Pseudonym/pen name help. First name Desiree. Last name suggestions please.?

Genre is fiction, mystery with a little bit of romance thrown in.





If that helps.

Pseudonym/pen name help. First name Desiree. Last name suggestions please.?
Pick something pretty common, short and easy to remember - seeing as you have a flashy first name, so ...


Desiree King


Desiree Ryan


Desiree Black


Desiree Scott
Reply:Since your name is Desiree, it would be cool to play with the word "Desire." Like "Lady Desire." That's a little cheesy I guess...I just think it's cool to derive a pen name from your actual name. For example, Charlotte Bronte's pen name was "C. Bell" because it was the same as her actual initials but didn't reveal the fact that she was a woman.
Reply:Haydn
Reply:"Clue" after the board game


"Drew" after Nancy Drew
Reply:I agree that the first name you've chosen sounds totally false. It's also terribly femme for mystery, pretty much guaranteeing that no male will pick your book up off the shelves. A name like Desiree announces loud and clear that he won't like it.





For mystery--even with some romance thrown in--I'd select a "harder" first name. A surname should not only go nicely with the first name, but place you high on the shelves of bookstores, shelved alphabetically by author within each genre.





Scan the mystery sections at the bookstores in your area; you'll see certain parts of the alphabet always seem to be shelved at knee level or lower. If you stick with your real name and it starts with W, so be it, but selecting a pseudonym that can affect sales negatively makes no sense. You want a name that puts your book at eye level.





Sorry, "Bittner" is taken. %26lt;wink%26gt;
Reply:I went through this when it was suggested to me to develop a pen name for some of my writing. The problem to me is that there are just certain names that SCREAM out PEN NAME!! Desiree is one of them. I think Harlequin must have 50 Desirees writing books for them. It just sounds fake. Honestly the reason a pen name was suggested to me was because my real name is so unusual that it sounds fake. They wanted me to come up with something simpler. If the genre is mystery, Desiree just doesn't sound credible to me. I would look at the name and not even bother to pick it up. It would just tell me the story was romancy and silly and not interesting and well developed mystery. The truth is, the pen names they offered me were so goofy I just had to laugh. They made me sound like a complete airhead. I think if you are trying to break into a genre where the competition is very stiff and there are a lot of very skilled authors working, you would want a name that made you sound competent and sophisticated - not like something out of a romance novel from the grocery story. Just my opinion. Pax-C