As a writer, you just might want all of your pieces published under your real name, that is, if you have a name that is catchy all on its own. But there are so many authors in the literary world who actually prefer to use pen names instead. Now, there are several reasons behind this move that you might think odd. Still, when you go through these reasons, you just might find that many of them do make sense.

So many authors all over the world have long used pen names. Even JK Rowling of the ever-famous Harry Potter series is a pen name itself. But there is actually a logical reason for this. If you think about it, the Harry Potter series has a masculine atmosphere to it, simply because the lead character is a male wizard. You just cannot do without it, with the genre of this series, there is much sexism associated. Thus, female writers would actually employ masculine pen names, to neutralize such sexism.

Outside fictional writers and authors, there are even political writers who assume pen names, for very obvious reasons. Political writers carry the burden of constantly being on the spotlight, quite often, for negative reasons. Thus, these writers use pen names in writing their diatribes so that they can avoid being persecuted for writing such pieces. There are even times when political writers do this to avoid assassination altogether. With such a risk to constantly deal with, then it is indeed the perfect alternative to use pen names instead of real names.

However, ostracism and sexism are not the only motivating factors that push writers to use pen names. There are actually some writers who prefer to write in both genders. When this happens, the writers do not want their readers to get confused with their personalities, especially if their personalities are at opposite sides of the fence. For instance, many mystery and suspense writers actually have a knack for writing children’s stories as well. If you use your real name for both genres of books, then a parent could very well purchase your book thinking that it is save for his or her child to read. Yes, this mistake is so obvious that it just might be close to impossible for it to occur altogether. Still, there’s that off-chance that the parent would make that mistake and get a book that is not suitable for children. Authors want to avoid such confusion, and since they are very in touch with their own fictional world, it would make sense to use a pen name instead.

There are also times when publishing houses to not let their authors publish a number of books in a single year. The logic behind this is that both books under the same name might compete against each other. There would not be that much profit for both books in the end, and this is bad for the publishing company itself. Thus, by employing pen names, you can actually have two books, or even more, published in just a single year. All prolific authors do not have to worry about having to set one of the books backstage for a while anymore.

Of course, there is also that issue with the given name. There are so many authors out there who prefer to use a pen name because they do not like the names they are born with. With pen names, you can easily solve this problem. What’s more, this is also a matter of garnering more sales for your book. If you decide to go by the way cooler name of C.S. Forester, rather than stick with Cecil Louis Troughton Smith, you will surely garner more readers for your book.

These are just some of the many reasons why many authors prefer to use pen names. All the same, the concept of comfort has to be mixed with sales, so that all bases can be covered accordingly.