Why authors often publish under different names.

By Lisa Darcy

I was born Lisa Heidke. It's a name I quite like.

So, when Bloodhound Publishers took me on as one of their authors and asked me to change my surname, I must admit, I was taken aback.

'Why?' I implored.

Of course, I know several author friends who write under pseudonyms for a variety of reasons.

At the Romance Writers of Australia (RWA) conference a few years back, I had an animated conversation with a friend who writes erotica under a pseudonym because she didn't want her school aged kids to be embarrassed if their friends or parents googled her. Fair point.

She didn't want public scrutiny and judgement, so for her, privacy and anonymity were paramount for keeping their personal and professional lives separate.

My writing definitely didn't tick that box. I write Women's Fiction following a theme of women triumphing over adversity and their relationships with family, friends, work colleagues and the wider community. Romance is an element in my books but not the driving force of the story. I write sex scenes but am doubtful any of those would get me kicked out of polite society.

I have other friends who use different pen names for the separate genres they write to avoid confusing their readers; one name for their adult fiction and another for children's books.

This wasn't me either. I don't genre hop. It's not like I write a Women's Fiction novel one year and a gruelling murder mystery, or Dracula, the next.

My readers have an expectation that my novels have a similar style, tone and humour.

Other issues could be an author's real name might be difficult to spell, pronounce or remember.

An author might use a pen name to avoid biases related to their gender, ethnicity or background. Female authors have historically used male pen names to be taken more seriously in male-dominated genres. The Bronte Sisters spring to mind.

More recently, when JK Rowling published her 2013 crime mystery, The Cuckoo's Calling, under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, she attracted criticism when her identity was revealed. Rowling defended her choice, saying, 'I was yearning to go back to the beginning of a writing career with this new genre, to work without hype or expectation and to receive totally unvarnished feedback.'

So yes, I understood how pseudonyms were relevant, but it wasn't for me.        

As I scoured Google and scrolled through reasons an author might change their name, I came across the notion that some authors use pen names to differentiate works published with different publishers.

Sirens. Ringing bells. Bingo! We have a winner!

This is where I fall. I had published five novels with Australian publisher, Allen & Unwin and stepping into the UK Bloodhound Books stable meant they wanted Lisa Heidke to be rebranded. It would give my writing career a fresh start, they said.

I wasn't convinced. Reluctant, even.

With my first five novels, distribution (predominantly print books), centred on Australasia, my new publisher would be focussing on the international market.

While print books are integral to the publishing house, they reach a wider global audience with eBooks, Kindle, etc. For them, rebranding by changing my name was an essential ingredient for my books to attract a wider audience.

Professionally, it made sense. I had to let go of Heidke. But just the thought of rebranding felt overwhelming. More practically, I was worried how a name change would impact my social platforms, specifically Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (X). Would a name change mean I'd lose all my followers and have to start over? Zero followers? It was a daunting thought.

But after much research, I discovered I could replace my handles on all platforms without any change to the number of followers. Huge relief.

After that, I was much more enthused. I thought about the books I wrote and went for a simple surname, up front of the alphabet.

Darcy.

Perfect. I loved it.

I was sure there would be other Lisa Darcy authors in the world. I googled, checked on Amazon etc, and surprisingly no.

Bloodhound was thrilled with the pen name, and I immediately switched all my platforms to lisadarcyauthor, created a new Lisa Darcy email address, and voila! Other social media fell into place, and the process was a lot of fun.

My first novel with Bloodhound was Lily's Little Flower Shop (2021), as a print, eBook and audiobook. It has since been published in France as L'adorable boutique de fleurs de Lily, and in Italy as Il piccolo negozio di fiori di.

Ah, the international audience.

Given the success of Lily's Little Flower Shop, Bloodhound was keen to review my earlier novels, specifically Claudia's Big Break and Stella Makes Good, both published more than ten years prior. These titles required extensive revision and rewriting mainly to update them for current trends, particularly regarding language and pop culture references.

My writing has developed. Today, it's sharper and more nuanced. Where once, I had superficial plot lines, now, with distance and objectivity, my characters and themes are developed in greater depth. Not only were those manuscripts extensively rewritten, the covers and blurbs were updated, as were titles and taglines.

Nodding, I reminded myself, it was all about rebranding and introducing my stories to a global audience.

Recently, my American publisher, Wings ePress, has released The Pact, a re-working of my self-published novel, The Callahan Split. I am excited this novel is having an awakening, not only because in its previous life it sold three copies. Now, rewritten and rebranded, it's out in the world as The Pact, written by Lisa Darcy.

After all, what's in a name? I'll let you be the judge.

Lisa Darcy's book The Pact can be found here.