Lois’s answer to “Hello Lois! I am always confused about whether I should look for your books under "McMaster" or und…” > Likes and Comments
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Yeah, but for a six-letter name, people sure do have a lot of trouble with "Bujold".
I can't remember if "Lois Bujold" was an option I'd considered or not. I might have wanted to keep the "McMaster" so people who'd known me when younger might recognize it.
Ah, well.
Ta, L.
Heh, maybe I am being backed up here by my 9 years of French classes. Thanks for the answer!
My experience is that you need to look under both, as bookstores shelve them under either, pretty much at random. In fact, within one store I have often found some under each name...
eluki bes shahar and Eric Van Lustbader (or Mark Van Name) are even harder for stores to keep consistent. :( When I worked in a bookstore at least most of the staff read the Vorkosigan series, so it was always in stock and shelved under B. bes shahar and Van Lustbader confused the heck out of all my coworkers though.
Marianne de Pierres and Aliette de Bodard got shelved correctly under D pretty consistently. My guess is it's due to French having been one of the most common foreign languages taught in American schools for a long time and also that 'de' names sound similar to Italian family names that begin with Del- or Di- so people subconsciously count the 'de' as part of a compound last name.
The name Lois McMaster Bujold has a powerful sound to it. Shorting it in any way is not reconizeable and looses it's strength. Bujold is also an uncommon name and stands out on any shelf. It's a great authors name.
If you'd wanted alphabetic prominence, you should have gone for 'Aaronovitch'.
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Yeah, but for a six-letter name, people sure do have a lot of trouble with "Bujold".I can't remember if "Lois Bujold" was an option I'd considered or not. I might have wanted to keep the "McMaster" so people who'd known me when younger might recognize it.
Ah, well.
Ta, L.
Heh, maybe I am being backed up here by my 9 years of French classes. Thanks for the answer!
My experience is that you need to look under both, as bookstores shelve them under either, pretty much at random. In fact, within one store I have often found some under each name...
eluki bes shahar and Eric Van Lustbader (or Mark Van Name) are even harder for stores to keep consistent. :( When I worked in a bookstore at least most of the staff read the Vorkosigan series, so it was always in stock and shelved under B. bes shahar and Van Lustbader confused the heck out of all my coworkers though. Marianne de Pierres and Aliette de Bodard got shelved correctly under D pretty consistently. My guess is it's due to French having been one of the most common foreign languages taught in American schools for a long time and also that 'de' names sound similar to Italian family names that begin with Del- or Di- so people subconsciously count the 'de' as part of a compound last name.
The name Lois McMaster Bujold has a powerful sound to it. Shorting it in any way is not reconizeable and looses it's strength. Bujold is also an uncommon name and stands out on any shelf. It's a great authors name.
If you'd wanted alphabetic prominence, you should have gone for 'Aaronovitch'.
You mention the tripartite name you went with and Lois McMaster as a second choice. Did you not want to go with Lois Bujold when you first got published?