used Namecheap and their private registration feature, but my real names and addresses ended up enlisted on WhoIs records, which was confusing. I even got occasional emails from people offering similar domains which meant my real email address was actually shared there! What the hell is is a private registration for if my real details will be shown there anyway?
 
G
#19 ·
Yayoi said:
What about ecover designers and other people who will do jobs for you? Does anyone of you feel awkward having to use your fake name and your real name at the same time?
Nope, but then I don't. I operate under the pen name for all writing stuff, period, so there isn't any mixing. Less confusing that way.
 
#20 ·
Anma Natsu said:
Nope, but then I don't. I operate under the pen name for all writing stuff, period, so there isn't any mixing. Less confusing that way.
If you operate with your pen name and have to pay for a freelance designer's services, how would you even use your pen name, then? Your credit card information (at least your real name) will still show up in their invoice or something. I'm confused, so sorry.
 
#21 ·
Yayoi said:
If you operate with your pen name and have to pay for a freelance designer's services, how would you even use your pen name, then? Your credit card information (at least your real name) will still show up in their invoice or something. I'm confused, so sorry.
This happens all the time. I invoice through PayPal and often all I know is a pen name and email address and the payment comes from someone else entirely. I tend to scratch my head, shrug my shoulders and get on with the next job. I'm pretty sure clients would be thin on the ground if I went around blabbing about their 'real' names. For me discretion is the key and I'm sure if you ask any editor, cover designer, and formatter they would say the same.
 
G
#22 ·
Yayoi said:
If you operate with your pen name and have to pay for a freelance designer's services, how would you even use your pen name, then? Your credit card information (at least your real name) will still show up in their invoice or something. I'm confused, so sorry.
My bank account, its associated card, and my PayPal account are all under my business name, Zenbi Press, so that's whats on the check (for my editor) and my PayPal for others. :) Only hitch with PayPal is making sure to flip the "shipping" address because the default randomly flips back to my real name as it is in the account (as the legal entity behind the business).
 
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