Pseudonyms / Pen Names and Self-Publishing?

MondayNightFrungy · Jul 23, 2014

Are there any good guides on how to do this and how to manage the potential tax issues?

Yes I know it's hard to protect oneself from really creepy stalky people who want to know who you are but I want to go for anonymity anyway. And if anyone has tips on how these stalkers find you I'd be interested in hearing of a few anecdotes, too.

Old Hack · Jul 23, 2014

Having a pseudonym won't give you anonymity. It's barely any protection at all. I'm not going to give you any hints about how I've seen stalkers track down someone's true identity because I wouldn't want to give anyone any clues.

If you're going to self-publish under a pseudonym then you're going to have to provide your bank details (or at least your paypal details) to someone in order to be paid for the books you sell, which means there'll be a connection there. You are going to have to pay tax on that one way or another, and so you're going to have to establish some sort of connection there between your real name and your pseudonym too.

You could (in the UK) set up a limited company and publish through that: but limited companies require two directors, and a registered address, which means you'd have another connection there.

All I can say is I'm not aware of there being a way you can do this which guarantees to keep your two identities separate: if you really need to remain anonymous then the only way you can do that is to not publish, I'm afraid.

plumone · Jul 23, 2014

Old is pretty much correct. I just self published my first book using a pen name, so I know a little bit about it.

You can write using a pen name; you will have to conduct business using your real name (to coordinate with your bank, paypal, etc...). You can set up an LLC (incorporated in a state like New Mexico or Delaware- known for their privacy laws and can be established by people who do not live in those states), which can help. The LLC could handle the business side of things to help add another layer of anonymity.

Another issue that I'm finding so far in my small amount of time is the use of a postal code. You can find a company that will handle your distribution, but many self publishers like to handle their own (mailing out books from home). It can help to make sure you're getting the correct amount of sales, among other things. This means a potential stalker could trace the address you place on the envelope, or trace the post office stamp back to the original office.
If you're selling ebooks, I'm sure there is a way to trace the IP address so even that is not a total protection. You could use something like TOR to mask your IP address.

Regarding taxes, I'm not sure.

The best way I've found to protect my identity in my small time running my store is to act like a customer who wants to buy my books, and scrutinize every detail of dealing with my business to look for holes. For example, when I first started using my business email, I had a generic "[email protected]" address. However, when I would send emails using that name, it included my real name with the email. I had to change around my email preferences so that my real name could not be seen. Or I should say, not seen as easily.

Honestly though, if you use a pen name, you're headed in the right direction. Someone who is going to jump through a bunch of hoops to find you will do it by any way possible, whether you have a pen name or not.

MondayNightFrungy · Jul 23, 2014

Old Hack said:
Having a pseudonym won't give you anonymity. It's barely any protection at all. I'm not going to give you any hints about how I've seen stalkers track down someone's true identity because I wouldn't want to give anyone any clues.

I wasn't asking how to stalk someone, just how to protect myself.

Plumone: your ideas of an LLC and hiding one's IP sound interesting. A google search suggests not only Tor but also VPNs which I can learn about. Registering one's domain through an anonymity-friendly registrar is something else that came up once I googled for info on your suggestions.

So that leaves me with how to manage tax issues while publishing under a pseudonym. Any good guides on that?

Old Hack · Jul 23, 2014

MondayNightFrungy said:
I wasn't asking how to stalk someone, just how to protect myself.

But you're not the only person reading this.

Plumone: your ideas of an LLC and hiding one's IP sound interesting. A google search suggests not only Tor but also VPNs which I can learn about. Registering one's domain through an anonymity-friendly registrar is something else that came up once I googled for info on your suggestions.

It can help, but it's not unbreakable. In my experience.

So that leaves me with how to manage tax issues while publishing under a pseudonym. Any good guides on that?

For that you'll have to take advice from a suitably qualified professional, not a group of random people you've found online.

MondayNightFrungy · Jul 23, 2014

Old Hack said:
But you're not the only person reading this.

It can help, but it's not unbreakable. In my experience.

For that you'll have to take advice from a suitably qualified professional, not a group of random people you've found online.

Well I assumed posters had put up something about their experience with doing it. This is an extremely large forum system and I thought someone could point me the way.

plumone · Jul 23, 2014

OldHack is right- where there's a will, there is a way. And especially with the use of computers, there's always a way to find someone. For example, you have programs on your computer that are registered in your name. Someone could hack into it and find your name that way, among other ways. I don't think there is a 100% guaranteed way to hide your identity, unless you moved off the grid. So you just have to figure out what steps you want to take that make the most sense for you, time and cost wise. Setting up an LLC, for example, would probably take around a couple hours worth of research/paperwork, as well as paying the fee to establish it.

