Should You Blog Under a Pen Name? Why it is Absolutely Okay

Most people use their real names when writing a book, starting a channel or blog, etc. Pseudonyms or pen names, while common in an artist’s work and have been for centuries*, aren’t so common in the book blogging community or perhaps the blogging community.

*This post is already extremely long, so we’re not going to go into the many cases people have used pen names in history.

As someone who started blogging from the young age of 14 (can’t believe I was that little) under a character name for a family-friendly game, I’m no stranger to online safety even if I sometimes feel a little weird doing so with what feels like everyone else using their real name. While I did forgo said character name when I went into book blogging instead, I continued to blog under a pen name for various reasons. And maybe if you’re considering starting a blog, you might be thinking of using one as well.

Why You Might Blog Under a Pen Name

I think with over ten years of blogging under a pen name, I feel like I should share some of my experience on why I think it’s okay to blog under a pen name since I’ve been on both sides of the table.

At least… sort of. If you count putting my first name in front of my pen name a pen name, that is. (I do.)

Anyone who’s been following me from the beginning is probably well-aware that Sophia is a pen name I created when I started this blog at 15. It wasn’t until around 2017 that I started becoming a little comfortable sharing my first name occasionally, but as a general rule of thumb, I don’t use it everywhere outside of physical books from well-known publishers and a select few bloggers I trust. (The bloggers are careful about respecting this, which I appreciate a lot.)

And of course, not everyone will be comfortable ever sharing their name, which is perfectly okay. It just so happens I have my reasons for doing so (which I’ll share later).

This post isn’t meant to criticize anyone in the blogging community; for the most part, a lot of people are very much okay with pen names being used (if they are). But personally, I feel like pseudonyms/pen names should be normalized and discussed more often, especially in a world where some think it’s okay to hunt down personal profiles or, in one case years ago, stalk a blogger for a negative review. I once had a publicist think it was totally cool to message me on Facebook with a review request (even if we’re in the same group) despite my profile being set as private as it could be.

Anyways, buckle up, friends, because this is one heck of a long post on why it’s okay to blog under a pen name.

Pen names are a safety net where you control what information is being shared

With a pen name, I know what I’m sharing and what I’m okay with sharing. Even though I’ve shared my real first name, I try not to get too personal on the blog. When I first started blogging, I don’t think I talked about my personal life at all outside of what was expected from a high schooler – homework, exams, school.

I still don’t talk too much about my personal life as an adult, mostly because I’m an ordinarily boring person who doesn’t do much outside of general Adulting duties. I also don’t want my information getting into the wrong hands and compromising the safety of myself and those I care about. The online world can be a wonderful thing with its vast array of knowledge available right there at our fingertips and connecting quickly with those across the world, but one wrong move and I (or someone I know) could be stuck doing much unpleasant cleaning up.

One of the most notable examples is the author who wrote an essay in The Guardian in October 2014 about confronting a book blogger over a negative review of her debut novel. Despite receiving multiple warnings not to engage, the author stalked the blogger and decided it was completely okay to drive to their house and knock on their door. Not only that, but she also posed as a fact-checker, calling the reviewer at their work.

Just thinking that a random stranger could come up to me at work over a negative review or waiting out in the parking lot of my workplace makes me so uncomfortable. This may sound paranoid, but you don’t know what they’re going to do to you if things escalate, even if your workplace has safety precautions in place. As someone who has been left on my own to close down a store before through previous jobs, that’s not something I want to happen to me. It’s not as simple as a random phone call from an unknown number, which I can easily ignore because I have a strict rule of never answering unless I’m expecting a call or have them in my contacts.

“Okay, so why are you blogging then?” you ask. “Even with a pen name, there’s a risk.”

If that’s the question you have in your mind, then you’re right. By choosing to blog, I’m choosing to put myself out there, so I should be aware of all the consequences that come with it, ranging from lifelong and supportive friends to hateful comments that call me a “hating ass hoe” or demeaning me for listening to K-Pop. (I’m not making those comments up.)

I don’t have to blog. I could be the average person with a Google account and carry on with my life. It’ll avoid the whole situation altogether.

I don’t have to post negative reviews either, and I’ve certainly chosen not to a few times because I don’t feel like writing a review. I also believe negative and DNF reviews can be informative in finding the right readers for the book so long as I’m not attacking the author themselves, and warning other readers to read a book with caution if it’s incredibly problematic.

