What's in a name?

As an author, how important is your name? Is there an advantage to using a pen name rather than your own moniker? You probably figure I'm the last person on earth to ask such a thing. I had to laugh when a bookstore manager out in Washington asked me if Janet Elaine Smith is a pen name? Yeah, right! If I were going to pick a name out of thin air, the most logical one to choose would be "Smith," just to avoid any confusion with the umpteen million other Smiths in the world!

When I first started writing, I thought about using my maiden name: Hallett. I quickly decided against that, because nobody ever spelled it right. They would put one "l" in it, one "t" in it, but very seldom two of each of the letters.

As luck or fate would have it, I married a Smith a long time ago. Long before that, I was Janet, and the "Elaine" I never really liked. I think it is because my mother, when she was upset at me for something or other (usually something my brother had done but denied) she would scream "Janet Elaine...!" But as I weighed the options, Janet Elaine Smith didn't really sound all that bad.

As I was contacting bookstores one day a manager remarked, "Oh, we have some of your books in the store. They are sitting on the shelves right between Bertrice Small and Danielle Steele!" Now that's my idea of a good place to be. And it all happened because I'm a SMITH! Who'd a thunk it?

One of the other things that has happened is that I have become known, in writing circles, as JES. I really chuckled recently when I was up at our local Barnes & Noble and a customer went up to the desk and asked, "Do you know if there are any new JES books out?" Yes, that was funny, but the true topper came when the clerk said, "Yes, she has a new mystery out. It's right over here!"

So, when you are looking to see where you will sit on the shelves in a bookstore, take a run through the section that houses your genre and see whose company you'll be enjoying! Yup, it's all in the name.