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Just curious...how many pen names do you have?

929 Views 18 Replies 17 Participants Last post by  Onedayatatime
I've definitely decided to keep J.J. Oxendine for my suspense writing and am planning on a different name for almost finished WIP, which is a romance novel. For those who have more a pen name, how many do you have and is it for different genres?

Thanks!
J.J.
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I have three. One is for "regular" romance. One is for heterosexual erotic romance, and one is for m/m romance. I'm hoping to stop there, as it gets hard to keep track of them all, and I find myself talking about my other names as if I'm three different people, which makes me worry about myself a bit. :D
One for my commercial historical fiction, one for my literary fiction. They are sufficiently different in tone and execution that I thought it'd be wise to use different pen names, and I still think that was a good idea, though I've been surprised at how many readers have happily crossed over from one to the other and left great reviews! (I know, Blogspot. I promise I'm working on shiny web sites with dedicated domains!)
Question for people who have several pen names: do most readers know that it's the same author writing under different names? (As Elhawk's readers do, if I've understood correctly.)
What about Facebook pages, etc...do you have one for each pen name? I'm behind in the times. I have a FB author page and personal page, but not a blog. I have been debating on getting one. I was also curious if readers ever figured out the different pen names were the same writer as well.
Question for people who have several pen names: do most readers know that it's the same author writing under different names?
I link my two erotic romance sites together, but keep the third name separate.
I've got my own name and two pen names so far. Looking forward to using the second one sometime this year, and creating a third.  :)
I have four, in two pairs. Two of them are tied to my real name--adult books and kid books. Two of them are tied together but unrelated to me -- erotica and controversial topics.

All four have their own site or blog. I have no FB author pages. I don't see a real use. But I do have two twitter accounts, one for each name pair. Each says "also writing as X."

I find I go in cycles on my names, so it's not as bad as it might seem. I spend a few months as one, then a few months as the other. Only two of the names have a good seller among them, but I'm about to go whole-hog on a third name to get it going, and the fourth name is about to head to agents and trads.
Four if you include my real name as one since I use it to write non-fiction.  All my pen names are divided up by genre.  Technically I have two historical pen names but one is for more western action/adventure with cute romance and the other pen name is more for steamy regency romance.  I don't write erotica but I do consider explicit sex (as in you describe it, not just hint at it) to be another good reason to start another pen name.
One, but as I'm gearing up to see if I can get back to my "original" genre (SF&F) I'll prob write that under another name since I might do that in combination with someone else.
Real name for nonfiction, this name for fantasy and some erotic romance, new name to spin all remaining erotic romance into, and may take another one for straight-up erotica.
I don't use any pen names at all. It must be incredibly difficult building a following for more than one name.
None unless you consider it a pen name that I use my initials.

I have three:

Parvati Hill for my two books about India
Jodie Lightener for my book on caregiving in which I divulge too many family secrets to use my real name 
Thea Thaxton for my short stories on Cyber Dating
None. It's hard enough to build a reader base without having to start over for another pen name or two.  For me, I want to concentrate on building one solid fanbase for awhile.  If I veer off into something that really could alienate my readers if they bought it, I would use a pen name.  For example, my books are for adults and have graphic sex and other graphic scenes in them.  If I decide to write childrens novels I would use a new name.  I wouldn't want someone who bought childrens books grabbing my dramas and thinking they must be for childre or vice versa.  The chance of me deciding to write Christian or cozy books is zero.  However, I do have a childrens book that I also painted all of the illustrations for and someday I might release it.  If so, I will probably do it under Pims Rowland.
I have 5 pen names that are already being used for various genres, and I'll be launching 6 more pen names within the next year. I know that's intense, but it works for me and helps to keep things organized.
2 very active ones right now, with fb pages, blogs, twitters for each.
2 more about to launch that will have all of the above.

Genres: erotic romance, chick lit, YA and romance. 2 of them will be linked, as one is my real name and one is pretty close to my real name.
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