Julie Broad weighs pen names against real names for nonfiction authors. Pen names offer privacy and let you separate genres, but real names build credibility and make it easier to cross-promote your work. For most nonfiction writers, publishing under your actual name is the stronger choice.
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To be or not to be yourself when you're writing a book Considering a pen name when you're writing your book. Well, it's a big decision with long term implications. So stick around and let's discuss whether it makes sense for you or you should steer clear. Hey there. I'm Julie broad with book launchers.com we help people write, publish and promote nonfiction books. So if you've got a business building goal or a brand goal and a book idea, we just might be the perfect fit to help you bring that idea to life and achieve your goals. Now, in that journey, one of the questions that you may be considering is whether you should write under your own name. Now, before I get into three reasons why you may want to use a pen name and three reasons why you may not, I just want to share a really quick story. One of the most influential people in my early business building days was a man named Michael Masterson. I read everything he wrote and bought all his books. And when he had a conference in Florida, I got on a plane and flew down and attended that conference because I wanted to learn everything he had to teach. And truthfully, I owe a lot of my early business building success to what I learned from him. And when I met him, I found out his name was not Michael. So it was this awkward thing. Do I call him Michael? Do I call him Mark? I didn't know what to call him anymore. And really there was this thing in my head now was why couldn't he use his own name? What is he hiding? What else isn't true? Again, I'm super grateful for all I learned from him, but the fact that he had a pen name just was uncomfortable and weird. So with that in mind, let's talk about whether it makes sense to for you. Hello there. What would your pen name be? Alright, so three reasons why you may want to use a pen name. Number one, privacy is important. Now let's say that you have insider information for your industry and you don't want people to know it's coming from you. Or perhaps you're well respected in a corporate America job and you want to write about erotica and you don't want all your colleagues to know about your S and M fetish. Perhaps, perhaps you have a famous parent or perhaps you're famous for something else that's unrelated and you want to chart your own course without the burden or benefit of that name. Those are great reasons to use a pen name. Number two, perhaps you really need to have different brands and this is happening a Lot. In the traditionally published world, we're finding that agents and book publishers are highly recommending people with middle of the road sales come in and publish under a new name because traditional publishing houses are looking for that breakout author or their bread and butter. That always sells really well. Now this is more in the fiction world and if you want to learn more about that, I highly recommend you check out Joanna Penn of the Creative Pen's podcast. She talks about it a lot and has great information. For most nonfiction authors, I think this doesn't really apply and we'll talk about that in a second. Number three because you want a cooler or more marketable name. I mean, let's face it, we're not all born and you might want to have a name that has some, you know, cache like the book broad or broad minded or Strong as a broad or something like that. But seriously, you may have a really long name or it's hard to pronounce, or perhaps you just really want to bring out your blue wigged Persona. Those could be good reasons to use a pen name. All that said, here's the three reasons why I would say as a nonfiction author, you should use your own name. Number one, I covered in that story I shared at the beginning and it comes down to trust and credibility. You are writing this book to grow your business, build your brand in most cases, and that's very difficult to do if people find out it's not actually you. So use your own name to establish that trust, build the credibility and showcase who you are and what you know. Number two is confusion when somebody knows you as your pen name, but they also know you personally as your real name. Who, who do they introduce you as? What do they call you in public? Are you Ivana Fake name and in private you're Julie? This could get really confusing. Like I said, I didn't know whether to call Mark Michael or Michael Mark. I didn't know. And so it gets confusing for you. Go to a conference, what do you put on your name tag and it's confusing for other people. They won't know who to call, what to call you, or who to refer people to. Number three is marketability. Because even if you're writing in different categories, there's cross promotion and there's people who are going to read everything you write no matter what category it falls into. So you don't need to create different brands in each category. In fact, here's a fun fact for you. I am well known in Canada as a real estate investing expert. When I opened book launchers and started helping people write, publish and sell a brand boosting book. My first 10 authors were people who knew me as a real estate expert. Why would they write and publish a book with me when they know me as a real estate expert? And because they know me, they trust me, they believe in me. Julie brought As a result, it creates massive credibility and trust which you'll lose if you go by Ivana Fake name. Whew. Well, it's fun to be someone else for a minute, but when it comes to writing and publishing a brand building and business boosting book, you probably don't want any confusion over whether somebody's talking to Julie or Ivana Fake name. You want them to know who they're talking to, trust you, have credibility and of course be able to tell their friends about their friend Julie, not this fake person that they aren't sure who you are and who they're recommending. Now really important. If you like the blue wig, give this video a thumbs up. And if you want me to wear a different color wig, put it in the comments along with any questions you might have about writing, publishing, or selling a nonfiction book. And subscribe to the channel so that you can see me wear whatever colored wig it is that you ask for. See you in the next video. Okay, it's the blue wig. It's not my fault.
