Nowadays most actors, and authors too, use their real name. But sometimes an author will choose a pen name if she writes two (or more) different genres so the reader can distinguish between the genres.
For instance Jayne Ann Krentz writes hot contemporary Romances. But she also writes Historical Romance under the pen name Amanda Quick and she writes paranormal Romance under the pen name Jayne Castle. 
But is there any other reason to use a pen name? Particularly in Romance, would a name like GERTRUDE CHALUPNIK be a detriment?
When I first sold to the Silhouette Desire line, the powers that be at Harlequin Books let me keep my real name. But once I started writing for Blaze, they wanted me to change my first name. My editor said Juliet was too “romancy” and the Blaze line had a more urban, contemporary edge to it than the more traditionally dramatic Desire line. This seemed a somewhat reasonable explanation.
It got me to thinking about names and how important they are.
One of the best examples of this is Archibald Leach.
You may have known him as Cary Grant. Suave, debonair, romantic…Archibald? Or how about Desperate Housewife–Clare Woodgate (Kim Cattrall), Singer–Clayton Grissom (Clay Aiken), Rapper–Artis Ivey Jr. (Coolio), Actor–Thomas Mapother VI (Tom Cruise), Magician—Erich Weiss (Harry Houdini), or filmmaker—Shelton Jackson Lee (Spike Lee).
With a lot of these celebrities, you can see at least a derivative of their birth name in their stage name, but what about British actress–Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg? She very purposely chose a specific name for the recognition it would bring her: Jane Seymour. The famous wife of King Henry VIII.
But what about authors? Why should we use a pen name?
In my opinion, the most famous woman author to use a pen name was the French novelist, George Sand. She was born Lady Amandine Aurore Lucille Dupin in 1804. She often dressed as a man, smoked cigars in public, and fought all her life for equality for women. She wanted her novels to be judged by a man’s standards, and they were. George Sands was a contemporary of Jane Austen, and supported herself by her writing just as Jane did, but George conducted numerous tumultuous love affairs throughout her life, including a passionate affair with Frédéric Chopin. I adore all of Jane Austen’s works. But I really admire the gutsy, progressive George Sands. Would she have been able to live the life she did if she’d published under the name Lady Aurora Dudevant? (her married name)
It used to be the norm for Harlequin to make their authors take pen names. As a matter of fact, until a few big name authors fought it and won over a decade ago, Harlequin owned an author’s name and if someone wanted to branch out to sell to another publisher, that author had to sell under a different name. Jayne Ann Krentz wrote Silhouette Desires as Stephanie James. But even with the relaxed standards, some authors still use a pen name. Like Eleanor Marie Robertson writes as…can you guess? I’ll reveal the author’s name at the end of the blog.
I’ve finally gotten used to Jillian Burns, but I never wanted the fuss of 2 different e-mails or Facebook pages, so those are both still under Juliet Burns
What about you? Does an author’s name matter to you if it’s hard to pronounce or sounds non-“Romancey”?
Ok, did you guess it yet? Eleanor Marie Robertson is Nora Roberts.