Today, for their Road Trip Wednesday feature, YA Highway asked: If you couldn’t use your own name, what would your pseudonym or penname be?
This is a question that, due to my own over-thinking about branding and the future, I’ve already dealt with in small ways.
My original penname was just my full name, ‘Emma Maree Urquhart’, but for future books I’m shortening my penname to just ‘Emma Maree’.
It’s short, it’s memorable, it makes a snazzy URL, it’s easier to spell and pronounce than ‘Urquhart’ (Urk-hart), and it helps avoid any fussing about if I ever have to change my maiden name.
I wouldn’t mind trying out a brand new name if I ever had to write anonymously, it would be kind of fun to create a new identity from the ground up. I think it would have to have either a nice ring to it, or a subtle pun there somewhere – most of my favorite pseudonyms do (Frank Quitely, for instance).
EDIT: Thanks to the lovely Colin in the comments, I’ve now decided my super-anonymous(/gender neutral) pseudonym is: M. Amaree. :D Ta-da!
Juliana Haygert says
Urquhart sounds like a name out of Christopher Paolini’s book lol
I like your penname as it is too!
I chose Julie Dark! HAHA! Cheesy, I know ;)
E.Maree says
Julie Dark is a great pen name, it sounds like an urban fantasy heroine. :D
Colin says
How about M. Amaree? :D Yes, we could have far too much fun with this!
That’s an interesting point about not having to worry if your surname changes. I know some authors don’t change their names (which might upset her spouse, if he cares about that–clearly JK Rowling’s husband didn’t insist she publish the rest of the Potter series as JK Murray… but I wonder if she’ll publish under Murray from now on?), or perhaps use a hyphenated surname, or include their old surname as a middle name. But you’re right, dropping the surname altogether gets around the entire issue.
E.Maree says
M. Amaree, I love that! I never even though of that, it’s brilliant.
I think JK Rowling changing her name would be career suicide. That name is worth its weight in gold. (There must be a J Rowling out there somewhere with a book on the shelves, that would be some useful placement!)
I’ve seen some discussions by authors who’ve used their married name on their books, then had the unfortunate circumstances of a divorce… I think a lot of writers stick to their maiden name when writing for this reason.
Double-barreled surnames are a whole other nightmare, because bookstores vary on how they place double-barreled authors – some do it by the first name in the double-barrel, others do it by the last name.
Being female (or male and willing to take your spouse’s name, as some do) seems to add a few unique challenges to the whole penname business.
Marilyn Almodóvar (@LynAlmodovar) says
I love your pen name. I’m starting to think that I’m not very nice. LOL I decided to keep my maiden name which is hard to pronounce and hard to write… Oh well LOL
katharine owens says
Emma is one of my all time fave names (it was my grandmother’s name and she rocked!) I like Emma Maree, and M. Amaree is also fab.
Sarah says
I like your pen name! It’s very pretty and sounds poetic when I say it out loud. Having a hard-to-pronounce or really unusual last name makes it memorable, but you don’t want to make it hard for people to google or search for your book in a library or something. So I think you chose wisely!
Robin Moran says
Emma Maree sounds good. Very snazzy and easy to pronounce. I have trouble with my surname too. For some reason nobody understands what I’m saying when I say Moran. They ask me to repeat it, like, five times.
kate scott says
I like Emma Maree a lot. Having a last name that is hard to prounce or spell like Urquhurt may make it harder for future readers to find your books via online searches. So Maree is a great last name to go with.
Jaime says
I like your chosen name, it has a ring to it =) I think sometimes it’s best to go with what’s easiest, and shortening your name down seems like exactly that. Good choice!
E.Maree says
Thanks Jaime! Your name is pretty too. :D
Arianna Sterling says
I think your name is very pretty! And easy to remember, for that matter.
Donelle Lacy says
Hmmm. I see your mind working here. So many options! I have to pause in between my first and last name so they don’t just run together, since my last name starts with the same sound my first name ends with. Yours is like that too. So, I’d only make one little change to Colin’s suggestion. M. Maree. People would pronounce it “Emm Maree” anyway.
My own take on the pseudonym is topic here: http://dverted.blogspot.com/2012/01/roadtrip-you-who-are-you.html
Cassi Haggard says
I like Emma Maree. It’s easy without being bland. Lots of vowels too and I have like vowels. This was a hard question for me because I just love my real name. So I wrote a bit about that and put up a poll on my blog to get other people’s opinions (Really it’s silly, I picked odd family names for it)