Novelista Annie Burrows takes a highly idiosyncratic
stroll through the A-Z of the writer's life.
Starting with A is for...
Well, Author, obviously! Nothing beats the feeling of getting that
call from a publisher, saying that they want your work. (Or not much, anyway).
Only, the minute you become
an Author, you have to start making a lot of decisions. Like, for instance, should you take a pen
name?
And if you do, how do you
choose it?
I knew right from the start I
didn't want to write under my own name. I value my privacy, you see. When I write that best seller, I don't want
to be staked out by paparazzi who've discovered where I live...(delusions of
grandeur? Moi?)
And so I informed the lovely,
intelligent woman who'd recognized the brilliance of my first book that yes, I
did want to write under a pseudonym.
And how did I want to be
known?
Christy Kendrick, I
replied. (Christy was my sister's pet
name for me, and Kendrick my grandmother's maiden name, and I thought it had a
kind of ring to it. As though it should
belong to a writer of historical romance.
I'd even opened a new email account for my fan mail as christyk...)
There was a brief silence on
the other end of the phone.
Then, "Well, we already
have a Kendrick writing for Mills & Boon, and we don't want readers to get
confused. But as soon as you've come up
with something else, we will send out a contract."
Mild panic ensued. If I didn't come up with a pen name they
liked, would they change their minds about offering me a contract?
Hurriedly, I wrote a list of
about half a dozen names I thought might work.
(Including Sue Kray, which is the Anglicized version of sucrée, or,
"The sweet lady" which was what I was used to being called in my job
as merchandiser for jelly babies)
It was the editorial team at
Mills & Boon who selected the name of Annie Burrows out of the list I sent
them. Which I suggested because Anne is
my middle name, and Burrows is my married name.
So writer me still feels like
a part of "real life" me.
(Although when I went to my
first conference as a published writer, and people asked me what my name was, I
had to look at my name badge to check!)
I'm more used to being Annie
now. Annie the Author. It has a nice, alliterative ring.
Although later on, I
discovered the way I should have
picked my author name. People who know
what they are doing advise you to consider where you might get put on the
shelves, when picking your author name, to maximise your earning potential. Early in the alphabet is good, for readers
who browse in alphabetical order. Or
late, for those who browse in reverse alphabetical order. Or next to someone really famous in your
field, so that people pick up your book while they're looking for someone else.
So I should have been
something beginning with H (for Georgette Heyer fans).
Hey, ho. Life is one long learning curve.
And next month I will be
sharing what else I've learned since I've become a published author.
Something beginning with B...
Annie's latest book, Portrait of a Scandal is available now from Amazon UK
