Reader Question: What about using a pseudonym?

A question from Hamilton:

Hey Scott,

Hope all is well. That great news about the successful launch of your
screenwriting class! 

I had a question regarding the business side, that is: If you are querying an agent to get representation, but you want to use a pseudonym on the material itself, do you query the agent with your pseudonym? Or, just inform the agent after, that you do not want to use your real name. I take it most likely will be the latter.

Thanks a lot

Yes, I would advise the latter. A writer-representative relationship has to be based on a certain amount of trust. Hard to do if you’re using a fake name. Besides do you really want to have to remind yourself before every phone call or meeting that you are your pseudonym, not yourself?

A more important question — and one I’m sure any future potential rep will ask you — is why you prefer to use a pseudonym rather than your real name. It’s not necessarily a negative, witness the success of Lemony Snicket aka Daniel Handler who has used his pseudonym to create an even more intriguing story about the author than had he just gone around as D. Handler.

My point is make sure you have a sound reason for using a pseudonym. As long as you do and it makes sense from a business standpoint as determined by you and your reps, then you should be okay.

Here’s a personal story involving pseudonyms: When I co-wrote the spec script K-9, my writing partner was actually working at 20th Century Fox. That’s why the script went into their creative group before any other studio. To protect his anonymity and not influence the readers, the script went in like this: “Written by Andrew Charles & Scott Myers”. The actual pseudonym was my idea: “Andrew” for one restaurant my partner owned in Ventura called “Andy’s,” and “Charles” for another restaurant he owned called “Charlies.”

In fact, you see this type of thing at least a few times per year where a studio exec, agent, or entertainment lawyer will write a spec script and submit it with a pseudonym, again so as not to influence readers one way or the other. In fact, here’s a case in point, the recent sale [10/29/2010] of a spec script called “Carnavale”:

After spending 17 years at CAA and the last three at ICM, David Styne is leaving the agency business to focus on a new career as a screenwriter. This comes after he made a sale on the first (and only) script he has ever written.

 — — 

Styne, who majored in English at UCLA and is the grandson of legendary songwriter Jule Styne, wrote the script on a legal pad last December. He put it in proper form after his wife bought him the computer program Final Draft for Christmas. He put a fake name on it — A. Tuttenroux — and after trying to get a Brazilian actor client on Steindorff’s series pilot Rio, the agent mentioned that he had a young client who wrote a script in that locale. The more Styne talked about his own affection for the place based on the trip he took there, Steindorff and his Stone Village colleague Dylan Russell became convinced that Styne wasn’t telling him everything.

Diablo Cody is another screenwriter who uses a pseudonym (originally Brook Busey). Any other pseudonymous screenwriters out there?

If you have a question about screenwriting, feel free to post it in comments, and I’ll be happy to provide whatever shred of insight I can.

UPDATE: Okay, let’s say you were going to use a pseudonym. What might it be? Off the top of my head and being a lifelong Mets fan, I’ll go with “Mookie Kranepool.” How about you?

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