Pen name
In some cases, such as those of Elena Ferrante and Torsten Krol, a pen name may preserve an author's long-term anonymity.
Romance writer Nora Roberts writes erotic thrillers under the pen name J. D. Robb (such books were originally listed as by "J. D. Robb" and are now titled "Nora Roberts writing as J. D. Robb"); Scots writer Iain Banks wrote mainstream or literary fiction under his own name and science fiction under Iain M. Banks; Samuel Langhorne Clemens used the aliases Mark Twain and Sieur Louis de Conte for different works.
[6] Eventually, after critics found a large number of style similarities, publishers revealed Bachman's true identity.
Daniel Handler used the pseudonym Lemony Snicket to present his A Series of Unfortunate Events books as memoirs by an acquaintance of the main characters.
Authors also may occasionally choose pen names to appear in more favorable positions in bookshops or libraries, to maximize visibility when placed on shelves that are conventionally arranged alphabetically moving horizontally, then upwards vertically.
French-Savoyard writer and poet Amélie Gex chose to publish as Dian de Jeânna ("John, son of Jane") during the first half of her career.
The science fiction author Alice B. Sheldon for many years published under the masculine name of James Tiptree, Jr., the discovery of which led to a deep discussion of gender in the genre.
More recently, women who write in genres commonly written by men sometimes choose to use initials, such as K. A. Applegate, C. J. Cherryh, P. N. Elrod, D. C. Fontana, S. E. Hinton, G. A. Riplinger, J. D. Robb, and J. K.
Novellas and paperback books credited to Maxwell Grant, featuring the adventures of The Shadow, were written largely by Walter B. Gibson but other writers contributed to the series.
Similarly, Nancy Drew mystery books are published as though they were written by Carolyn Keene, The Hardy Boys books are published as the work of Franklin W. Dixon, and The Bobbsey Twins series are credited to Laura Lee Hope, although numerous authors have been involved in each series.
The writers of Atlanta Nights, a deliberately bad book intended to embarrass the publishing firm PublishAmerica,[citation needed] used the pen name Travis Tea.
[9] The Australian fiction collaborators who write under the pen name Alice Campion are a group of women who have so far written The Painted Sky (2015) and The Shifting Light (2017).
The three men chose the name "Publius" because it recalled the founder of the Roman Republic and using it implied a positive intention.
[12] In pure mathematics, Nicolas Bourbaki is the pseudonym of a group of mostly French-connected mathematicians attempting to expose the field in an axiomatic and self-contained, encyclopedic form.
In Italy, two anonymous groups of writers have gained some popularity with the collective names of Luther Blissett and Wu Ming.
Composers of Indian classical music used pen names in compositions to assert authorship, including Sadarang, Gunarang (Fayyaz Ahmed Khan), Ada Rang (court musician of Muhammad Shah), Sabrang (Bade Ghulam Ali Khan), and Ramrang (Ramashreya Jha).
Similar to a pen name, Japanese artists usually have a gō or art-name, which might change a number of times during their career.
In some cases, artists adopted different gō at different stages of their career, usually to mark significant changes in their life.
