Pen name

A pen name or nom de plume is "a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name." The article's reasons: making the name more distinctive, disguising the author's gender, distancing the author from their other works, protecting the author from retribution for their writings, or merging several writers into one identifiable identity. George Eliot, the Brontës' Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell, Mark Twain, Stephen King's Richard Bachman and J. K. Rowling's Robert Galbraith are the canonical examples.

Web fiction makes pen names close to the default. Serial platforms are public, so writers separate the writing identity from a day job, relaunch in a new genre without old baggage, or keep fan fiction apart from original work. The working rule is consistency: one byline per identity, kept across platform, Patreon and ebook editions, so the audience an author builds stays findable.