: Re: Would there be any problems with choosing a pseudonym of another ethnicity and sex? Taking some advice here You might notice that pen names usually sound like names a real person would

@Reiling826

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There's a long history of women using male pseudonyms to be taken seriously. It's a sad fact that there's still prejudice, even in academia, against female authors. And so the practice continues; by women publishing anything from research to fiction under a male pseudonym.

It's also been noted that applicants using the exact same CV/Resumé with a "black" name attached get asked to substantially fewer interviews than those with a "white" name in the USA. Similar situation in France regarding Arab and French names respectively. So Pseudonyms are often used to help negate prejudice. For similar reasons sometimes male authors write under genderless or female pseudonyms because of a belief that men can't write female protagonists.

So if you were writing a story which was immersed in Japanese culture, and worried that it wouldn't be taken seriously because you were not Japanese, you may adopt a Japanese pseudonym if your writing could otherwise pass. So it depends entirely on what you want to achieve. If you want to write a novel set in a Japanese setting, whose protagonist is female, and if (big if) you can pass as a Japanese author, then maybe that makes sense?

It has to be given serious consideration, because people are often prejudiced by author's names.

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