: If you publish something, do people have to cite you by your surname? If an author strongly wished to be referred to in other works by his or her given name, is there a way that the convention

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Poet e e cummings and singer k.d. lang are both referenced in all lowercase letters. Singer Prince famously went by an unpronounceable symbol for a few years (which many wrote as The Artist Formerly Known As Prince, or TAFKAP). Many artists go by one name: singers Adele, Cher, Madonna; cartoonist Herblock; French writer Molière; British writer Saki.

If you want to publish under Jacob (or another first name), you certainly can, but if it's a common name, it might be difficult to market your work.

Now, if what you want is to go normally by "Jacob Jones" but for the New York Times to write in a review "The new book by Jacob Jones came out this week. This is the third novel Jacob has written in the last three years," then no, you can't force publications to break their house style just for you and reference you as "Jacob" rather than "Mr. Jones." Or rather, you can try, but you'll come across as a special snowflake, and earn a certain amount of critical derision.

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