French for ‘pen name,’ a nom de plume is a fictitious name under which an author publishes. Mark Twain was the nom de plume of Samuel Clemens. George Eliot sounded more serious than Mary Ann Evans.  Theodore Geisel was known as Dr. Seuss. In 1899 William Sydney Porter took the name O. Henry so editors might never know the stories were submitted by a convicted felon. Eric Blair become George Orwell as a shield from critics and cranks. A fascinating collection of stories about authors who took pen names can be found in Carmela Ciuaru’s Nom de Plume: A (Secret) History of Pseudonyms (Harper, 2011). Why some of the most well-known writers sought privacy and anonymity tells us as much about the times as the temperament of the artist.  Patricia Highsmith penned her lesbian novel as Claire Morgan in the 1950s. Vampire novelist Anne Rice wrote erotica as A. N. Roquelaure in the 80s’ to avoid scandalizing her father, but her ruse didn’t last long. Sylvia Plath first published The Bell Jar under the pen name Victoria Lucas because she feared it would offend her mother. The reasons for taking a nom de plume are as varied as the writers who do it. And the times have changed. J.D. Robb, Nora Roberts, Jill March, and Sarah Hardesty are four pseudonyms used by author Eleanor Marie Robertson. She uses a different name for writing romance, suspense, fantasy, and for titles she publishes in the U.K. For prolific genre writers, it’s one…

Last year the Department of Justice won the anti-trust lawsuit against Penguin Random House when it had tried to acquire Simon & Schuster. The financial penalties led PRH to eliminate a good number of people from top executive positions. Not surprisingly, some of those great minds decided there might be a different business model for book publishing worth investing in and have started Authors Equity. Madeline McIntosh (former chief executive of PRH) Don Weisberg (former chief executive of Macmillan) and Nina von Moltke (former president of strategic development at PRH) provide executive leadership for Authors Equity with investments from some big name authors including Louise Penny and Tim Ferriss. Their business model signals an inflection point in publishing. Authors Equity won’t offer a contract with money upfront or guarantee payment, but it promises to provide authors with 70% of the profits in return for an initial investment. Successful authors recognize a better deal than 5% net profit on their books with traditional publishers. Subsidy publishing has gone mainstream. Advances on copyright royalties have dropped so low in recent years that it is untenable for authors to spend a year or two writing a manuscript for a few thousand dollars. Increasingly, agents are unable to sell manuscripts to the top trade publishers who are only acquiring new projects from authors who have previously had blockbuster sales. I now hear traditional publishers referred to as “legacy” publishers. There is a fundamental shift of financial risk from the publisher to the author underway.…

How far should a daughter go to fix a fraught relationship with her mother? Rica Ramos-Keenum examines this question in her forthcoming memoir, Nobody’s Daughter: A Memoir of Healing the Mother Wound, which releases from She Writes Press on May 9. In her early forties and about to remarry, Rica Ramos realizes that starting over could mean leaving her mother behind. She longs to heal the relationship, but her mother still refuses to acknowledge the sexual abuse Rica suffered at the hands of her stepfather, or her own culpability throughout the years. With old traumas resurfacing and a new life unfolding before her, Rica grasps the power of unspoken grief—and the potential to suffer or heal. Will she and her mother ever cross the chasm between them, or are some secrets meant to stay buried? As Rica navigates her options, she faces two ultimate choices: submit to a culture that shames daughters for not honoring their mothers, or muster the courage to go her own way. Offering a bold and lucid look at mother-daughter relationships, Nobody’s Daughter underscores every woman’s right to truth and validation. In addition to Nobody’s Daughter, Rica Ramos-Keenum is the author of Petals of Rain: A Mother’s Memoir. She’s also contributed to several anthologies, including “Art in The Time of Unbearable Crisis” and “Forgiveness is the Hardest Thing.” She’s a former journalist and current mother of two adult sons and one 60 lb. rescue dog that thinks she’s a lapdog. Rica enjoys connecting with readers and…