How to start a pen name as a poet?
I'm a young poet with a boring overly common name. I would like to use a pen name but I don't know how it works really. How is it legally protecting my work? How do I start using one? My first volume is about halfway done and I am published in 3 anthologies. Any help would be appericated.
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POINT OF A POET (c. 2011)
The point of a poet is to share what we feel
The point of a poet is to share what is real
The point of a poet is to open your eyes
The point of a poet is to reviel hidden lies
To be a poet is to know
To share life's deepest woe
To be a poet is to see
To see and share what we could be
To live as a bard is a gift
A gift and tool used to help sift
Sift through the lies, the pain, and hurt
To temporarily escape being an introvert
To be an author is to tell a tale
A tail of your life with every assail
Assults on human needs
Assults rewritten for the one who bleeds
To be an artist is to experience like never before
To tell of how things are from the other side of the door
To shed the veil clouding the light
To give a second view of what's truly right
To be a muse is to inspire thought
To help clarify what's already taught
To be a muse is to show another side to every story
To bring human nature back to its former glory
Update:my real name is Jordan Craig a pretty boring and there is a fashion designer with that name and it is absolutly not what I write about. I just think the two names maybe not together but... are pretty common and humdrum.
Comments
Anything you publish under a pen name is your intellectual property just as much as if you had published it under your legal name. You can get complete information on U.S. copyright law at this site:
http://www.copyright.gov/
When you submit your work to poetry magazines (that's how a poet usually starts, not by publishing a whole book), you can use your pen name. There's no rule that you have to tell the editors your legal name. Most poetry magazines don't pay for the work they publish, so you won't have to worry about receiving checks made out to "Suzy Pseudonym" instead of "Jane Realname." And if you do occasionally get paid, it's easy to add an aka (also known as) to your bank account so that you can deposit checks made out to your pen name.
If and when you sign a contract with a book publisher (you'll need years of magazine publishing credits before any legitimate publisher will be interested) you'll probably have to use your legal name, but your pen name can be the only name that appears on the book.
Unless your name is identical or very similar to the name of some already published poet, you might decide to publish under the name you were born with. Other people might not find it as boring as you do. And if you go for some "poetic" sounding pen name like "Melisande Sapphire" or "Titania Unicorn," there's always the danger that readers will think you're trying a little too hard and making yourself look silly. It should be your poems that make a big impression, not your name.
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I can understand why you might not want somebody to see your work in a poetry magazine and think, "Wow, this poem was written by the same person who designed my jeans!" But that's really not going to be a big problem. Lots of people, even if they're not named Smith or Jones, share a name with many others. Sometimes a woman with a unisex name like Terry or Monroe or Riley -- or Jordan, for that matter -- will find out that she has the same name as some man. A few years ago, there was a Major League baseball player who had the same name as a Playboy Playmate. (And both of them had the same name as a published poet.) Your name is absolutely fine. You should have no misgivings about publishing under that name.
While I find your rhymes unforced in this piece it isn't why I'm answering.
Your direct question might be a conundrum in that what you want to achieve is not something we can truly know. Do you wish to remain anonymous, a mystery? Or do you wish to present the reader with a "hook" of sorts, as intriguing perhaps, but for a similar reason, to garner the attention of the readers.
Certainly many, historically have used "pen names" and I can't know the reasons, but I have to question the use, in your thought process, stating boring.
Unless you become a poetic star, giving the reader a sense of you in the context of your poetry, your name might hardly matter.
Why use a pen identify? Does your identify sound remarkably very similar to a identified writer? Is it not possible to pronounce? Are you a popular man or woman seeking to disguise her identification? Are you within the FBI witness security application? Authors do not select pen names and not using a cause.
Just pick a name and start using it. My aunt changed her name from "Norma Jackson" to "Odrey de Valle".
Pretty pretentious if you ask me.