Hey there, fellow writers.  A friend of mine was reading through a draft of my memoir and strongly urged me to avoid using a pseudonym.  He argued that not using my real name would alienate my readers and make me seem unreliable and deceitful.  I tried to defend my choice by explaining that, while everything in my story is true, I changed my name for the following reasons:

1) I am a high school teacher, and high school students love to google their teachers.  While I don't mind sharing my personal story, there is a fair amount of "adult" content in my memoir and I would prefer to keep that part of my life separate from my professional one.  

2) It's actually so much easier to write about myself this way because I can pull back from the story and look at it from a different perspective and be more objective when I need to.  I can't be critical of myself if I see my name splashed all over every page.  Writing under a different name just works better for me in that respect.

He still insisted I change everything back to my real name and said that no one will want to read my story otherwise.  

Thoughts? 

Of course you can use a pseudonym instead of your real name. That's not deceitful at all. Many fiction writers use pseudonyms instead of their real names--myself included; Amber Wolfe's not my real name--when publishing, for the reason you stated: to keep your personal life separate from your professional one. I assume it goes the same for memoir writers.

Do as you think is best. Keep your pseudonym if it's what makes you most comfortable. People will read your story, so long as it's well written, interesting, and marketed right. And how would the readers know you're using a pseudonym? Unless you tack 'This Isn't My Real Name' on the Book Cover, no one will know.

Hope my little rant helped--I hate it when someone says 'Don't use a pseudonym', when it's perfectly acceptable. Keep it if you want. No one who's worth their reading salt will judge you.

Newbie Writer, and Pseudonym Defender, Amber

--edited by Amber Wolfe on 2/19/2015, 9:55 AM--

Amber, I think you're my new favorite person...

"Elena"

There are many very good and acceptable reasons to use a "pen name." Your example of being a teacher works fine. I am a pastor's spouse. I happen to write family-friendly mysteries so I use my own name, albeit abbreviating the first and middle names to just initials. That said, if I were to write more adult-content stories, it could reflect badly on my wife. Thus a pseudonym would almost be essential.

The only drawback I see is in the marketing. You have to market your brand as an author. You can do this using your pseudonym, certainly. And publishers deal with this all the time. Your check would still be in your real name, and they won't, or shouldn't release your identity. But if you decide to write in another genre, for instance, and you want to use your actual name - now you have to start your marketing all over.

Unless you write the next Harry Potter series. But that's another story.

Elena--curious what you ending up deciding about this.

For me, I always use my real name. But every time I write a scene I would not want my parents or in-laws to read, I wish I had done the pen name thing!

Pseudonyms are probably just as old as literature itself, and they have many uses.  In the past, some female author chose to publish their works under male pseudonyms because writing was still considered a male-dominated profession.  A professional in a particular field may use a pseudonym to protect his or her reputation in said field.  An author will choose to use a pseudonym to avoid being confused with another author of the same name.  Sometimes, an established author may use a pseudonym in order to publish works that don't fall under their normal genre: It may even seem to be a sort of vacation by escaping the trappings of their routine.

When it comes to marketing, there is the question that concerns the author's bio.  What should you write?  Is it best to write about your life and simply omit the specific details, or do you invent a completely fabricated history?  The best advice I found suggested a combination of both.  If you decide to use your history in the bio, simply avoid using information such as names of your family and locations.  "Bill lives with his, wife, three children, and their five dogs in a lake house in upstate New York."  If you decide to make something up, it gets a little trickier.  To avoid lying to your audience, it's best to make up a false bio that is OBVIOUSLY false.  Lemony Snicket is a good example of this.