In today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* Pen Names Revisited
* Working Into a New Schedule
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“You as the writer are just the conduit.” Vin Zandri in Episode #805: Write Only For Yourself
As I commented on the video, “Easy for me. I just run through the trenches of the story with the characters, write what happens, and what the characters say and do in response. And if anyone asks why I wrote whatever dialogue or setting, I just shrug. “‘Cause that’s what happened.”
Seriously, all I do as a writer is move my fingers. Every word of every story or novel comes directly from the characters.
Pen Names Revisited
Peggy K left a comment on the post from a couple of days ago: “The other issue about pen names is privacy.”
Of course, that is a very valid point. But my main point in the post was that all of your writing — with the exception or two that I mentioned in the post — should be in one name. I’ll stick with that.
Publishing under one name is how you build inventory under that name, and the more inventory you have published, the greater your discoverability.
Say you publish a novel every month. If you write under four genres, each under a different pen name, at the end of the year you will have published only 3 titles per pen name.
If all of those were published under one name, you would have twelve novels and much greater discoverability.
I know at least one bestselling Romance author who writes everything under a single pen name, and that seems to work for her. I can’t claim to know her reasons — we’ve never talked about it — but I theorize she does so because her pen name harkens back to the romance novels of the Regency period.
She reads this Journal. Perhaps she will elaborate in a comment. (grin) If you enjoy Romance, check out the works of USA Today bestselling author Diane Darcy.
Stephen King wrote several stories and books under the pen name Richard Bachman, but he was later outed by a book store clerk.
During the Pulp Era, prolific writers used pen names for a very practical reason: they were turning out so many manuscripts so often that publishers wouldn’t consider them. Readers might not buy magazines filled with one writer’s work.
When the writers started using pen names, they could sell multiple stories to the same magazines (and book publishers) under different names.
If you’re still stuck in the agent-tradpub mindset, and if you’re prolific, that might also be a reason to use different pen names even within the same genre: because you’re just putting out too much work.
That’s another thing I love about the time we are living in. I can write whatever I want (I write across five or six different genres) and I can publish as often as I like. And with the exception of erotica (“Which I no longer write,” he said) and magic realism (Gervasio Arrancado) I do all of that under one name.
So it all boils down to whether you want to give readers the best chance of fining your books.
For much more, key “Pen Names” into the Search box at the Journal website. And while you’re browsing and enjoying a cuppa, check out my books and the discounts you can get at StoneThread Publishing.
Working Into a New Schedule
I’m slowly working into a new schedule, or actually the one I slipped out of a couple of years ago.
I sacked out last night at 7:30. I awoke this morning at 3:30, and the first thought on my mind was to rush to the Hovel to get back into the novel. (grin) What a great feeling!
Of course I had to brew my coffee and get dressed first (yes, in that order) and now only this is delaying me, so I’ll end this a little early this morning.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “Diane Darcy” at https://www.dianedarcy.com/.
See “Special Stretch Goal” at https://deanwesleysmith.com/special-stretch-goal-2/.
See “Amazon’s Latest Actions Against Fake Review Brokers…” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/amazons-latest-actions-against-fake-review-brokers-2-fraudsters-found-guilty-of-facilitating-fake-reviews-in-amazons-store/.
The Numbers
The Journal……………………………… 690
Writing of Blackwell Ops 10: Jeremy Stiles
The Way Things Go
Day 1…… 1635 words. To date…… 1635
Day 2…… 2464 words. To date…… 4099
Day 3…… 1615 words. To date…… 5714
Day 4…… 3808 words. To date…… 9522
Day 5…… 2057 words. To date…… 11579
Day 6…… 3563 words. To date…… 15142
Day 7…… 1881 words. To date…… 17023
Day 8…… 3047 words. To date…… 20070
Day 9…… 2588 words. To date…… 22658
Fiction for September…………………… 34640
Fiction since August 1………………… 129014
Fiction for 2023………………………… 184361
Nonfiction for September……………… 11610
Nonfiction for the year……………… 186080
Annual consumable words………… 373029
2023 Novels to Date……………………… 3
2023 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2023 Short Stories to Date……………… 4
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………… 74
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)… 232
Short story collections…………………… 31
Disclaimer: I am a prolific professional fiction writer. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Unreasoning fear and the myths of writing will slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.