Famous Authors who Write Under Other Pen Names

A pen name is a name authors use to publish their work under. Authors often write under pen names for anonymity. They may want to protect their personal lives or avoid revealing their gender. Sometimes authors use pen names because the new name is more memorable or distinctive.

Some authors even use multiple pen names. They may do this for various reasons. They may write under multiple genres. Authors who are well known for romance novels may create a new pen name to keep their works separate when entering a new genre. Other authors may use multiple pen names to avoid comparison to previous works, keep the suggestion algorithms accurate to find more readers, or to freely discuss sensitive topics.

Because authors write under multiple names you may have missed many of their books. If you are curious about their other works, here are several authors who use multiple pen names.

Stephen King is known for his horror stories. Best known for his novels The Shining, It, and Carrie, he has written over 65 books and tons of short stories. In order to release more books in one year, Stephen King began writing under the name Richard Bachman.

J.K. Rowling is best known for her Harry Potter series. J.K. Rowling originally used her initials as her pen name to avoid revealing her gender. Her publishers at the time believed that by using her initials as her pen name, her books would be more appealing to male readers. Later Rowling used the name Robert Galbraith to separate comparisons to her most famous work.

J. R. R. Tolkien is possibly the most famous fantasy author of all time. He is best known for his high fantasy books The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Many authors have used Tolkien’s work as inspiration. Notably, George RR Martin has said several times that he was inspired by Tolkien when writing A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones). Tolkien also used pen names for various reasons. The most notable being the name Oxymore which was a play on the German translation of Tolkien.

Dean Koontz is known for his thriller suspense novels. He has written over 100 books including The Watcher and The Night Window. However, he has also used several other pen names to avoid oversaturating the market and to be able to move between genres. Names of his include Leigh Nichols, Deanna Dwyer, Brian Coffey, David Axton, and Anthony North.

Nora Roberts is known as a romance author. She has written many books including Inheritance, Vision in White, and Blood Brothers. She has used several different pen names throughout her career. The most notable is J.D. Robb which she used to create her sci fi thriller series, In Death.

Daniel Handler writes adult fiction. His works include The Basic Eight and Why We Broke Up. However, you probably know him best for his children’s series published under the name Lemony Snicket, A Series of Unfortunate Events.

L.J. Andrews is one of my new favorite authors. She is currently an independent author with her first traditionally published book, Broken Souls and Bones releasing in April of next year. She is best known for her dark fantasy romance series The Broken Kingdoms and The Ever Seas which take place in the same world as each other. However, Andrews also uses the name Emily Childs for her sweet romance works.