Author changing name
Let us suppose an unmarried female author. She publishes something. Then she gets married, and chooses to change her surname to her husband's.
Obviously, she can choose not to change her surname. And she can choose to publish under her maiden name, using it as a pseudonym of sorts. But let us suppose she actually wants to use her new legal name.
How would that work?
Two things need to happen, as far as publishing is concerned: readers who are already familiar with the author's work need to be able to find her under the new name, and new readers would need to find out there's also this other stuff written by the same author. How would that be achieved?
Or is the standard that once published, an author doesn't change the name that appears on her books, no matter what changes her legal name undergoes?
2 answers
One example is Janet Jeppson, who wrote a few books under the name ‘J. O. Jeppson’, but after marrying Isaac Asimov wrote many more (some alone, some with her husband), mostly under the name ‘Janet Asimov’, but occasionally as ‘J. O. Jeppson’ or ‘Janet Jeppson Asimov’.
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Presuming maiden is Jacobs, married is Williams:
Mary Williams née Jacobs
Mary Williams (Jacobs)
Mary Jacobs Williams
It isn't like space is limited on the cover or copyright pages; I'd use the maiden name in parentheses, or the appellation née (meaning 'originally', but used almost exclusively to indicate a married woman's maiden name).
I know at least two woman that kept their maiden name as their middle name; and still sign with that initial; For one of them the middle name could pass as a first name ("Royce" as in "Rolls Royce" which is actually two last names!), but for the other woman it is clearly a last name (like "Stephenson") and she doesn't care.
I think the world is getting past issues with weird sounding names; we get actors and celebrities from all over the world, nobody cares. I work in a university (America) with students from all over the world, and many foreign students no longer adopt Americanized names, nor should they: We can learn to say their names just fine. Well, apparently I mangle the Asian languages, but I make the effort!
Name yourself what you want. As B.L.E. says, I wouldn't give up the brand, but it just needs to remain recognizable, adding another name to it will not dilute it.
For an emphasis, you can add a parenthetical "author of" beneath your name in smaller type, or use an asterisk and a footnote at the bottom of the cover: e.g. (author of Forty Ways to Fake Your Death)
As we have seen with sub-titles, there is plenty of room for text on book covers, and spines, and don't forget that your fans don't mind reading.
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