Historical Fictionistas discussion

My new book will be the first time I've tackled historical fiction, and the first time writing under a pen name. When it comes to pre-publishing promo, etc I'm not sure how to work with the pen name. I have my own web site, but should my pen name have his own? And I assume all promo material is done with the pen name in mind.

Your thoughts and comments?

You don't absolutely have to have a different website IMHO, just be up front about the fact you write as X in one genre and Y in others.

JK Rowling does it for crime, but she can afford to have a million websites.

You might want to Google Stephanie Barron (a pseudonym, and the author also writes under her own name as well as I think another pseudonym). She has one Web site with different pages for each name she writes under, and when you search you get a link for the page relating to the name you have searched for. But when you go to the site, you can see at the top the links to pages for her other identities.

When it comes to J K Rowling, she wanted to publish her first crime novel under a pseudonym that nobody connected with her Harry Potter works, which is why she wanted a whole separate Web site for the new series. She wanted people to judge the crime novels as if they had been written by a novice writer, and didn't want people to read them just because they had liked Harry Potter. Eventually, when the first crime novel had established its reputation, she acknowledged the connection.

Most of us aren't so famous that it matters whether people connect one series or genre of our fiction with another! So for those of us who don't have anything at stake in keeping a secret, one Web site with different pages is fine. It can even drive sales, as fans of one series might try another.

Greg, Abigail, and Jim: using a pen name requires discretion since social media and the Internet can be used to search and find connections. I believe the author must decide if linking information is a good idea or not depending on the audiences and content.

It depends on whether you don't want to be found out as having a pen name. Plenty of writers are happy to be known by two names for different genres. Eg Rowling/Galbraith - Iain M Banks (sci fi) / Iain Banks (everything else).

If you'd rather be discreet (like Enid Blyton writing erotica) you'd have to be careful with how you used it.

The question you have to ask yourself is whether you want everyone to know that you are writing under a pen name. Think about why you want to use a pen name at all.

Certainly, if you're writing books under a pen name, then all your marketing should be under that name, otherwise what's the point?

I write historical fiction under my own name and non-fiction books under a pen name. I have two different websites, one for each name.

It's unfortunate but true that there is a tendency for people to be pigeon-holed, so that if you write gentle romances, you will be tagged as a romance writer. If you then write a gritty crime thriller, some people are likely to think that a gritty crime thriller written by a romance writer would be neither gritty nor a thriller, and would avoid the new book on principle.

In this day of the interconnectivity of all, it's very difficult to maintain two separate identities. For me, that isn't a problem. I keep my two writing lives quite separate, but I don't really mind if someone finds out. You need to decide whether this is important to you or not.

Best of luck.

I toyed with the idea of using a pen name eventually I decided against it. When it comes to marketing for me it was the better decision. Relaying to other people that I was now a published author avoided confusion. Especially since my book only came out in May 2020 in amid a worldwide pandemic.
I'm proud of my accomplishment as are my family and friends.

Thank you for asking this question, I love reading everyone's take on this and appreciate the willingness to be open.
I have written my Historical Fiction novels under my real name but have written a series of middle-grade HF books in which I've toyed with the idea of using a pen name because I didn't want my HF followers to mistake it for my regular books since they are significantly different due to the age group.

There are so many ways for people to discover one’s identity that, in most cases, pen names solely serve to make the author’s name stand out. I created mine because a famous female golfer shares my real name.