Writing Names and Dilemmas
Posted: Tuesday, July 21, 2009
by Jean Purcell
OpineBooks.com
A very personal book about a painful and ultimately joyful time in my life led me to choose a pen name. It's a blend of my legal given name, Jean, as an anagram, Jane, and my maternal grandmother's family name, Bullard .
When a hometown friend advised me to choose a pen name for my book, I saw advantages. I was living far from home, married to a man who was a leader of a global inter-government organization based in Geneva, Switzerland. I did not have full right, I felt, to draw attention to our past in such a public way. He faced enough political pressures without more! Also, my book of course included family names of people who never asked to be in a book!
My friend's advice made sense, for privacy's sake. I polled my brothers and mother. My dad had died 12 years before. They felt it might be a good idea and got excited about choosing their own names for me to insert in the book.
Within a day everyone, including my husband, had chosen his or her alternate name. I've apologized to my daughters for choosing theirs for them, their middle names. They tease me that I even gave our favorite dog of the past a false name, changing Rascal to Wags! Was that going too far?!
My expectations soon included that I would write more books. Having a publisher, I assumed that the book would be in his company's hands and I could move on. That was 13 years ago, when writers did not do as much marketing as they must do now.
When I moved back to the U. S. two years after publication, I realized that the U.K. publisher did not have U. S. distribution rights. My husband and I felt responsible for our story, Not All Roads Lead Home. We decided to try to buy all rights to it. The publisher agreed, if he could keep some copies.
Owning the book, I soon realized that we would need a web site and a new ISBN. To do that, it would be wise, we decided, to form a company to handle taxes, ID, and other business-related matters.
Soon after our return to the U. S., we had bought a little cabin in a small woods near an estuary of the Chesapeake Bay. We wanted to name the place, and en route one week end we mulled over choices. Both of us are Sherlock Holmes fans . Holmes often "opined" about clues and solution possibilities for his cases to solve. We investigated further and saw the root of "opine" means to think, reason, believe.
That fit our hopes for the cabin, a place to get away, relax, read, and also think and plan. "Little Opine" became a place where we met new neighbors of a small village, enjoyed flea markets and old barns full of old furniture and things to furnish it on the eastern shore of Maryland. We also had plumbing and other property details to deal with. Three years later when we sold the place, its name had affected our naming of our new company, Opine Publishing.
When I became a publisher, I knew I had to earn the title. A fast learning curve often, for a while, made my head feel about to explode. My husband wanted only to deal with giving feedback, encouragement, and handling finances. That was fine and fit us. Meanwhile, a friend wrote a study guide, or readers' resource, for Not All Roads Lead Home, for we'd learned those had become more popular for books in the U. S. while we were away.
That 2001 resource for Not All Roadsby "Jane Bullard" was the first original publication from Opine Publishing. By then, a friend had volunteered to help me and she formatted the guide into booklet page arrangements, ready for a Maryland printer to assemble it as a saddle-stitched (interior stapling) booklet, with their cover art and printing.
Meanwhile, I had to begin to learn marketing. Not only business marketing, but also book business marketing.
To keep writing in the midst of all of that, I began to write on the Internet. Writing for SearchWarp.com began a sort of "love affair" with SW. I liked the feel of the community right away and the friendly tone of Jean and Bruce, plus the availability of others on staff.
I wrote on Search Warp as "Jane Bullard." After all, that was my pen name, my writing name. That went on for a few years.
Over time, however, as I've mentored writers and consulted, and as I've dealt with industry people, some confusion has arisen: "Who are you? Which one?" I am now finishing a second book, written from a publisher's and a writer's perspectives. It's for writers. I am sharing publishing knowledge as a publisher and a writer. As I e-mail or talk with industry people, which name should I use? More confusion has arisen, and most of all I have not wanted to mislead anyone.
Pen names are common, but not in such cases, I think. Most writers are, wisely I think, writers only. I have always identified myself, when writing on-line, as "Jane Bullard (pen name)."
Feedback has shown me that some people want me to write the new book under my publishing name, my legal name. I've felt that using my pen name might need to come to an end, unless I write another book related to Not All Roads.
