9 Reasons Why You Should Use A Pseudonym (PHOTOS)

It's true that George Eliot and Charlotte Bronte used male pen names so that their work would be taken seriously (and so they could publish at all). But as I learned while researching my new book, "Nom de Plume: A (Secret) History of Pseudonyms," the motives behind this tradition are often more complicated and mysterious than you might imagine. I learned that pen names are not merely functional--they are often bound up in profound ways with a writer's creativity and identity, not to mention issues of guilt and shame. There are more than a few good reasons (and sometimes many at once) to adopt a nom de plume.

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You are a convicted felon.

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By the time William Sydney Porter was released from prison for bank fraud in 1901, he'd already been writing and publishing stories. He wanted to pursue his ambition further, but this required an act of reinvention. He felt that it was essential to shed his ignominious criminal identity and start anew. So William Porter became O. Henry, moved to New York City (epicenter of the publishing industry), and never looked back. He wrote hundreds of stories, and in the first decade of the 20th century, he was considered one of the most popular short-story writers in America. (Although his work has not held up today, after his death his books continued to sell millions of copies.) Although his identity was eventually revealed as William Porter, he was able to carry the secret of his imprisonment to his grave. It wasn't until a biography was published in 1916, six years after his death, that the full truth came out.

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By the time William Sydney Porter was released from prison for bank fraud in 1901, he'd already been writing and publishing stories. He wanted to pursue his ambition further, but this required an act of reinvention. He felt that it was essential to shed his ignominious criminal identity and start anew. So William Porter became O. Henry, moved to New York City (epicenter of the publishing industry), and never looked back. He wrote hundreds of stories, and in the first decade of the 20th century, he was considered one of the most popular short-story writers in America. (Although his work has not held up today, after his death his books continued to sell millions of copies.) Although his identity was eventually revealed as William Porter, he was able to carry the secret of his imprisonment to his grave. It wasn't until a biography was published in 1916, six years after his death, that the full truth came out.

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