Pen names: one site or many?
How to decide whether each pen name gets its own website, and what to do about the shared email list.
Writing under more than one name is common, and the website question comes up quickly. Do you run one site with tabs for each name, or separate sites?
When separate sites win
If your pen names write for readers who would be put off by each other, separate them. A sweet romance reader who lands on a page full of grimdark covers has had a bad experience, and so has the grimdark reader. Separate sites let each name have its own colours, type, tone and email list.
Separate sites also protect privacy. Some authors use a pen name precisely so that a day job, a family or another genre audience does not connect the two. In that case never link the sites, never share an author photo, and use a different contact address for each.
When one site works
If the names are open secrets, write for overlapping readers, or are mostly a shelving convenience (a "J." initial for thrillers, a full name for literary work), one site with a clear section per name is simpler to maintain and lets readers discover the rest of your work.
The email list question
Readers subscribe to a voice, not a person. Keep a separate list per pen name unless you are certain the audiences overlap. Merging lists later is easy; splitting a list that has started to unsubscribe is not.
Practical checklist
- One domain per name you expect to keep for years.
- A consistent "about" paragraph written in that name's voice.
- Buy links that match the name on the cover.
- A note in your own records of which name owns which ISBNs, so retailer pages and your site always agree.
Spinecrest lets each pen name run its own branded site from one login for exactly this reason, but the decision itself is editorial, not technical. Decide who each name is for first.
Notes from the Spinecrest team · October 14, 2026