Should I Use a Pen Name or Pseudonym in my Internet Writing?
The question of whether or not to use a pen name for your Internet writing depends, in part, on several factors, including:
- The type of Internet writing you do
- The topic of your Internet writing
- How you intend to use your Internet writing.
Let’s break each of these down, shall we?
The type of Internet Writing you do
Are you writing fiction or nonfiction? Are you writing personal stories, or are you writing how-to articles? The type of writing you do directly affects whether or not you will want to use a pen name. For example, If you are writing a blog about parenting and want to be able to tell stories about and post pictures of your children, you should probably consider using a pen name. An excellent example of this is The Pioneer Woman. This blog is extremely popular, but the writer gives away no identifying information whatsoever about her or her family. She doesn’t even tell what state she lives in. This allows her the freedom to post pictures of her husband (”The Marlboro Man”) and her family in anonymity.
Even fiction vs. nonfiction matters in this question. Many, if not most, novelists choose to use a pen name. This is true of many authors, from Stephen King to Anne Rice. Using a pen name in fiction has been a longstanding tradition. For this reason, you might consider using a pen name if you are writing fiction.
The topic of your Internet writing
Even Anne Rice used a pseudonym when she wrote Erotica. The same is true for Nora Roberts. If your topic is controversial, you might consider using a pseudonym so that you are not personally affected in a direct way by the possible negative reaction to your topic. Take for example my friend and fellow blogger Thomas Carlyle. Thomas runs a successful blog about historical topics. He tends to take controversial positions on some issues, and so to keep his career safe he has set up a pseudonym for himself.
Another reason to use a pseudonym might be that you are writing on a topic that is specific to one gender. For example, if you are writing about pregnancy and are a man, you might choose to use a female pen name so as to avoid having your credibility called into question based on your gender. I have done this in the past, although today I prefer to stamp my own name on my writing, knowing that I may lose some more close-minded readers.
How you intend to use your Internet writing
Some of the most lucrative Internet writing gigs that I have had have been ghostwriting. This means that, essentially, I will never be able to get credit for the writing. I can’t list it on a resume, and I can’t include the writing in my portfolio. About the best I can do is to ask the client if I can give out their contact information as a reference, which about half of my ghostwriting clients decline. That sort of Internet writing is strictly gun-for-hire type work, and the benefits I get from it are almost always solely financial.
On the other hand, take this blog. This blog hasn’t made me any money (yet!) But making money isn’t the focus of this blog. This blog is simply here so that I can make connections with other Internet writers, so that we can learn from one another and encourage one another. Those are personal human relationships, and I don’t think I’d be as comfortable using a pen name in this case. If I’m going to connect with you, I want it to be the real me connecting with the real you.
Comments
One Response to “Should I Use a Pen Name or Pseudonym in my Internet Writing?”
Leave a Reply
-
Subscribe
I chose to write under a Pen Name (although my name figures in my About page) because it’s a long French name and most of my readership is either English or non-French non-English.
Plus it becomes part of my Branding. The Chatty DM is now more known and says a lot more about what I am about than Philippe-Antoine Ménard.
ChattyDMs last blog post..Ods and Ends, part Deux