This may seem like an odd subject for a blog.. but bear with me!
I’ve recently been reading (in a Cemetery Dance article) about the need to establish your identity as a writer, in particular the need to have a name which can be recognised by your readers. For example, if I were to write a story under the pen name Stephen King there’s a possibility that an editor might assume that they were corresponding with that Stephen King. Likewise a reader seeing the name might reasonably assume it is that Stephen King.
So as an author I have a duty, and a requirement, to be able to differentiate myself from any other Richard Barber who might be out there… At least my name isn’t John Smith eh? That said, I’m not out of the woods yet.. because there is a “Richard Barber” who is already at large in the publishing world. He is a historian who specialises in Medieval history. (That does add an extra wrinkle as part of Bloodie Bones is set in Medieval times and another novel I’ve written concerns itself with the Arthurian Legends)
Given this do I need to adopt a pen name? I could add an initial in the middle (like Iain Banks/Iain M Banks, Tim Lebbon/TJ Lebbon or Michael Marshall Smith/Michael Marshall/MM Smith) but I don’t have a middle name. Maybe I could just pick an initial at random? Z is probably unlikely to come up with many duplicates!
But this raises another issue. I already have a body of work out there in the world and whilst I’m not challenging Stephen King for recognition just yet there is an issue in that they are published under my name. Do I just abandon all those stories? Do I try to create a link between the “old Richard Barber” and the “new Richard Z Barber”?
Maybe this would be the perfect moment to invent the time machine and go back and retrospectively select a “unique” name at the beginning of my publishing career and stick with that. (Things I would do differently if I started my writing career again.. oh, there’s a whole blog’s worth of stuff on that alone!) Fortunately, this is the opportune moment to consider this because on Saturday I’ll be attending the “Industry Day” that is part of the mentoring scheme. Hopefully this will give me the opportunity to determine what I should do going forward and allow me to come back next week and answer the question with a sound claim: This is who I am!