Re the tax info, I have no idea. I'm new to this all. But it would seem like you would pay your taxes like any other normal self-employed business, even if you use a pen name. Remember- the pen name "wrote" the book; YOU are the one who handles selling and distributing it. The IRS won't release your info to anyone, except as evidence in court trails. You should talk to either a tax or business account, or an accountant.

The whole "pen names and taxes" question comes up every now and then, so if you find any good info or books, please share.

shelleyo · Jul 23, 2014

There are no potential tax issues. All the payments you receive, whether trade-published or self-published, go to you, in your legal name or the legal name of your company. You can have your work published under a hundred different pseudonyms, but the tax and legal info you give each publisher is your real info if you want to get paid.

Do you think there's a special reason you will attract stalkers? If not, it's not really something that should concern you. Old Hack's right. Even if you use a pen name and couch your identity in a company, someone with a burning desire to know your true identity could probably find it or find someone who can find it for them. But why would someone do that? Unless you have specific reasons, I think it's a strange worry to have.

ETA: I have more than one pen name because I write in several genres. My real name is the one that gets paid and pays the taxes.

RedWombat · Jul 23, 2014

Honestly, I have a lot more trouble getting people to realize my pen name is me and they might like my other stuff too!

Since my Real Name is the one the checks are made out to, it's not a tax issue here. If you're thinking of setting up an actual faux identity to throw potential weirdos off the track, that's another matter, and you'd probably be better off talking to security geeks than authors...

plumone · Jul 23, 2014

shelleyo-
I'm planning on doing the same thing- using diff pen names for diff subjects. Any tips you can offer? I imagine there's no secret behind it, but couldn't hurt to ask.

MondayNightFrungy · Jul 24, 2014

shelleyo said:
There are no potential tax issues. All the payments you receive, whether trade-published or self-published, go to you, in your legal name or the legal name of your company. You can have your work published under a hundred different pseudonyms, but the tax and legal info you give each publisher is your real info if you want to get paid.

Do you think there's a special reason you will attract stalkers? If not, it's not really something that should concern you. Old Hack's right. Even if you use a pen name and couch your identity in a company, someone with a burning desire to know your true identity could probably find it or find someone who can find it for them. But why would someone do that? Unless you have specific reasons, I think it's a strange worry to have.

ETA: I have more than one pen name because I write in several genres. My real name is the one that gets paid and pays the taxes.

It's that I plan doing some (relatively) quick 99 cent smut to sell on Amazon. But at the same time I'm writing something more mainstream but very long term. If some enterprising .. ehm .. mischief-making person .. happens to link the two, byebye mainstream audience!!!

J. Tanner · Jul 24, 2014

MondayNightFrungy said:
It's that I plan doing some (relatively) quick 99 cent smut to sell on Amazon. But at the same time I'm writing something more mainstream but very long term. If some enterprising .. ehm .. mischief-making person .. happens to link the two, byebye mainstream audience!!!

I think your premise is flawed. A variety of prominent authors dabbled in erotica without that connection coming back to bite them with readers. (Anecdotally, more stories seem to include backlash in conservative local communities when outed somehow.)

But beyond that, Amazon will need your or your business's info. This info will by necessity link to you in some way. There's no getting around this if you want to get paid. And those basic necessities are vulnerable and out of your control. Which is what people are saying.

You can use basic common sense protections that will prevent 99% of intentional and unintentional revelation of your identity. But you'll never hit 100%. And the difference between basic common sense stuff and going to paranoid levels won't majorly impact that 99% number. Some stuff is just beyond your control. So if revelation of your identity would destroy your business/life with your current business model, come up with a new business model.

RedWombat · Jul 24, 2014

Felix Salten wrote a heckuva lot of porn.

If you've heard of him at all, it's because he wrote "Bambi." Disney does not appear to have cared.

Honestly, your mainstream audience probably does not care that you have written smut under a pen-name. (Exceptions made if you're planning to write religious fiction or religious self-help where your platform hinges on you being the sort of person who does not write smut. In which case, just don't write smut. Bad idea.)

If you're just writing straight up fiction, though? I really wouldn't worry about it.

Polenth · Jul 24, 2014

The biggest security hole in any system is the people. If you tell anyone, that's your biggest risk. It's also the biggest risk because the worst backlash would be from people you know. The internet generally doesn't care if you write erotica, but a conservative local community may care (especially if you work as a teacher or the like).

So my advice is outside of anything legal or technical... don't tell anybody. And I mean anybody, even if you're currently married to them or they're your best friend. Also don't tell them anything that might hint that a penname exists, so they don't go looking. Never discuss the books you write under the penname. It's the only way to really keep a secret, and to keep people from trying to find the holes.

