Ask Sally # 34 competitions and psuedonyms

(Sorry I haven't done an Ask Sally for a while. I've been tied up with other things, but have a couple of questions, including one that I should have answered a while ago. I'll do them as two separate posts).

Kitty asked:

What is the etiquette regarding pseudonyms when entering competitions? When submitting short stories to magazines for publication I always make it clear that I'm using a pen name but is it OK to do this when submitting a story to a competition or should it always be in your own name?

What I tend to do when entering a competition is give my real name, then if they contact me to say I've been placed, I'll ask them to list it using my pen-name. The reason I do this is that often the first time a competition organiser contacts the winners is when they send a letter and a cheque, and so they make the cheque out to the pen-name.

A lot depends on the competition and how the entry form is set out. On some there's no space to put a pen-name and real name. On others there is.

I don't think there's a particular etiquette, and I've never known a competition not want writers to use pen-names, but I do think that if you give a pen-name you need to ensure they know it's a pen-name and what your real name is because of the problems if they send you a cheque for winnings.

As always I'm interested to know how others approach this issue.


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Writing Competitions Calendar