Ever wonder why well established authors use pseudonyms? The most recent one in the news is the author of Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling) writing under another name (Robert Galbraith). Why would someone already highly successful do that? Starting entirely over with no name recognition at all? Even Stephen King has done it. So why?
The answer is humbling and simple. These writers want to know if they still have the chops to write great stories, or if it's just their name selling books. They want to prove to themselves that they are indeed good and not just a publishing fad. I totally understand (being a complete unknown myself at this time) and applaud these writers for putting their carefully crafted works of love into the slush pile to see if they rise to the top. Now, of course they do have far better contacts and knowledge of the industry to help them, but typically they go the unknown author route and seek to place their work without any knowing aid. After all, it would defeat the purpose if they just used their resources to spike their work (they want to see if they could start from scratch once again).
My guess is many more writers have done this than we know. It's only natural for an expert in their field to want to test themselves against the youngsters. I can only imagine that finding they are still awesome gives incredible validation to them. Sure, you could say they should trust themselves, but man is it ever great to find other people telling you without prompting. So, yes, the pseudonym phenomenon will continue as long as people create art, and we as audiences should be grateful because it means these artists have not fallen slack but are willing to extend themselves to further perfect their abilities.
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| Chuck Norris' daughter ... |
- M
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