photo courtesy of Quinn Dombrowski via flickr Nora Roberts and J.D. Robb. J.K. Rowling and Robert Galbraith. Jayne Ann Krentz and Jayne Castle AND Amanda Quick. There is a whole world of authors out there writing different genres under different pen names. As if launching and nurturing one career identity wasn’t enough! The thing is, as we enter this new year, I’m about to create a new persona in a new genre myself. So before I dig myself into a hole as I turn over this new leaf, I thought I’d do my research and ask for some advice from author friends who are already balancing multiple identities. One of the things that I remember being told early on in my writing and publishing journey was that I had better pick just one genre that I could write in prolifically and that I should be willing to part with all of the other genres that I could be writing. I never liked that answer, and as it turns out, neither did a lot of the authors I know. The main reason my author friends cit...

Charlotte Williamson asks: I know that authors use aliases from time to time for various reasons, but they usually stick to gender. What if a writer, who is female, and writes detective novels from a male point of view (1st person), wants to submit to agents and/or publishers as a male? Would it be possible, and has it been done? What are the pros and cons? I've never heard of anyone doing this, but I thought it was something to consider. Men's books DO get more attention than women's. Charlotte Williamson dpwilliamson@juno.com Dear Ms. Williamson, Correction: Exciting, entertaining, unique and well written books get more attention than boring, unoriginal, poorly written books. :-) Having said that, please allow me to address your question regarding pen names. Many authors choose to publish their work under a pen name. Let’s look at some of the reasons they might do so. An author writes under two different genres. Nora Roberts, for instance, publishes romance novels under...