I have a question for the #WritingCommunity about #PenNames.

I write non-fiction about cats. But I also get ideas about genre fiction.

Should I publish these works under my name, or not? What do YOU think?

1/ Stone mask Sticker by hustlart
2/ I don& #39;t have the conventional good reasons for a pen name. Real one is mellifluous, pronounce-able, genre-compatible.

Back in the & #39;80s I probably should have :) My action scenes, according to an agent who liked my fiction, "felt male."
3/ But my plans are for a female protagonist, where my real name is an authentic asset. Complying with a publishing industry convention, which called for pen names in different genre, is not a factor for me. I self-publish.

A conversation with a friend sparked some of this.
4/ She said, "I really loved your first novel, have you ever tried again?" And I hadn& #39;t.

But I& #39;m thinking: I should.

Everyone loved this work. It got me an agent and read all over NYC. Yet, it never got off the ground.

Because marketing "didn& #39;t know how to market it."
5/ Back then I was going to publish under my real name. So this decision, at a time when many authors say "it& #39;s all yours, publish under that name!" feels right to me.

When we do our own brand management, creating and maintaining an alternate persona is extra work.
6/ Which I also don& #39;t need. Cross-genre is much more accepted now, where people are able to make their own choices.

Stephen King gets away writing noir/horror. There& #39;s science fiction romance. Fan fiction goes nuts and people love it.

I am all about authenticity :)
7/ I seem to have convinced myself to "go real" in the course of writing this thread :) But I& #39;m sending it out anyway, in case it helps someone else.

So many publishing traditions were never about the writer. Often, this hurt writers.

After all, I contain multitudes.
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