Mini-Muse Monday - What’s in a Name? Trust? | COLLETTE CAMERON
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Mini-Muse Monday – What’s in a Name? Trust?

I read an article recently that alleged authors with pen names are less trusted by their readers.

As an author who uses a pseudonym, I confess, I was startled, and re-read the passage to make sure I hadn’t misunderstood. A fancy pie graph was included too, for doubters like me who couldn’t quite believe that information to be true.

After all, a visual is irrefutable confirmation.

In my defense, Collette is my middle name and Cameron is my maternal grandparents’ surname. I chose a pen name because my real name is unexciting (really) and because I was still teaching full-time, and I didn’t want the hassle of parents’ getting their knickers in a twist if they learned I wrote romances.

The cat’s out of the bag on that one. You don’t live in a little town and keep that kind of a secret.

My real first name is Wendy, by-the-way. I always think of Peter Pan. Always. A boy in tights, flitting around, just doesn’t inspire my historical romance writing.

Naturally, being the inquisitive person I am, I took the question of trust to my street team, Collette’s Cheris, for their professional, unbiased opinion. *Wink*

Guess what?

Some readers did like it when they knew an author’s real name, but they didn’t trust authors who use pseudonyms any less. However, readers didn’t like having to search out more than one name for an author, and if an author does use multiple names, readers want them linked. As more than one reader said, if they liked one genre of an author’s, chances are they’d like the author’s other genres too.

Most didn’t give a rat’s patootie what name an author used.

What do you think? Do you prefer a real name to a pen name?  Is your trust in the author affected if they’ve chosen to use a pen name? Why?

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