Help Please! Pseudonym or your own name?

[anaximander]

There is a fine line between being inoffensive and self-censorship. I've written a blog entry for the new author platform.
I haven't published it yet. In the past I blogged, basking in the warm blanket of an assumed name. For fun.

This is different. This is blogging with intent. I'm still writing my first novel. But what will I build my 'brand' around? What will be my author name?

Are authenticity and privacy mutually exclusive? A pseudonym will give me some privacy that my own name can't. Can I still write about that kind acquaintance who suddenly turned weird or that upsetting thing that happened at work? Will that have repercussions in the private sphere?

But if I decide to go with a pseudonym or even a name which resembles, but isn't quite my own (maybe slightly more palatable for an Anglo-Saxon audience) I risk side-eye glances from family and friends. Should I not be proud of my given name?

I'm not even sure that the distinction between pseudonym and my own name really matters. James Gunn was fired for ten year old tweets somebody dug up.

What did you decide? And do you regret it?

 

[Sedayne]

I thought long and hard before going with my own name. Ultimately I need to stand by my words even if it surprises or shocks friends and family. It's a risk because a lot of my work addresses sexual identity, mental health and things I experienced in childhood and adolescence.

I'm particularly sensitive that my devout Catholic mother (to whom I'm close and provide care for) does not want to acknowledge my sexuality nor my negative experiences, particularly with regards to religion.

But I can't hide from her the fact that I spend so much of my time writing, so a pseudonym wouldn't protect her. I just tell her not to read the pieces I know she won't approve of.

I don't want to hide who I am in life or in writing. And I'm also proud of my work and want to take credit for it.

But that's a personal choice, and it might not be the right one for someone else.

 

[Aethalope]

I use a pseudonym that is also my name. Well, it's my husband's name, but I was unable to take it on after marriage because changing my legal name would have required negotiations with the governments of three nations, two of which barely acknowledge my existence. So I take his name, and the name of our children, as a writer at least.

 

[Hannah Faoileán]

I write under my own name. I have considered a pseudonym because my surname is difficult for non-Celtic-language speakers to pronounce, but I have come across many famous author-names that I have difficulty pronouncing, and my surname is part of me, and my writing (I write fiction, fantasy, not memoir) is part of me, so I'm sticking with who I am.

 

[RK Wallis]

I wrote under my own name for my first book, a memoir, and I think that was a right choice (although I've taken that down now. To be honest, I'm embarrassed my ego put it up. It was interesting, and it was picked up by an Australian agent though no publisher thought they'd make money from its niche market).

I don't enjoy the fantasy I've written anymore so they can stay under the bed.

I'd like to publish my MG under my real name one day.

With my current book, I've decided to write under a pseudonym and I won't tell anyone except as necessary re: readers before I either trad or self pub (I read something recently about how Penguin's lack of help, and bad cover, tanked some poor debut author). Not sure about trad anymore, might take it to the huddle. I don't care for recognition. It'll either take off, or not, and call it an experiment, I'm curious about what'll happen.