Whether someone posts a negative review, they still deserve that basic right to be in a safe environment online. Even if they think it’s okay to tag an author in a negative review (please don’t) or try to get into a flamewar with them (why?), it’s also not okay to stalk them when the block button is literally at your disposal.

I’m not losing credibility when I blog under a pen name

It feels weird at times, and I’ve definitely thought about changing my name so I’m blogging under my real one, especially if I ever go back into solo blogging. But I think it’ll be more strange if after blogging under a pen name for so long I revert to my real name. I can definitely understand that blogging under a pen name and then finding out about it is a lie in and of itself. It’s valid to question, “if you’ve lied about your name, then what else are you lying about?”

But it’s also valid to be concerned about my own safety because regardless of having a pen name or not, I’m still the same person with the same thoughts. I would write my reviews and posts the same way under my real name as I would with my pen name, and my opinions don’t change.

• Julie Kagawa is one of my favorite authors. Shadow of the Fox trilogy is her best work so far, and is the first series I recommend to anyone wanting to read one of her books.
• I prefer to avoid Harry Potter because of J.K. Rowling’s stance on trans rights. I will, however, acknowledge the franchise has played a vital part of my childhood.
• I still think I’ve been robbed of a proper ending in the 2018 reboot of Meteor Garden.

It would take a lot of work and time to lie completely about everything under the sun, including my favorite books and opinions of books. I don’t have the energy to go that far to say I love Shadow and Bone over Six of Crows when I prefer the latter more. At that point, I might as well write a novel and put all of my characters through hell and bring out all the emotions in my readers.

Pen names can be confusing for some people, but they can still understand why you did so

One of my former cobloggers never knew I blog under a pen name until I shared I was using a pen name publicly (see my first point about controlling what information is shared). I didn’t feel comfortable doing so nor did I feel the need to do so; before then, only Lupe knew my real name but only because we personally know each other. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have known either unless I choose to share it with her.

When you blog under a pen name, it becomes a part of you, a name that others associate with you, much like what your blog is known for. When you go from a handle that was using a character from a game to one that is very different yet familiar, it’s disorienting. Tacking on my first name to my pen name felt like the only way to somewhat connect my portfolio so future employers didn’t get confused.

Real names might feel like an easy way to use your blog on a resume or job application, but I think most will understand if you choose to blog under a pen name. Maybe when you started you wanted to separate your personal life from your blogging life. Maybe you thought blogging would be temporary. As someone who had a blog that lasted several months, keeping this blog was not on my bingo card. I genuinely thought book blogging would be temporary, yet here we are nearly a decade later.

You don’t have to use your blog on your resume, job application, or college essays. I’ve included it in my college essays and scholarship applications, though.

• I didn’t have much else that sticks me out from the crowd. Plenty of high school students do extracurriculars and work while also carrying impressive grades — blogging was the one way for me to be different.
• I feel like my long-term dedication says something about me differently than what a few temporary internships will.
  • I don’t have many internships because unpaid labor isn’t something I can afford and the door was shut in my face before I could even put one toe in the door. Pay your interns!
• A lot of employers have been fascinated that I blog, and it’s helped me out when used relevantly.

I’m not a professional recruiter nor do I work in HR, so I can’t say this applies to all. But if I were working in HR and someone mentioned they blog about something they enjoy, I’d be interested. I feel like it makes them more well-rounded as a person, but you don’t need a blog to be well-rounded.

You can still take ownership of your work and be held accountable

There’s a stigma that when you blog under a pen name, you can’t take ownership of your work and you can’t be held accountable. You can disappear at any time and no one will be able to find you. Which… is absolutely fair.

It was weird when I first started putting my blog on college and scholarship applications. How do I mention using a pen name while blogging on my resume and job applications? There’s not really any information out there on how because everyone seems to encourage you to use your real name.

There have been plenty of times when there’s a niggling feeling at the back of my mind that I’m going to be judged or discredited for using a pen name. This generally comes up when I’m signing up through a Google Form for a review copy* because those never account for anyone using pen names (probably because most people don’t, and those that do likely prefer eARCs so no addresses are being shared).

*It’s also disorienting when I expect to get called Sophia and then I get an email with my real name because I forgot I had to do that, but that’s on me. It’s probably disorienting for the other side of the email, too.

There have also been plenty of times when I get hit by imposter syndrome and ask, “Should you use a pen name?” I’m sure I’ve Googled this question during my many existential crises.

