Authors Names

Darthshearer

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I was thinking t'other day about authors who have more than one "name" e.g Stephen King & Bauchman.

Why do they do this?
 

tRoG

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I've heard about quite a few authors getting little modifications to their names, apparently because it will make the book sell better :p
I presume having a second name would be a way of disassociating yourself from your other works, when your other stuff would put off prospective customers.

There was even a bloke on Richard & Judy* the other day who had been published under a woman's name. The publishers said the book wouldn't sell otherwise.

*Yes, I watch this.
 

Vesania

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Different reasons for different authors, but the majority comes down to publishers making decisions that they believe will help a title sell, whether that's by preserving an author's credibility in a certain genre or using a name that the market is more likely to identify with. A science-fiction title might not go down so well if it carries the name of a well-known romance author, for example.
 

SAS

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Problem is Stepthen King has a number of other names. I think it's because of his fan base and sometimes he wants to release a book that no one knows his name thereby giving him access to fresh unbiased views about his writing, and allows him to try something new other than horror?

Also my name "Scott Grenney" would sell no books as it does not sound right? (Currently writing a zombie horror novel and will have to decided to change my name if I try and get it published, or keep my real name?)
 

Munkey

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Also some eccentric chap might want to see if he's still a good author by publishing a book under a different name. If they buy it and its rated good, voila. He's still a good author, compared to people rushing out and buying it on the name of the author
 

Gengi

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Robert Ludlum is a fairly well known case of this. if you check his book titles they are all 3 words with 'The ------- ---------' as the format. He wrote a couple of comedy/crime books, the Road to Gondolfo being the first, and his publishers would not let him use the name Robert Ludlum as they said it would net be beneficial to the 'brand' that he had created with his spy/thriller type books. He also wrote 'The Cry of the Halidon' which, although a thriller did not comply with the three word titles for which he had become famous and so again a nom de plume was used. A few years ago as he was alreay extremely rich he went 'public' and the non three word title books can now be found under his name.

Later
 

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