This guest post was written by author E.F. Dodd

The Bronté sisters, Mary Ann Evans, Louisa May Alcott, just to name a few. All talented female authors. All of whom, at some point, wrote under male pseudonyms. Publishing, as it turns out, started out as every bit the male-dominated workplace as a career in law, medicine or other professions. A pen name offered a loophole, a way into this world women weren’t allowed to enter.

Now, those women penned their works during a different time and place, so why are pen names still so prevalent?

I happen to believe there are lots of reasons at play here, some of which are still tied to certain outdated and frankly sexist ideologies.

Distance

I think some authors, myself included, use pen names because they need to put a little distance between their lives as writers and their regular everyday jobs. I write romance. I’m proud to write romance. I enjoy writing romance and I think that romance readers are some of the genuinely nicest, most welcoming people on the planet. But not everyone shares my opinion of romance. And, unless and until I can make a full time living as a romance author, unfortunately I have to take that sad fact into account.

I cannot afford to publish under my own name because I can’t risk any sort of detriment to my “real” job. And yes, a big part of my concern comes from the fact that my “real” job is still very much a part of the cis-heteropatriarchy who for the most part continues to take a dim view of the romance genre in books, movies and any other artform. So, like the ladies who wrote the path before me, I’m using a pen name to be able to do something I love without fear of any sort of backlash.

Genre

Something not as close to my own experience is the use of pen names to write in another genre. Nora Roberts is an excellent example of this. When she started her In Death collection with the glorious Eve Dallas and Roarke, she didn’t want to do it under her original pen name. So, she came up with J.D. Robb, because the In Death books were a departure from her other romance novels. In addition, the pen name was gender neutral, so it allowed her books to appeal to a broader fanbase (read cis-het male) without their associating it with the world of romance. It also protected the expectations of her purely romance readers from picking up a futuristic crime novel (that also brings the spicy romance) and being, if not disappointed, at least a little befuddled by it. Protecting their loyal readers is something authors think a lot about. But authors also want to be able to branch out into other areas sometimes. And varying pen names gives them the ability to do that, while still providing a safe haven for their loyal readers.

Either of these reasons, or the multitudes of others I can’t think of, perform the same function. They offer an author the freedom to write what they want for the people who want to read it without any preconceived notion about the person holding the pen. The focus is right where it should be. On the story.

Almost Perfect by E.F. Dodd

E.F. Dodd’s most recent release, Almost Perfect, is a charming holiday read about two people who did not plan on a reunion in their hometown bar. Dave, a bartender, knowns he has to clean up his act to keep a woman like Vivian from being a one-weekend fling. And Vivian is certain Dave doesn’t fit on her meticulously kept checklist. Still, both feel a pull that neither of them were expecting.

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About E.F. Dodd

Like her heroines, E.F. Dodd came from a close-knit family in a small town in North Carolina. Although she dallied briefly with city life, she retreated back to the country, where she now lives with her long-time boyfriend and an English bulldog. From a young age, she enjoyed creating stories, including the time at five years old when she’d almost convinced her grandmother that she’d gone horseback riding all alone… until she added a friendly crab to the storyline. With age came wisdom and the understanding of how far to stretch a plotline. E.F. Dodd is the author of Risky Restoration (2021), Earning It (2022), A Higher Standard (2023), and Almost Perfect (2023).