Probably a stupid question, but if you want to use a pen name for your writing, do you need to register it anywhere or could you just use it anyway and hope for the best?

No, there's nothing you need to do. Generally speaking, you'd use your real name for dealings with book trade, magazines and so on, if only so that cheques are made out to someone who actually exists, and make it clear that the piece should be published under your pen name. I think that any contracts would say 'Joe Bloggs writing as Fenella Fanshawe', and again, you'd do all business under your real name.

The Society of Authors could advise further, if it's more complicated than that or if total anonymity is really, really important.

Emma

Cool. Thanks for that. Also, I was wondering, do you know of any male writers that have used a female pen name? I know in the old days, women used male pen names to try and get their books out (up until the jane austen years I guess) but have any male authors ever used a female pen name?

More than you'd think of the authors who write romance for Mills and Boon are men, but you'd never guess from the list of authors.

And the women having to hide behind male names went on much longer than you'd think, in equivalently 'male' genres - James W Tiptree (think that's right) was lavishly praised in the 60s (?sf/f sooo not my field) for his forceful muscular prose and so on, and eventually turned out to be a woman...

Emma

Cool. Thanks for that.