Should You Use a Pen Name to Write Your Book?

Non-fiction self published book authors may be wondering whether a pen name is appropriate for their self published book.
Whether you work in a different industry, are trying to create unique brands, or you just think a fake name would be cooler, self published author Julie Broad answers the question of ‘should I use a pen name to write my book’?
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Video transcript:
- To be or not to be yourself when you're writing a book.
Considering a pen name when you're writing your book, it's a big decision with long-term implications.
So if you've got a business-building goal, or a brand goal, and a book idea, we just might be the perfect fit to help you bring that idea to life, and achieve your goals.
Now in that journey, one of the questions that you may be considering is whether you should write under your own name.
Now before I get into three reasons why you may want to use a pen name, and three reasons why you may not, I just want to share a really quick story.
One of the most influential people in my early business-building days was a man named Michael Masterson. I read everything he wrote, and bought all his books.
When he had a conference in Florida, I got on a plane and flew down and attended that conference, because I wanted to learn everything he had to teach. Truthfully, I owe a lot of my early business-building success to what I learned from him.
When I met him, I found out his name was not Michael. So there was this awkward thing.
Do I call him Michael, do I call him Mark?
I didn't know what to call him anymore.
And really, there was this thing in my head now. Why couldn't he use his own name?
What is he hiding? What else isn't true?
Again, I'm super grateful for all I learned from him.
But the fact that he had a pen name just was uncomfortable and weird.
So with that in mind, let's talk about whether it makes sense for you.
What would your pen name be? (laughs)
All right, so three reasons why you may want to use a pen name.
NUMBER ONE, privacy is important.
Now let's say that you have insider information for your industry, and you don't want people to know it's coming from you.
Or perhaps you're well-respected in a Corporate America job, and you wanna write about erotica and you don't want all your colleagues to know about your S&M; fetish?
Perhaps you have a famous parent, or perhaps you're famous for something else that's unrelated, and you wanna chart your own course without the burden or benefit of that name.
Those are great reasons to use a pen name.
NUMBER TWO, perhaps you really need to have different brands.
This is happening a lot in the traditionally published world.
We're finding that agents and book publishers are highly recommending people with middle-of-the-road sales, come in and publish under a new name.
Because traditional publishing houses are looking for that breakout author, or their bread and butter that always sells really well.
Now this is more in the fiction world, and if you want to learn more about that I highly recommend you check out Joanna Penn, of the Creative Penn podcast.
She talked about it a lot and has great information. For most nonfiction authors, I think this doesn't really apply, and we'll talk about that in a second.\
NUMBER THREE, because you want a cooler or more marketable name.
I mean let's face it, we're not all born Broads.
You might wanna have a name that has some cachet, like the Book Broad, or Broad-minded,
or Strong as a Broad, or something like that. (laughs) But seriously, you may have a really long name, or it's hard to pronounce, or perhaps you just really wanna bring out your blue-wigged persona.
Those could be good reasons to use a pen name.
All that said, here's the three reasons why I would say, as a nonfiction author, you should use your own name.
NUMBER ONE I covered in that story I shared at the beginning, and it comes down to trust and credibility. You are writing this book to grow your business, build your brand in most cases.
That's very difficult to do if people find out it's not actually you. So use your own name to establish that trust, build the credibility, and showcase who you are and what you know.
NUMBER TWO is confusion.
When somebody knows you as your pen name, but they also know you personally as your real name, who do they introduce you as?
What do they call you?
In public are you Ivana Fakename, and in private you're Julie?