It doesn’t exactly help that in recent years, there’s been a push for more authenticity in a world saturated by staged photos: it’s become essential to be more real and personal with your audience. There’s not necessarily pressure, but it feels like pressure. But if we don’t think a successful author using a pen name is an imposter, why should this extend to blogging?

In my (short) experience, a lot of employers don’t actually care. I got both of my college internships because of my blog, and I’ve been told I got them because of my personal experience while blogging or they liked my writing style and felt it fit their brand image. None of them mentioned my use of a pen name, and while they might have done the math beforehand, the logical reality is they probably have plenty of other things they’d rather focus on. The use of a pen name is a mild inconvenience, if any.

(Now, on the other hand, if you use said pen name to apply to a job, that’s an entirely different scenario. I don’t think this needs to be said, but please don’t do that.)

I’ve also never had an issue in the blogging community with using a pen name. Maybe it’s because the book blogging community is so small that it’s such a minor issue to even make a hoopla about. Maybe it’s because the community, while small, is friendly (for the most part) and everyone is relatively close — most of our comments come from other bloggers. It’s rare we get someone who isn’t a blogger reading our posts and leaving a comment — most of my non-blogger readers typically just read my posts.

Pen name or not, I still wrote the post and own the content. It’s still just as bad plagiarizing me under my real name as it is under my pen name and it doesn’t make plagiarizing from either side okay. I can still get sued because I probably don’t cover my internet tracks well.

While I blog under a pen name, I think I should still take ownership of my work and be held accountable for my actions. It feels shitty for me to disappear, but I get how others might feel and why this may make me less credible compared to my counterparts. After all, you can theoretically disappear using a pen name and come back under a new one, repeating the cycle. But your writing style doesn’t change, and you can still slip up, so someone will figure you out at some point.

Alternatively, you could learn and do better under a clean slate. Maybe that works out better in the long run.

I don’t necessarily want anyone stumbling across my blog

I might be comfortable listing my blog on my resume or using it for job applications, but this wasn’t always the case. I was very uncomfortable with any non-bloggers knowing I had one, even my friends and especially family. Even though I’ve gotten slightly more comfortable, I’m still pretty uncomfortable with showing or mentioning my blog. God forbid a classmate who hated me and wanted my head on a silver platter.

In its own way, my blog was a safe place for me to freely be creative and explore my writing in an outlet without much judgment. I might get the occasional judgmental or hateful comment, but those are a lot easier to not respond to than having a classmate I didn’t want stumbling across my corner to do so and then using that as a weapon both on and offline. I wouldn’t be able to catch a break. Let me cry over Jade Legacy and Night of the Dragon in peace.

(Oh, and chances are, they might leave those comments under an alias.)

Using a pen name reassures me my blog won’t be associated with myself outside of blogging unless I freely grant that permission. If employers look me up by name only, they’re not likely to find much if I keep my links off my personal profiles. I like keeping my personal and professional life as separate as possible, even if I might use my blog on my portfolio and resume.

Blogging (or their current blog) might be temporary

Many posts urging you to go self-hosted right off the bat are also centered around the fact you’re walking into blogging with the full intent of doing so long-term, potentially making it into a business. The reality is a lot of us (especially in the book blogging community) blog as a passion project and hobby alongside our day jobs.

Some of us probably went into blogging thinking it was temporary rather than long-term, and maybe for some, it is temporary and something to look back on years later saying, “I did this cool thing!” (At least, I thought it was cool…) I definitely thought this was a temporary outlet and that I would stop a few months later. I’ll last maybe a year before moving on to a new project or life chapter if I’m lucky.

Just like some people might use a pen name so their personal and professional lives can be kept completely separate, they might also do so because they know their current blog is temporary. Maybe it was done as an experiment for a few months or as a learning project. Using a pen name is an easy way to keep this separate from any other blogs you might already have.

So, should you blog under a pen name?

Using your real name lets you build a track record for yourself online when someone you know wants to search you up, or they can contact you if they stumble across your work.

But using a pen name while blogging doesn’t mean the same won’t happen. It’s very much like blogging under your real name, but you have that reassurance no one’s out there to take the information and use it of their free will. People can still reach out to you and search for you even under your pen name; it just won’t be under your real one.

At the end of the day, you have to do what’s most comfortable for you, whether that’s a nickname or a pen name. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with anyone using their real name or a pen name, but I do think that in a constantly evolving digital landscape, it is okay to blog under a pen name, and they should be talked about more often and normalized.