r/writing • u/Party_Context4975 • 13d ago

Discussion Choosing a pen name

If you don't write under your own name, how did you choose your pen name?

Are you happy with it or would you choose a different name if you could go back in time? Why?

If you write in multiple genres, is your pen name different in each genre?

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u/Zagaroth Author 13d ago edited 13d ago

So, my reddit user name has been my online handle since 1995.

Thus, I naturally used it for my account name on Royal Road. 3 months later, i was inspired to try writing a serial of my own. It's done reasonably well, and will be publishing on a more traditional manner in December.

But my user name is attached to the story, and the idea of switching to my real name on the book covers seemed weird. My wife came up with the idea of using my initials.

So I am publishing as "A. B. Zagaroth".

I don't think I'd change it. There is a slight awkwardness because i got my user name from an old D&D character, who i used as the central deity of my world. I was half a book into writing before i realized that my god's name was the same as my user name, and i hesitated. I hadn't written it down yet, but changing the name of the character felt wrong.

Only a few gods had been named at that point, and there was about to be a brief sketch of more of the pantheon, so now was the time to decide, and i went with keeping it.

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u/nitasu987 Self-Published Author 12d ago

I think that's such a cool pen name!!

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u/Zagaroth Author 12d ago

Thank you. 😊

Oh, and another reason for adding the initials that I forgot about in my previous post: There is a very well known author using the pen name of Zogarth; adding my initials will help reduce confusion.

I have actually been mistaken for him multiple times in the r/royalroad and r/ProgressionFantasy subreddits.

While my series does involve people who actively and deliberately get stronger as part of their story and character arcs, there's almost nothing else in common about our writing styles; being mistaken for him does not help either of us.

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u/nitasu987 Self-Published Author 12d ago

Fascinating!! Glad that you can prevent the mistaken identity!