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have needed to do the work alone. Remember, too, that the money will be split fifty-fifty and that, in the
end, your work-reward ration will be substantially less than you've come to expect.
Writing is such a personal craft that collaboration can make enemies of friends, and turn a potentially
fine story into a boring pastiche of styles, moods, and plot concepts.
22. Should I use a pen name? If your real name is completely without intrigue or musicality, you might
want to employ a pen name from the start. No one can say, for certain, whether a phonetically pleasing
by-line sells more books than an irritating by-line, but most writers tend to feel that it does. We can more
easily visualize a reader going to a bookstore to pick up the latest Ross MacDonald mystery than to
purchase Kenneth Millar's new thriller. (Mr. Millar has had great success with his pen name.) Some
authors are born with names that cry to be splashed on book covers: Isaac Asimov, John D. MacDonald,
James Gunn, Brian Garfield. Others are not so lucky. Dean R. Koontz is basically an unpleasant, guttural
name, but I have stuck with it, for the most part. And after twenty books under that name, I find that
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editors prefer to use it than some melodic pseudonym. In short, the work between the covers is more
important than the name on the outside.
Once you are established, use your own name for your most serious books whether they are inside or
outside the category you're most known for, and keep your pen names for your lighter things. I learned
this lesson a bit late, after publishing a serious novel, Chase, under a pen name and then wishing my own
by-line were on it.
If you are publishing six or seven original paperbacks a year, you are not taxing the market for work
under your own name. If you're publishing that many hardcover titles a year, you should use a pen name
for some of them. Remember that hardbacks are often reprinted in paper, with the result that six
hardcover books a year eventually means twelve separate editions a year. There is no sense competing
with yourself once you've established the value of your name.
Many prolific writers, especially in the suspense and mystery fields, employ at least one pseudonym in
addition to their real names, and they often make no particular secret of their many publishing identities.
Donald E. Westlake is also Richard Stark and Tucker Coe. John Dickson Carr is also Carter Dickson, and
Robert L. Fish is also Robert L. Pike.
23. Should I employ a typing service for preparation of my final manuscript? A manuscript should be as
clean and flawless as you can make it, but it should not necessarily be prepared by a professional typist
just because your own keyboard expertise is slight or even laughable. If you do several drafts and heavy
blue penciling (which I have expressly advised against), a typist may be of value to you. However, most
professional writers find that they make last minute changes in phrasing even as they prepare the
submission script. You forfeit this last polish if you use a manuscript typist. (See Chapter Nine for a
discussion of manuscript revision.)
24. If I type the script myself, should I keep carbons? Some publishers now require two copies of an
author's manuscript when they purchase it. Occasionally, the original copy will be lost or destroyed, and
the writer must supply his publisher or his agent with a good carbon to take its place. You should,
therefore, keep two carbon copies, one of them as readable and unmarked as the original bond paper
script. Personally, I dislike wasting the time it takes to correct typos on a carbon copy. Therefore, I make
only one, which is smeared and good only for my own files and I have the original script photocopied.
Though the cost for this service averages $25.00 a novel, I feel the time saved is more than equal to the
cost.
25. Should I subscribe to a clipping service to receive reviews of my novels? Most clipping services
charge a minimal subscription fee and then bill you by the item usually $.50 or $1.00 for each clipping
they find until you tell them to stop. Since original paperback novels are rarely reviewed in the major
newspapers and magazines, the service is more valuable to the regular hardcover novelist. You can
benefit by the feedback a clipping service can supply, if you understand beforehand that the bad as well
as the favorable reviews will be sent you. The greatest danger is that one of your books will suddenly
catch on, and the avalanche of clippings will threaten to wipe out your life's savings. I know of one writer
who published a dozen novels with only moderate success, but unexpectedly hit the best-seller lists with
his thirteenth. In all the excitement, he forgot about his clipping service. Two months later, he received a
shipment of forty cardboard cartons full of clippings and a bill for slightly more than $5,000! This could
have been avoided had he established with the service a limit that he would buy, at the start.
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