Posted in The Inklings

Hello, fellow Inklings… it’s Josh (also known as Spitfires, who awaits a name, go figure). Chezdak invited in here, so I’m looking forwards to this blog...

But I am wondering about this pen-name thing. What is the point of it? I mean, from what I’ve seen, they are more than just nicknames, they really are pen-names, as in your name when you are being an author on the Inklings? Is my understanding correct?

If they really are our pen-names, is it right to publish our stories under somebody else’s name? When we post on a blog, we are publishing them for the whole world to see, and we are posting them as somebody else who is a published author in their own right. I don’t mean anybody would take us to court or anything but it’s the same moral issue as copyright, and we should act on principle: if it’s wrong to publish them as hard-cover books under pen-names, isn’t it wrong to publish it elsewhere, even on HSB?

The other thing is that it seems to me to be counter-productive. As nicknames, they sound like lots of fun, but as pen-names, theses stories will go down under as “Homer’s” (that’s the name I’m considering) stories, not Joshua’s. We’re publishing them under a pen-name, so the pen-name gets the credit; the real us don’t, and this doesn’t help our own path to published-dom.

This is Josh, who’s also known as Spitfires, who currently needs a name (?!), signing off.

P.S. I am putting this under Members because I don't have a category to myself yet, but that will happen (we hope).