I recently joined the Guppies chapter of Sister In Crime. I have always felt that I should have different pen names for different genres. And after reading the blog posts of the Guppies, that has been reinforced. I always understood that pen names help to prevent reader confusion – expecting their author’s new book to be a romance but it’s a Sci-Fi – but it also helps with Amazon’s algorithims to make sure the book is marketed correctly.
So, even though I haven’t been published yet, I did more research on names. I made some changes from what I had previously decided to do. I know it’s kind of a cart before the horse type of thing, but it does have a purpose at this point – I have been submitting short stories like crazy and when you submit them, you have to tell them what name to use, if they choose to publish.
For Mystery/Crime stories I will use SE Knight. Horror/Sci-Fi will be SJE Knight. For YA/Paranormal/Fantasy my pen name will be Syl Knight. I even submitted some literary stories and chose Suze Knight.
This is a little different than the business cards I had printed ages ago and even from the tag line on this website which says website for Syl E Knight. But each of the names are a variation of that name, so it makes sense. All are also variations of my maiden name which is what I wanted to write under, but there is already a Sylvia Knight published, so I had to get creative.
I would love some feedback on the pen names that I have chosen. Too similar? I am especially unsure about the Horror/Sci-Fi name.
Syloquies 