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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/47224
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Anything goes.

Musicians often use unconventional pseudonyms, from Royce da 5′9″ to ![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/PoMI2.png), but sometimes writers use uncommon punctuation or orthography as well.

There's a German crime author who published his books under the pseudonym [-ky](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/-ky):

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/AVEsH.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/AVEsH.jpg)

But these cases are rare – in fact I could not find another contemporary example, only 19th century writers such as [Abbé \*\*\*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Hippolyte_Michon) or [El…y](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Asnyk) –, and for a writer publishing today I agree with what @Galastel says.

Barbara (Babs) Surname and Barbara "Babs" Surname sound unprofessional to me, and I have never seen the name of any author represented in this way on a book cover.

I would do the following:

1. In your author bio, both on your website and in your books, call yourself Babs (and do not mention your full name Barbara there at all). E.g. "Babs Surname lives in Kentucky with her husband and three dogs. She..." Everyone knows that Babs is a common nickname for Barbara, and everyone will be able to understand that Babs refers to the Barbara on the book cover and in the website headline.

2. Sign all posts and comments in your blog and on social media with Babs.

3. When you are interviewed, ask the interviewer to "please call me Babs. Everyone does."

Soon readers and reviewers will pick up your nickname.

I wouldn't use Babs Surname as your author name. Bob Surname, Kate Surname, or Bill Surname all work well as authors' names for Robert, Katherine, and William respectively, because they are also common as full given names, while Babs (to my knowledge) is not, or at least not a common, given name in itself.

Original score: 3