I’ve been sitting on a manuscript since 2010, a satirical science fiction novel with the working title of Offlining about a video gamer who even sleeps while online but ventures into the real world to stop his childhood friend from becoming a suicide bomber. He succeeds but gets swept into the secret world of the ultra-rich, whose tech and morals are outlandish, and discovers that life offline is more bizarre than any game he’s ever played.

There is much more humor and sex in this book than in anything else I’ve written. Tweaking the manuscript has been a sort of relief valve for me over the years. When my other writing—or my life—became too intense, I’d make Offlining even wackier.

Some publishers considered it but ultimately passed, and I let an agent go for not being able to sell it anywhere, so I’ll self-publish it. But here’s the thing: fans of my Hardscrabble Road series or any of my other books might not like it. And this will probably be a one-off, just something I enjoyed dabbling with for more than a decade and finally want to put out in the world. Thus, I’m thinking of releasing the book under a pen name. I’ll let my newsletter readers know about its publication, but the book will be otherwise unconnected to me, lest I offend or disappoint someone who then won’t try any of my other books.

There’s quite a long list of authors much more famous than I am who adopted pen names, from Charles Dickens and Stephen King to Agatha Christie and JK Rowling. Their reasons varied but most often had to do with either fearing that they’d create a bad reputation early on if their initial publications weren’t well-received or not wanting to confuse readers of their popular works (and thus ruin a good reputation) with something completely different.

Authors endlessly debate among themselves the pros and cons of using an alias. Pros include the reputation protection mentioned above and the freedom to explore new genres or topics without being burdened by expectations. Cons include not being able to market to an established fanbase to help generate sales and reviews and the dilemma of book signings: does the author sell the pen-named book alongside their established titles but use two different autographs, and if they do this, what was the point of creating the secret identity? Or do they only appear as their secret alter-ego and sell and sign just that book and forego opportunities to sell more popular titles?

What authors seldom do, though, is ask readers what they think of pen names. After all, we create these alter egos mostly because we’re worried about your reaction, Dear Reader, to something we’ve written that is far outside the bounds of our usual genres and themes. But do you even care? Are you willing to take a chance on a beyond-the-norm book written by an author whose other work you liked? Or do you prefer to read books in one specific genre, such that you won’t hold it against me that I’ve written a funny, sexy sci-fi novel but you’re waiting for me to write another historical fiction or mystery/thriller?

I’d love to get your thoughts about this. Please contact me to let me know.