Every writer has to make the choice at some point – to use their real name or write under a pseudonym. But what message does the author’s name send to readers?
Have a look at the book you are reading. Not what you are reading, but who is the person behind the words? Is the writer a male or female? When you pick up a book, do you look at the author and judge the book based on that? I have to say I do, especially since I have started writing. I know how much work goes into every word and understand how the book’s characters each come from a different place somewhere deep inside the author.
Judging books by their covers.
Humans are inherently judgemental creatures. We constantly process information about everything we see and form our own set of ideas about it. It is a commonly held belief that book covers are here to stay, even with the rise and rise of self-publishing and eBooks. The title, image, font, colour and size of the book are carefully chosen by the marketers to communicate a message to readers. This research from 2015 seems to confirm that covers communicate genre effectively to the reader.
The author’s name is another part of the whole look of the book that suggests something to me about what I will find inside.
That which we call a rose; By any other name would smell as sweet.
– William Shakespeare
Pseudonyms
A conversation in a writing forum, about pen names, sparked my interest in this topic: Should all authors use a pseudonym? Authors are subjected to such scrutiny when they rise to fame, writes Anna Maxted, that a pen name is an author’s best friend. She argues that authors can preserve their anonymity or uphold a brand, or if their real name is not memorable or hard to spell. Some have different pseudonyms depending on which genre they are writing in, ie the author perhaps wants to avoid the audience of the children’s books finding one of their erotic romance novels (“Mummy, look! Let’s get ‘The Dirty Cowboy’ out. It’s by my favourite author!”).
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Another reason to use a pen-name is to obscure gender. The Bronte sisters did it, back when it was frowned upon for women to write novels. But have we actually made much progress since then? Nora Roberts, who is a prolific romance writer also writes as J.D.Robb for her romantic suspense books. John Boyne discusses some of the other double standards he has noticed when it comes to women in the publishing industry, stating that some men like to brag they don’t read books written by women.
Among Science Fiction and Fantasy authors, the trend is even more prolific. Ursula K LeGuin once sold a story to Playboy under U. K. Le Guin. Megan Lindholm uses the name Robin Hobb for her Fantasy ‘Assassin’s Apprentice’ series as that was seen as edgier than her other work. Joanne Rowling was famously asked to use her initials by her publishers for Harry Potter. She obviously did quite well with that. It is interesting that she used a pseudonym again with Robert Galbraith’s books, after the fame and riches.
Stereotypes
So, what are the biases that a gendered author name projects?
Books by female authors have traditionally been viewed as depicting a smaller range of experiences, more emotional and less action, while men took on the universal themes. Men write in detail about topics they are knowledgeable about; women tend to write about how the characters feel about the events.
But this view may be changing. In this article about the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2018 longlist, the judges describe the books as being more outward looking, adventurous, with a breadth of themes enhanced by the writers’ rich life experience. As women have become educated in a range of topics and work in a variety of professions in the last thirty years, surely the topics they write about confidently will broaden.
These days, men sometimes use pseudonyms to preserve their identity too. This article discusses the growing demand for crime thrillers written by women, thereby increasing the number of men who use female pen names. Part of this phenomenon is the growing readership of all sorts of fiction by women. If women are the largest market of fiction, then that market will create increased demand for women authors in different genres.
Perhaps readers and writers can shift the stereotypes by reading widely in literature by both males and females. A man can write historical romance well; women can write amazing science fiction. If a writer can jump into the mind of a serial killer or an ancient queen, is it that much of a stretch to think that he or she can convincingly write from the other gender’s point of view?
Honestly, it makes me a little sad that women have to consider writing as a man in order to be taken seriously in some genres. In this day and age. Don’t even get me started on the debate about what ‘Women’s Fiction’ is! But it is still commonly given advice that some genres need to publish under a gender-neutral name.
Leave me a comment below. Let me know what you think.
Do you take into account the author’s gender?
Do you only read books by men / books by women? Have you read any that were surprising?
Can women convincingly write from a male point of view? And vice versa?