I am not sure there will be a right or a wrong answer to my question, so your opinions and guidance is what I am really seeking. My book is ready, so I am in the process of looking for an literary agent to represent me. The question is, should I use my real name or a pen name? The reason I am asking this question is, there is already an Adrian Spalding out there writing books. Admittedly, they are about butterflies and insects, whereas my genre is thrillers. So unless I am going to write a book about killer butterflies ( there's a thought, make a quick note of that one), there should not be too much confusion. Yet a change might still be called for. Plus is the name Adrian Spalding, with all those syllables not racy enough for the cover of a thriller? Would a tighter name, hook an agent, or is it solely those first three chapters? As I said, I doubt there is a right or a wrong answer, but I would be very interested to hear your opinion.
Thanking you in advance
Adrian Spalding or maybe Tom Butler.
Thank you all for your both humorous and serious advice, all of which is welcome and gives me food for thought.
Jimmy’s suggestion of ‘Andrew Lord Webber’ is tempting. However I can see a time when my book, “The Jersey Moth Murders” reaches number one in the book charts and I am mentioned in the New Year Honours list. Then I would become, Lord Andrew Lord Webber, which would suggest a split personality.
So on balance I might well take up Lorraine’s sound advice, ‘it’s the work that sells’ then let the agent worry about my name.
Adrian Spalding (for now!)
...a good friend suggested my own real name was ideal: Hedges because it sat nicely in the middle of the shelves in bookshops...
@ Maybe Tom:
I bet you came on here looking for serious advice. Well, you DID make a joke yourself, so it's partly your fault that this degenerated into a laughathon.
Jimmy and Emilie work hard and when they're let out of their cages, they tend to run about gibbering.
I'm rather surprised that Paul didn't join in on the "in-joke". After all, it originated with him (or hmm).
You beat me to it! I got as far as "Admittedly, they are about butterflies and insects, whereas my genre is thrillers." and was going to write "I bet that the other Adrian Spalding thinks that butterflies and insects ARE thrilling." But I won't now. (sigh)
To steer this thread back into more serious waters:
a) Yes, you don't want to get confused with your namesake. If he were a famous golfer, it'd be another question, but 2 writers with the same name...
b) I'm not sure that "all those syllables" are necessarily a handicap. 5 if you don't slur Adrian into 2. Mary Higgins Clark does alright, doesn't she? (Mind you: she doesn`t use her full name, Mary Theresa Eleanor Higgins Clark Conheeney. At least, not on her books.) So do David Baldacci and Jeremy Robinson.
The 6 syllables of Jussi Adler-Olsen [COULD have been shortened to Jussi Adler] didn't stop TOO many people from buying The Keeper of Lost Causes.
And - to slip into a different genre - do you think that Engelbert Humperdinck (the 60s English pop-star, not the German composer) would have had two (2) million-selling singles in one year if he'd remained Arnold Dorsey? It can work both ways.