Pen Names,Collective Pseudonyms, Ghostwriters
The Name on the Book Cover May Not be the Author
Many writers work as a team. Some publish under dual names, others under a single name. Sometimes the pseudonym is a combined version of their names or a completely fictitious name.
Teams can include any combination of writers including expert and author, husband and wife, cousins, friends or mother and son.
Some authors who write/wrote only under one name but are actually two people are:
Judith Gould — Romance writer and New York Times bestselling writer Judith Gould is not a woman. She is the pseudonym of Nicholas Peter Bienes and Rhea Gallaher.
Nicci French — is actually the pen name of Nicci Gerrard and Sean French. This married couple live in England and write psychological thrillers under a blend of their names, Nicci’s first name and Sean French’s last name. The two met when they both worked as journalists and began to write together. They publish a book nearly every year. Their most recent releases are Until it’s Over, (2007) Losing You (2006), Catch me When I Fall (2005) and Secret Smile (2003).
Ellery Queen — was not a real person. Besides being a fictional character, this was the pseudonym of two cousins from New York, Daniel Nathan and Manford Lepofsky. Nathan also wrote under the name Frederic Dannay, and Lepofsky under the name Manfred Bennington Lee. Nathan died in 1982 and Lepofsky in 1971. The two cousins wrote detective fiction and also had a hand in founding the popular Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.
Charles Todd — The author of British mystery series about a WW! Veteran haunted by the voice of a soldier he caused to be executed for insubordination is actually a mother-and-son writing team.
Collective Pseudonyms
Sometimes a publisher invents an author name and hires writers to produce books under the fictitious name instead of their own. This is done mostly so readers will associate a certain name with a particular book series. The Stratemeyer Syndicate produced many long-running series under a fictitious author name. Some of these series were the Nancy Drew mysteries, The Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, and the Bobbsey Twins. The name Carolyn Keene appeared on the Nancy Drew books, but a number of authors wrote the books in the series.
Ghostwriters and Work for Hire
Sometimes writers get so famous they can sell a book on the merit of their name. Many well-known authors that are big names do not produce all of their own work. They may provide numerous plot outlines and assign the actual writing to ghostwriters. The ghostwriters are paid a fee and do not usually get their name on the book. The advantage for the ghostwriter is that the big name author sells more than an unknown author, and if the ghostwriter is getting a percentage of sales, they will make more than publishing under their own name. In a work for hire arrangement the ghost writer gets paid a set fee. The ghostwriter usually remains annonymous.
Posthumous Authors
Some books are published under an author’s name long after the original writer has passed away. V. C. Andrews, author of the popular gothic horror novel Flowers in the Attic , about four children locked in the attic, grew into a series with a number of series spin-offs. When Andrews died in 1986, her estate hired a ghostwriter, Andrew Neiderman, to continue publishing the various series books under her name.
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