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SFReader Forums > SFReader > Ask The Expert > How do you establish a pen name?

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Hermit
Diavhrati Luminary

Date Joined May 2007
Total Posts : 1729

Posted 7/19/2007 5:40 PM (GMT -5)

Do you have to file it with some agency?

When submitting, do you need to reveal that the work is by you under a nom de plume?

Exile of my own dull vice. . .

crystalwizard
Forum Moderator

Date Joined Nov 2006
Total Posts : 5004

Posted 7/19/2007 8:40 PM (GMT -5)

I just put it on everything and tell people I'm submitting to that I'm using the pen name of crystalwizard.

I suppose you could go file a DBA (doing business as) with your local county if you felt the need.

Never meddle in the affairs of a wizard unless you are soggy and hard to light!

Visit my art gallery on art wanted at
http://artwanted.com/crystalwizard

All my books in print:
http://sojourn.omnitech.net

UnclePete
Weasel Overlord

Date Joined Dec 2004
Total Posts : 311

Posted 7/19/2007 10:49 PM (GMT -5)

I think the only time you'd need to get into that is if you were having cheques written to you pen name - anyone?

____________
"The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers." --Thomas Jefferson
http://www.creativeguypublishing.com

Rob Santa
Sage

Date Joined Apr 2004
Total Posts : 1455

Posted 7/19/2007 11:50 PM (GMT -5)

Nope, checks don't get written to the pen name. They get written to the real name.

The established way to do it on manuscripts is as follows (imagine this is a manuscript header for page 1):

Robert J. Santa 5,500 words
112 Main Street
Anytown, USA 12345
rrsanta@comcast.org
555-111-2345

Here's My Great Story
by M. Frederick Smythe

And that's it. The pen name is the byline under the title. That's what the editor uses in the ToC, on the cover blurb, on everything. No reader would ever see "Robert J. Santa." As far as they're concerned, Fred Smythe wrote that story. Check to Rob Santa. Credit to Fred Smythe.

If you don't include a name at the upperleft then it is assumed the byline is your real name.

Rob Santa

Hopelessly Addicted Writer of Speculative Fiction

and CEO of Ricasso Press

crystalwizard
Forum Moderator

Date Joined Nov 2006
Total Posts : 5004

Posted 7/20/2007 12:09 AM (GMT -5)

Thanks Rob,
That's extremely useful information, at least for me.

Camille Alexa
fictionista

Date Joined Jun 2007
Total Posts : 628

Posted 7/20/2007 12:56 AM (GMT -5)

Rob Santa said...
Nope, checks don't get written to the pen name. They get written to the real name.

The established way to do it on manuscripts is as follows (imagine this is a manuscript header for page 1):

Robert J. Santa 5,500 words
112 Main Street
Anytown, USA 12345
rrsanta@comcast.org
555-111-2345

Here's My Great Story
by M. Frederick Smythe

And that's it....

That's standard format. Some agents and publishers ask that in e-mail correspondence you also mention your pen name along with your real name (so the two are connected on all elements of the correspondence).

So, if you sent your story (or poem or humorous article) to an editor for consideration, you send the attached submission just as Mr. Santa proposes, then on your e-mail cover sheet you include the pen name at the bottom:

"Thanks for considering My Great Story,

Robert J. Santa (writing as M. Frederick Smythe)"

I suspect many don't care about this part, but it kind of makes sense. I suppose it might be especially useful for an author who uses multiple pen names for multiple projects (it's very common for an erotica author to use a different pen name for her children's books or cozy mysteries or what-have-you).

Hermit
Diavhrati Luminary

Date Joined May 2007
Total Posts : 1729

Posted 7/20/2007 9:16 AM (GMT -5)

Wait. Can it be this simple?

Thanks for the input. Greatly appreciate it.

Exile of my own dull vice. . .

von Darkmoor
Small Press Publisher (and Dancer still)

Date Joined Dec 2005
Total Posts : 3056

Posted 7/20/2007 11:47 AM (GMT -5)

This information, however, is NOT to be used to create a second identity with which to bolster any arguments within any other threads.

~~~~~~~~~~
Jason M. Waltz
Fantasy Acquisitions Editor Staffs & Starships Magazine
~~~~~~~~~~
Ever waltz with the Devil? Or devil with a Waltz? Visit von Darkmoor's thoughts to find out (and read a review or two).

Hermit
Diavhrati Luminary

Date Joined May 2007
Total Posts : 1729

Posted 7/20/2007 5:07 PM (GMT -5)

Never considered it. If I need backup, I'll crawl to my library and pull out the big guns. Especially as regards to poetry/sonnetry.

Besides, I have a lousy time with user names and passwords. I lose them more often than I lose my train of . . . oooohh, cookies. goto go

Howard von Darkmoor said...
This information, however, is NOT to be used to create a second identity with which to bolster any arguments within any other threads.

Exile of my own dull vice. . .

MichaelEhart
Sage

Date Joined Jul 2005
Total Posts : 2336

Posted 7/20/2007 7:21 PM (GMT -5)

I found this handy site--- for as little as $.49 each in 100 lot, you can have named pens.

http://www.yournamehere.net.au/product.php?ProductId=2

Read me in 2007!

"The View From the Shotglass Floor" Ray Gun Revival, Feb 2007

"Voice of the Spoiler" The Sword Review, June 2007

"Servant of the Manthycore" The Sword Review, July 2007

"Darkling I Listen; and for Many a Time" Fear and Trembling, coming soon!

"Weaving Spiders Come Not Here" The Sword Review, August 2007

"Six Zombies Doing That Mick Jagger Strut" Damned in Dixie, Summer 2007

"Nothing But Our Tears" The Sword Review, September 2007

"Night of Shadows, Night of Knives" Magic and Mechanica, Fall 2007

"The Scarlet Colored Beast" The Sword Review, October 2007

"The Stars by Law, Forbidden" Unparalleled Journeys II, November 2007

http://mehart.blogspot.com/

Hermit
Diavhrati Luminary

Date Joined May 2007
Total Posts : 1729

Posted 7/20/2007 7:39 PM (GMT -5)

No. no. no. We wanted pennames, not named pens.

I suddenly have a lunatic craving for tuna casserole!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MichaelEhart said...

I found this handy site--- for as little as $.49 each in 100 lot, you can have named pens.

http://www.yournamehere.net.au/product.php?ProductId=2

Exile of my own dull vice. . .

Dru
Bemused Bystander

Date Joined Jul 2007
Total Posts : 33

Posted 7/26/2007 9:57 PM (GMT -5)

Note that if you're sending a story through an database-run submission queue like The Harrow's, you should create your initial account under your pen name, NOT your actual name. You can provide your real name in the "comments" box, or just sign it on the contract with a note explaining the discrepancy after your story has been accepted.

The reason for this is because the journal database automatically generates the TOC using whatever name is associated with the story file. I often have to manually edit a file's metadata because an author created an account using a real name instead of a pen name, or entered a submission's title all in lowercase, etc. It's a bit of a pain.

The Harrow
The Mark of Ashen Wings
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Clockwork Heart
Coming from Juno Books
February 2008
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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