New York Times, Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Over the past 10 years, my wife and I have been slogging through a list of "The World's 100 Greatest Books" as presented by Intelliquest. Last year, I got to "Middlemarch" by George Eliot, who of course was not a George at all. Having recently read and thoroughly enjoyed the latest Robert Galbraith novel, I thought that women with male pen names would make for an interesting theme.

There weren't as many as I'd hoped for, which made symmetry difficult. And there was redundancy: two of them were named George (Eliot and Sand), and all three Bronte sisters took the surname Bell. Eventually, I decided to pair ROBERT GALBRAITH with a revealer, which turned out to be "What each writer in this puzzle has in common: TWO X CHROMOSOMES." However, Joel and Will thought that the revealer wasn't particular strong — or even necessary. In fact, they felt that not providing the author's real names anywhere in the puzzle would be frustrating to solvers. So, it ended up being a case where having a revealer was actually detrimental, which was a new learning experience for me as a constructor.

After going back to the well, I discovered ANDY STACK, whose books I had never read but my wife had. And with Andy (Ann Rule) having just passed away in July, it was a nice way to memorialize her. Have fun solving, and hopefully this puzzle inspires you to pick up a book by one of these authors!

Nice finds, five female authors who used male pen names. I knew ROBERT GALBRAITH (fantastic new series by Jo Rowling, AKA J.K. Rowling), ISAK DINESEN (since ISAK is such a crossword-friendly name), and GEORGE ELIOT ("Silas Marner" is a must-know!). ELLIS BELL was mystifying, but what a neat piece of trivia — I had no idea Emily Bronte wrote under a pen name!

ANDY STACK was also mystifying. Even Google hitched, trying to tell me all about Andy Stack, the musician, much to my chagrin. Finally, I figured out that Ann Rule, the actual writer behind the True Detective stories, sounded familiar (although I later realized I was thinking about Anne Rice).

I can totally see publishers forcing women to take a male pen name, especially for certain genres. But it works the other way too. A friend of mine, Jason Nelson, landed a great four-book deal, but with a stipulation: he had to publish under the name J.C. Nelson. Apparently they've learned over the years that this type of fiction is much more likely to be bought by their heavily female-weighed audience if the author is also female (or at least isn't recognizably male). He had no hesitation about doing so, given that the publishing industry is incredibly challenging.

I wondered if I would do the same, assuming I ever get a book deal. (I've found that landing an agent was roughly five times as hard as getting a crossword published in the NYT, and landing a book deal has been much, much harder.) Wouldn't it feel odd, to pitch yourself as something you're not? And what would you do about book signings? Talk about the awkward stares.

Ultimately though, without a major publishing house throwing its marketing weight behind you, it can be nearly impossible to make it as an author. Sure, there are many anecdotes about self-published authors catching fire, but if Penguin Books came to me and offered me a book deal complete with sponsored tour, on the condition I had to wear a Lady Gaga wig? Heck, I'd put on a meat dress.

I enjoy a crossword puzzle that makes you think.