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Can you use a Pen Name instead of your Real Name on your Books (Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble, PDF)

by MovingAround
15 replies
Title says it all.

I know that many writers use a pen name for their articles on their site but when it comes to writing your book (whether PDF hosted in your site or as Kindle on Amazon), can you use your pen name?

I would have anticipated that at least Amazon would want some proof that your real name is associated with the book, not just your pen name. I am looking at it from a copyright protected perspective.

Anyone?

Cheers!
#amazon #barnes #books #kindle #noble #pdf #pen #pen name #real
  • Profile picture of the author danr62
    You can use a pen name on Amazon Kindle. It's very easy to do.

    You sign up for an account with KDP using your real name. I think you have to verify it with you address or something for tax purposes.

    But when you actually upload your book, you can enter a name of your choice as the author.
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  • Profile picture of the author tpw
    I use pen names for all of my Kindle books.

    I get paid under my real name and my real address, but I publish only under pen names.

    It has never been a problem for me.
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    Bill Platt, Oklahoma USA, PlattPublishing.com
    Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
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  • Profile picture of the author mikeink
    Just type in "pen name'' in the search without the quote marks. You will get your answer. There are a few threads regards this.

    or

    Go to Amazon and check there TOS
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    Well let me see. OH yea need to start work on my ???????? again.
    Been working for slave wages to long.

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    • Profile picture of the author marciayudkin
      I use pen names for all of my Kindle books.
      Just wondering, Bill: Do you create a fictitious author bio as well?

      Marcia Yudkin
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      • Profile picture of the author tpw
        Originally Posted by marciayudkin View Post

        Just wondering, Bill: Do you create a fictitious author bio as well?

        Marcia Yudkin

        Yes, I do. But my fictitious bio has a lot in common with the real me.

        The one thing I don't do is to attach photos to my fictitious bio. The last thing I want to have happen is for someone to recognize my pen name as a stock photo.
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        Bill Platt, Oklahoma USA, PlattPublishing.com
        Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
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        • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
          Banned
          Originally Posted by tpw View Post

          my fictitious bio has a lot in common with the real me.
          I've noticed some of them, I'm sure. This one made me suspicious: "Wilhelm Plattski lives with his wife and children somewhere in deepest Oklahoma. When not conducting his harmonica choir at rehearsals and writing his various bestselling books, he can be found running his internet marketing business ..."
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  • Profile picture of the author Alohatom
    Do it all the time for Kindle publishing--just use your real name and in KDP there is an option to use a pen name..simple.
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    "Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing about." ~ Benjamin Franklin

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    • Profile picture of the author MovingAround
      Originally Posted by tpw View Post

      Yes, I do. But my fictitious bio has a lot in common with the real me.

      The one thing I don't do is to attach photos to my fictitious bio. The last thing I want to have happen is for someone to recognize my pen name as a stock photo.
      Originally Posted by Alohatom View Post

      Do it all the time for Kindle publishing--just use your real name and in KDP there is an option to use a pen name..simple.
      Great stuff!

      From another angle, how have you found your readers/customers to be affected by using your pen name and not your real name? Does it detract from your authority? Perhaps less trust? Do readers overall prefer your real name or to know at least that you are using a pen name and not your real name?

      Also, can a pen name be only ONE worded-name (e.g. Matt), from both a copyright and customer trust perspective?

      Cheers.
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      • Profile picture of the author tpw
        Originally Posted by MovingAround View Post

        Great stuff!

        From another angle, how have you found your readers/customers to be affected by using your pen name and not your real name? Does it detract from your authority? Perhaps less trust? Do readers overall prefer your real name or to know at least that you are using a pen name and not your real name?

        Also, can a pen name be only ONE worded-name (e.g. Matt), from both a copyright and customer trust perspective?

        Cheers.

        Would not use the one-word pen name unless your name is Prince.

        Just Kidding about the Prince thing. I would not use a one-word pen name at all.

        From a trust perspective, it does not work.

        Also, I make darn sure that my chosen pen names look like real names.

        It sometimes actually helps with the trust factor. For example, some of my writers are women, and so I choose a female pen name for those titles.

        When a book seems to have been written by a woman and pen named by a man, or vice versa, it creates a disconnect in the mind of the consumer. That is a problem.

        The only other downside of using a pen name is that it limits the marketing you can do with that title. For example, you cannot do the Today Show to pitch your book that was written by a pen name.

        As Paul Gram mentions in the post above this one, another thing to consider is changing your pen name when you change niches. I learned to do this about 8 years ago when I was doing the article marketing thing.

        I, Bill Platt, have a wide range of interests, and I like writing about a number of topics. For years, I had been known by my audience to write about online business. Then I put out a series of articles on American History. My audience was furious!! I started getting hate mail about writing that "history crap" instead of focusing on what I do well.

        Right after that batch of history articles in 2005, I began using pen names every time I switched topics, and I sometimes use more than one pen name within a particular niche.
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        Bill Platt, Oklahoma USA, PlattPublishing.com
        Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
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  • Profile picture of the author coolag
    I believe so. And I advise u don't use your real name.
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  • Profile picture of the author Paul Gram
    Yes you can, and there is nothing wrong with using a pen name. In fact, there are some very rich, very successful authors who use pen names.

    Pen names aren't for everyone though. I'd think hard before choosing to use one because once you commit, you pretty much have to stick with it (within that genre at least) and it can also make it harder to market/brand yourself as an author if you have various pen names.
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  • Profile picture of the author JeniferStarr
    Yes - you can use as many pen names as you want.
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  • Profile picture of the author SlfMastery
    Originally Posted by MovingAround View Post

    Title says it all.

    I know that many writers use a pen name for their articles on their site but when it comes to writing your book (whether PDF hosted in your site or as Kindle on Amazon), can you use your pen name?

    I would have anticipated that at least Amazon would want some proof that your real name is associated with the book, not just your pen name. I am looking at it from a copyright protected perspective.

    Anyone?

    Cheers!
    Yes you can. Many popular authors use a pen name. I believe Mark Twain and George Orwell were two very popular authors.
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    • Profile picture of the author Nathan251
      Yes of course

      don't worry about these type of things, get working on the content - the biggest msitake amongst us newbies is we get bogged down on little details

      "Am i doing this right" , "Is this the correct method?" etc etc and we end up getting nothing done

      Just dive right in there and allow yourself to make some mistakes

      Mistakes are great as they are the best way to learn

      anyway pen names are fine - I have written just one e-book, iabout 5 years ago I messed around a bit and started a novel - a superhero thing called apocalypse man, I got lazy after starting it and left it there, about 5,000 words of it.....then when I was looking to test out how the ebook world worked, I decided to root it out, format it and stick it on the kindle store as a Volume 1 of a series, covers are easily done and I honestly had it up there in a few hours, I could have fretted about all sorts of things but I wanted to go through the process and learn from it - despite almost zero promotion it has earned me about 65 bucks in 2 months - I have even had emails asking me when volume 2 is coming out lol - that might take some time as I will have to write it from scratch but another tip to speed things up is to purchase dragon naturally speaking

      I am learning about all the areas of IM before I focus on a few but my ebook experience is probably the best so far in terms of hours invested for rewards yielded

      I used the most pretentious pen name I could think of and all in all I have to say it was an incredibly easy thing to do - I will certainly be returning to that arena soon
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    Absolutely. People do it all the time. Some people do it even with the ebooks that they sell online.
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