Freelance Writers: Could You Be Hurting Your Career by Using/Not Using a Pen Name? How to Determine When and When Not To

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August 31, 2010

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Now, on to today’s post.
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Last week, I received the following email from a fellow freelance writer about pen names. She wrote:

QUESTION

Hi there Yuwanda,

Did you use a pen name early in your writing career, or is Yuwanda Black your real name? I write for Helium, Brighthub etc under a pen name. These sites actually have a spot where you can actually put it in. But I wonder as I move forward with my writing career whether it’s ok to keep using the pen name, or will I look unprofessional, or does it not matter as long as I’m upfront with the client.

thanks for sharing
L-

MY ANSWER

I fired off a short answer, as I didn’t have time to get into detail, and I wanted to save my longer response for this week’s newsletter. The short answer I gave was . . . read the rest of this post.

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2 Responses to “Freelance Writers: Could You Be Hurting Your Career by Using/Not Using a Pen Name? How to Determine When and When Not To”

  1. L- says:
    August 31, 2010 at 9:11 pm

    Thanks for posting this Yuwanda. Incidentally, I was born with the surname ‘Black’. And like you, I’m not fond of my name either. So for that reason and all the other reasons Scott Lorenz mentioned, I think I’ll be using a pen name. Well, we’ll see…

  2. Yuwanda says:
    August 31, 2010 at 9:31 pm

    L-

    Glad you found the post informative.

    As for my name, I actually LOVE my surname of Black; it’s my first name that I’m not wild about. But, as there aren’t may “Yuwandas” running around and my mom gave it to me, I’ve learned to appreciate it.

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