This from the Independent:
John Banville brought out his latest Philip Marlowe mystery novel under the pen-name, Benjamin Black, last month. Dan Kavanagh’s detective novels are to be re-published and nowhere is Julian Barnes mentioned, such is the extent of the in-joke. J K Rowling will bring out her second Robert Galbraith book this June.So why do writers use a pen-name? The reasons vary, but here are six examples:
1. Stephen King wrote several novels under the pen-name Richard Bachman, because the publishers at the time considered him too prolific. One King book a year was enough, they said, and so Bachman was born.
2. Iain Banks wrote under the barely-disguised pen-name of Iain M. Banks for his work in science fiction, in order to differentiate from his other work and to carve out two separate careers.
3. Evan Hunter wrote as Hunt Collins, Curt Cannon, Richard Marsten, D.A. Addams and Ted Taine, but was most famous as Ed McBain, the writer of the 87th Precinct Novels. His reason for his multiple identities was "to avoid any confusion or shock that readers of Evan Hunter’s “serious” books might feel when exposed to the “mayhem, bloodshed and violence” that were Ed McBain’s meat and drink.” (Time)
4. JK Rowling famously published as Robert Galbraith to try to avoid the spotlight that inevitably came with the hangover from her wildly successful Harry Potter series. It worked for all of about 6 months, until a leak came from her lawyers.
5. Writers the world over can earn an extra crust from writing for book packagers, who create series fiction for various markets. The popular children's series Rainbow Magic for example is under the name Daisy Meadows, a collection of the authors
image: "100405_EasterEggRoll_683" by Daniel Ogren under CC
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