Pen Names?

Should I choose a pen name?

“Ciara,” you are thinking to yourself, “we are all tired of hearing about your name. We know how to pronounce it already, give it a rest!” But yesterday I saw a post on Redlines and Deadlines, the Ellora’s Cave Editors blog, that made me nervous:

Make absolutely sure that readers will be able to remember, pronounce, and spell your name! Repeat after me: remember, pronounce, spell. That sounds simple, but a lot of writers screw it up by picking elaborate or oddly spelled or supposedly “meaningful” pen names, in an effort to be unique. Well, that name is not meaningful to readers if they can’t find your website or look you up on Amazon because they don’t remember your name or aren’t spelling it right. And they won’t discuss you or recommend you to others if they are afraid of embarassing themselves by mispronouncing your name.

Most authors chose pen names for privacy issues. Privacy? What’s that? Ciara Stewart is my real name. Mr. Wonderful, being a professional blogger, Adobe evangelist, and all around tech geek, has already committed every small detail of his life (and therefore most of mine) to the internet. Between twitter, flickr, facebook, myspace, brightkite, spot, and goodness knows what else, we iz famiz on the internetz. Mr. Wonderful says, “Well, they know our apartment, but they don’t know our apartment number!” Uh huh. That’s reassuring. But I digress.

My concern is “remember, pronounce, and spell” my name. Even Keira Knightly changed her name for us silly Americans (it is really Kiera). I can’t depend on Jeri Smith-Ready educating the entire romance and fantasy reading populace on the correct pronunciation of Ciara. lol. (Though I appreciate her efforts!)

I don’t believe in having multiple pen names. If I like an author I want it to be EASY to locate other books written by that author. Perhaps if an author writes in multiple genres, like erotica and YA, but not across subgenres. I don’t understand why Jayne Ann Krantz has so MANY different names. Sure branding is important, but so is making sure your fans can find you!

So the question I pose to you is this: Should I Anglicize Ciara? I could be Keira or Kira. Maybe Kira MacKiernan. :) Riiight.

We could try the porn star naming game: Your first pet and the first street you lived on. I’d be Shadow Burke.

What would you choose for your pen name (or porn name)? Have you heard any that were outright ridiculous?

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