If you feel the above is excessive, because it wouldn't actually be that big a deal if people you know found out about it, I doubt you need your penname to be that cast-iron. Average readers on the internet really aren't the problem... it's the people around you. So if you don't think they're a problem, you don't need to take the sort of steps someone at risk of stalking would take. A penname will dissuade people with a casual interest from making a connection.

android415 · Jul 24, 2014

I wonder if I could throw out a different question that occurred to me with pen names? I hope MondayNightFrungy doesn't mind, but I thought it might be pointless to make two back to back pen name threads.

My question is this. I have a pen name, and I've been using it to interact with my readers and do other blog interviews. When I get questions, or comments etc. I sign it with my penname. Is that the normal course of action?

I kind of feel like I have a secret identity. I mean, I guess it's no different than musicians who have stage names that people call them by, but it feels kind of weird. I really have to catch myself to not use my actual name---not because it's some huge secret, but because my pen name is the one who wrote the book.

MondayNightFrungy · Jul 24, 2014

J. Tanner said:
I think your premise is flawed. A variety of prominent authors dabbled in erotica without that connection coming back to bite them with readers. (Anecdotally, more stories seem to include backlash in conservative local communities when outed somehow.)

Funny you should say that, I'm reading a forum on Goodreads on another tab. I am looking at a thread where a bunch of people say they refuse to read mainstream stuff written by authors who also write erotica. I guess my mileage may vary, eh?

Torgo · Jul 24, 2014

MondayNightFrungy said:
Funny you should say that, I'm reading a forum on Goodreads on another tab. I am looking at a thread where a bunch of people say they refuse to read mainstream stuff written by authors who also write erotica. I guess my mileage may vary, eh?

I know of an award-winning romance author who writes erotica under a pseudonym, presumably because she feels there are good reasons to keep the two separate. If they're distinct authorial personae, you wouldn't necessarily want one audience to wander in to the other list of books and feel deceived about their expectations. Or take JK Rowling; she clearly wanted people to approach her 'Robert Galbraith'-penned books with a different mindset to her Harry Potter books under her own name.

I'm not sure that's quite the issue you're describing, though, nor I am I sure that there are loads of people who would be put off reading a book about x by an author just because they happen to know they also write about y. Or if there are, I wouldn't worry too much about catering to their odd whims.

J. Tanner · Jul 24, 2014

MondayNightFrungy said:
Funny you should say that, I'm reading a forum on Goodreads on another tab. I am looking at a thread where a bunch of people say they refuse to read mainstream stuff written by authors who also write erotica. I guess my mileage may vary, eh?

It could, but my guess is it won't.

You can find people on the internet who believe the world is flat and they'll fill up pages and pages of forum threads explaining why.

But more seriously, it's good that you're considering the long term business ramifications of your choices. I recommend weighing their comments against the millions of non-erotic books sold by authors who have made no secret about also writing erotica before determining how much it matters.

shelleyo · Jul 24, 2014

MondayNightFrungy said:
It's that I plan doing some (relatively) quick 99 cent smut to sell on Amazon. But at the same time I'm writing something more mainstream but very long term. If some enterprising .. ehm .. mischief-making person .. happens to link the two, byebye mainstream audience!!!

I write erotica in addition to genres like horror, science fiction, romantic suspense and YA. I use different pen names to keep certain genres separate. I've never once worried someone might discover my erotica name to discourage people from reading my horror.

Don't tell anyone your smut name, so there's no one who can out you, and stop worrying about it. Write and publish your stuff. It's not that big a deal, I promise, unless you have an enemy that's just waiting, Snidely Whiplash-style, for you to publish porn, so he can out you.

MondayNightFrungy · Jul 24, 2014

shelleyo said:
I write erotica in addition to genres like horror, science fiction, romantic suspense and YA. I use different pen names to keep certain genres separate. I've never once worried someone might discover my erotica name to discourage people from reading my horror.

Don't tell anyone your smut name, so there's no one who can out you, and stop worrying about it. Write and publish your stuff. It's not that big a deal, I promise, unless you have an enemy that's just waiting, Snidely Whiplash-style, for you to publish porn, so he can out you.

LOL Snidely Whiplash for the win. Thanks for the laughs (and the insight).

Pseudonyms / Pen Names and Self-Publishing?

MondayNightFrungy

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman

plumone

MondayNightFrungy

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman

MondayNightFrungy

plumone

shelleyo

Just another face in a red jumpsuit

RedWombat

Runs With Scissors

plumone

MondayNightFrungy

J. Tanner

RedWombat

Runs With Scissors

Polenth

Mushroom

android415

MondayNightFrungy

Torgo

Formerly Phantom of Krankor.

J. Tanner

shelleyo

Just another face in a red jumpsuit

MondayNightFrungy