Namaskara fellow travelers,
Today I want to tell you about my pen name: why I decided to use one, why I chose Isobel de Border and what it is like being Isobel.
Pen names are used by writers for many reasons. Female writers have often used male pseudonyms in order to get published, think Mary Ann Evans aka “George Elliot”. Even Joanne Rowling aka “J.K. Rowling” was told that a book about a boy written by a woman probably wouldn’t sell (!!) Another common reason to use a pen name was and is to keep ones identity private. Think Eric Arthur Blair aka “George Owell”, who didn’t want to embarrass his family. Some authors use different pen names for different genres. For example, Joanne Rowling uses “Robert Galbraith” not “J.K. Rowling” for her detective novels. And sometimes writers just want to have fun. Daniel Handler adopted Lemony Snicket as his pen name and made her the narrator and protagonist in A Series of Unfortunate Events.
All through the writing of Bella and Rami I had been mulling over whether to use a pen name Initially, the very personal nature of the book made me want to hide behind something. But when I thought about it, hiding in the digital age isn’t really possible: Elena Ferranti, author of the runaway success My Brilliant Friend, may be the exception that proves the rule. I also did some research into my own name and found that there were several living people with identical or near identical names scattered around the world. This decided me, I would create a pen name to create a little distance and avoid any confusion with other people.
The name Isobel de Border had been percolating for quite a while. It swam into view for a bunch of disparate reasons. Isobel because Bella is one of its diminutives. “de” because I was studying French at the time. Border because my forebears on my mother’s side came from the border region of Scotland. And when I put the elements together I found that there wasn’t a person living or dead who appeared to have ever had the name. The closest hit I got when I did a google search was the Scot’s aristocrat Isabella de Mar from the 13th century. Isobel de Border it was.
Since deciding on a name I have had to work through the issues of when, where and how to use it. Perhaps the most important usage is in the book contract, where both my legal name and pen name are specified. This is to ensure that there are no copyright issues down the track. I have also used it to purchase a domain for my website and used a variant, Isobelauthor, for my Instagram account.
Over the last several months, every time someone required a bio, or information about me, I had to decide whether to use my legal name, my pen name or both. At my first Book Club meeting I tried using both and it got confusing for everyone. People didn’t know what to call me and I didn’t know either! However, by the time I did my first radio interview a few weeks later, I had decided to be Isobel. It worked. I felt completely comfortable being Isobel the author and the interviewer found it easy too. Now I am Isobel for all book related writing and events.
I just did a web search for Isobel de Border using different web browsers and found I appear first on all of them. Success!