I was curious about the procedures to use a 'Pen-Name' and who is the check made out to. But moreover, The copyright laws about this practice. This will I hope, be an open topic. Any info you may have will help. (I still have three books in the rough stages.)
once you get and agent and then a contract from a publisher ... you just make sure your real name is in it dude ... pen names or pseudonyms don't mean diddly squat ... they just go on the dust jacket of the book if you're bashful about using your real name. as for copyright, i assume you mean of your pen name ... shouldn't be a problem there unless you want to call yourself Chevrolet or something ... hey but i'm not a lawyer so this is just my opinion.
Like Jim said, just have the publisher make out the check to you. Now, the only time you'd have a problem is if you wanted to remain anonymous even to the publisher. In which case your best bet would be to file your taxes as a company and open a business bank account with the company name being your pen name. Open the account and have all checks made out to that. The bank knows it's just a business name, but from the publishers stand point they're making checks out to "Bobby Bouche" they don't know that's the name of your company. The bank lets you cash the checks on behalf of the company account. Your readers would also have no idea, since they aren't cuttin checks. Home free.
Cool. I learned a bit about copyright working at a Copy center. But it all makes sense what you two said. Thanks.