I have no way to know how readers feel about these name changes unless I ask. I'd love, especially, to hear from you, SW writers, my closest writing community on line. Your lives and writing are important to me.
This process has already drawn us closer, for you've seen more of my quirks. I appreciate all SW writers I've come to know a little or a lot through the years.
If you've read this far, you know I'd love to hear from you. For you, I would return to SW as Jane. I have no idea, so far, if it even matters, but maybe I should have asked you first. Blessings to each of you! I hope you'll let me know!
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Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)Jane,I believe that you trusted, prayed and asked the Lord for His direction in this matter which is what counts.I didn't really think it is a decision for me to make with the name change. I was kind of naive when I saw a different name, and hoped everything was alright. I was wondering who you were and was pleasantly surprised. The funny thing also was I hadn't been on SW and I was clicking and there you were. I also believe you were here to be blessed and encouraged.Thank you for sharing and keep up the wonderful writing. Although I have been pretty silent lately, I love the transparency you always show.Love, hugs and blessings.MichelleDear Michelle,I did give it lots of thought and felt that the Lord did not want me to continue in confusion or confusing others. But the change may be temporarily confusing. I do have freedom to write under my pen name for SW, but wasn't sure what to do. I'm even missing Jane as my SW name! All of your words and the sincerity of your encouragement mean a lot to me. Thank you!~Jane
I have considered using a pen name as well, but could not do it. Even when I wrote the very personal "No Time for Despair" series, that is a precursor to a book.But I can't fault you for doing so. I can understand your reasons.I can't see any reason for confusion, as long as folks know about your "names."Dear Ken,
Thanks for telling me your reaction. I'm glad that you did not feel a pen name was necessary for your personal story. I am now curious about why other writers chose them.
I pray that your book continues to develop and be ready in its due time!
Blessings,
Jean/Jane
I see both sides of this, as usual. I agree with Michele and Ken, too. I discovered your pen when you mentioned your (Deirdre) daughter in one of your articles. I miss her articles so much but understand the demands on our lives. I didn't feel slighted in the least or that you were being deceptive.
I respect your choice to do what you feel is in line with the life God has given you to live. If you get it right with Him, we should be fine with that. I also respect your decision to write about it, too. It would be wonderful if we weren't so hasty to react negatively if we do not know or understand something. Neutral is a better place.
Praying all is well with you, Dear Jane Bullard/Jean Purcell. Blessings!
AvisDear Avis,
It's always good to be in touch. I'm going to write more about pen names, including in a book for Christian writers that I'm working on. Recently I decided to publish it under my legal name when I realized the lines were blurring.
I think most writers with pen names do not keep the fact secret. I am interested to learn their motivations - for example, Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain, and many others.
The writer intending never to get into other related phases might feel comfortable with pen name, but once the edges begin to blur, a choice is ahead. At least, that is what I discovered.
More to share.
Jane/Jean
hi friend,i saboutaged a lot of my writing by not using a pen name.there are those who read my articles, that i donot want to know my business! a pen name would have been the smart way to go, but then, would i really be staying true to myself?i think if i wrote a book, and people loved it, i'd like them to know my real name.if they hated it, yeah for using the pen name :)i think "to thine own self be true" is the answer, and only you can figure out what that is. we readers simply enjoy the work.thanks for an interesting article that makes one think,my best to you,sueHi, Sue,
Thanks for your comments! I understand your feelings about how people could use against you (or those you love) what you share from your heart. I believe choosing a pen name is a very personal matter. Also, moving away from one is the same.
God does not like confusion. I've always made public that Jane is my pen name. But I never expected in the years after my book was published to become a publisher and writing advisor/consultant.
One thing a temporary pen name can do, I learned, is to put a necessary distance, or objectivity, between the writer and the story. When I did that with my book's final draft, I realized the book had much that was significant to me personally but not significant to moving the true story. They were vignettes of earlier years that slowed the book, for they were unrelated. I could have used a pen name that far, and then still published under my real name.
This subject is becoming again a big interest for me.Thanks for your viewpoint!!
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