Whether you call it a pen name, nom de plume or pseudonym, the author name you publish under will likely effect the success of your book, so choose well!
In indie publishing, a key component of marketing a book is creating a sense of connection with your readers, which means that even if you prefer to maintain a sense of anonymity (for whatever reason), it's important to select a name that is unique, memorable, sounds good and suitable for your genre.
Here are our top tips for choosing a pen name:
- Make it unique, and avoid names shared by other celebrities/writers/famous people
- When someone searches for your pen name in Amazon, you don't want dozens of other people with the same name to show up first, they should see your name first! Test this out by actually googling the name first to find out how unique it is.
- Consider ease of spelling and pronunciation
- You want to make it very easy for people to find both your book and your author social media profile(s). An easily spelled name also makes it easier to remember and therefore share with others.
- Say it out loud, it should sound good
- Say the name out loud a number of times. If someone recommended you Book X by "So and So", would you want to read it?
- The name you choose should match the genre you are writing in
- Consider some of the racier names of female characters in old James Bond films. Would it make sense to read a children's book by a person of one of those names? Probably not 😂 (make a small tweak though and "Missy Galore" doesn't sound half bad).