Are Pen Names Still Useful Today?

A while back, I downloaded a freebie book about a zombie lawyer. It sounded amusing and though the author was no one I’d heard of I was happy to give it a try. Of course, being a freebie downloaded by a new-to-me author, it joined the ranks of the books-I-plan-to-get-to-at-some-point on my Kindle. Currently there are 238 of them on there. And I’ll admit, I let it slip from my mind just as it slipped into the further reaches of the Kindle listing.

Then I went to the ACFW conference and attended James Scott Bell’s all-day session. At the end of the day, he asked us to sign up for his newsletter and, as an incentive, he’d send us a freebie – a novel he’d written about a zombie lawyer. Yep. My no-name, new-to-me author was, in fact, a pen name for James Scott Bell. On the one hand, I got a JSB book for free. On the other…I felt a little cheated. I had this thought that I was helping another new (debut maybe? eternally mid-list?) author. That I’d read the book and leave a review and do my part to make their day just a little happier. But with that now kaput, the book slipped to the back of my mind (where it had been further up on my “get to this one soon” list.)

Until last night when I wanted something lighthearted. And what’s more lighthearted than zombies? (Well, okay, maybe that’s not the initial thought you have. But having read the blurb, it seemed to promise exactly what I was going for.) I finished it this afternoon – it’s a delightful book. Lighthearted. A strong spiritual thread that’s presented in such a way that it still isn’t a “Christian” novel – and yet it’s there and will, most likely, get people thinking. And I’ll probably fork over the money for the others in the series. But I’ll still be a little sad that I’m not reading something by an unknown K. Bennett.

Bell’s certainly not the only one to use a pen name for a different genre (I’m guessing that’s his motivation – maybe zombie legal thrillers are a risky subject and he wasn’t sure if it would fly? Who knows.) I enjoyed the J.D. Robb romantic suspense/thrillers before it was made known that it was Nora Roberts writing them. J.K. Rowling just famously had her attempt in the mystery genre unveiled. Seems to me I read another article about a husband/wife team who got unmasked recently as well.

But from a reader perspective, I wonder a little about choosing a pen name. If someone is known for a particular genre and they want to branch out into something else, wouldn’t giving your fans an opportunity to follow you be beneficial? Obviously, not everyone will, but surely a pretty decent number will. I know I’d be at least willing to try it. Some of my favorite romances were written by Anne McCaffrey – and I just happened to stumble across them and, because I so loved her science fiction, figured they had to be worth a read. If I think about the blurbs or the cover, without her name on them I would have walked right by.

I suppose the opposite is true. Would a man pick up a suspense/thriller by a well known romance author? If we see J.K. Rowling’s name on something do we just expect it to be a certain thing and we can’t pry ourselves away from that preconception?

But if we look at the flip side again – if the pen name isn’t selling on the book’s merit and so someone leaks the real name just to get sales based on the fan base of that author…why bother with the pen name in the first place?

Some of this is a question I ping-pong around periodically because I have speculative fiction novels in me biding their time. I’m not sure how much longer they’ll continue to bide before they have to get out. And if I’m known (however much I’m known) for romance, will that deter people from wanting to read my spec fic?

Do you have any thoughts on pen names? I’d love to hear them!