What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet
- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
I have trouble with names. Not in remembering them, mostly (although I once had a GP I could only ever think of as Dr Hyphen-Thing because I saw him so rarely that the only fact that stuck in my brain was that his surname was double-barrelled). No, my problem is my own name. More specifically, my name in relation to book covers.
Having given the matter some thought, what's letting my novel down is not its title. Looking For Buttons sums up the tale neatly, and I've always been happy with it and its Cinderella connotations. But my name is not terribly authorly. It's not snappy or modish. It's also only a few syllables away from a Famous Author, which could lead to complications. So I think I need a pseudonym.
But what to choose? I could Make Something Up. I could reverse my school nickname, but May Brian is more family saga than romantic comedy. (Yes, my nickname was Brian May. It's a hair thing. Life is too short for straightening irons.) I could seek inspiration from my ancestors, but one of them was called Euphemia and that's even less apt.
With the WIP (work in progress), the problem is reversed. I've got a great pseudonym, a no-nonsense thriller writer's name (conveniently, the book is a no-nonsense thriller). Fab. Except I can't think of a title for the book. I'm a third of the way through and I haven't the faintest idea. Nothing quite fits.
So I sit and I type and the Untitled on the title page sits there and sniggers at me. Heigh ho.
Are you perhaps being too picky? Why won't the thriller author's name work with Buttons?
ReplyDeleteI'm now wondering what your real name is... Jane Katherine Bowling? Milly Trooper? Stephanie Fry?
In my capacity as purveyor of pulse-racing thrillers, I'm a bloke! When writing Looking For Buttons, I was female (and still was last time I checked!).
ReplyDeletePerhaps my real name would be OK. It just doesn't seem to quite fit. I know it won't make the slightest difference to the content of the book. Maybe it's just that the last time I saw my name on the spine of something, it was a very dull academic thesis so I associate it with that. Mind you, my supervisor always said that the most important thing when writing up research was to tell the story!
You need to use your full first name, not just the shot version - that way it stretches well across the page. If necessary at some point I'm intending to use Isabelle Webber, my usual pseudonym, not sure rose22joh would really cut it...
ReplyDeleteExtremely blank look at 'shot version'. Looonnnng day. You meant short. Nothing to do with thrillers or films.
ReplyDeleteI never use the shortened version of my name, it's just that everyone else does. At some point I gave up insisting on being called by my name and answered to variations. It saved time. Still not sure it's a name that would sell, though.
Feeling quite old now, I've just worked out how long it was since I first knew you use Isabelle Webber as an alias!