Say you write a book and it flops. Unfortunately, that happens frequently, particularly in the tough publishing market we have today. But it doesn’t have to be the end of your writing career. A pseudonym is definitely an option, or you could write in a different genre. Maybe you used to write contemporary romance, but now you’re interested in writing historical or paranormal. You can reinvent yourself and then put your work out under a pseudonym, if the editor thinks that’s the best thing to do. Everybody has another chance. If you write a great book, and your agent loves it and sells it with passion, you can succeed. Some of our authors have had long careers and have written and published many books. Sometimes, for whatever reason, there’s a hiatus during which their books stop selling well or they step out of the publishing world for a while. When that happens, they need to reinvent themselves. It’s always possible, but you’ll have to write a wonderful book that captures people’s attention, because they’re going to look at you as higher risk if you don’t have a strong track record of sales. Partly, that’s because of the retail environment. The buyer at Barnes and Noble is going to look at your past sales as a basis for whether to buy your new book. That’s where a pseudonym can help you get a fresh start.