PW Daily digs into the mystery of the pseudonymous Lucy Jackson, whose "debut" novel Posh is coming out from St. Martin's Press in two months. Whoever the author really is, she's "an acclaimed short story writer and novelist" and New York Times Notable who's gotten her stories into the New Yorker and Best American Short Stories. Her agent, Maria Massie of Lippincott Massie McQuilkin, adds: "Though her previous books were incredibly well reviewed and got lots of attention, her sales weren't there. She's savvy enough and smart enough and has enough friends in the publishing world to know that sending a more commercial book out under her name didn't really make sense." Also, we can assume "Jackson" lives in the area, not just because Posh is "set at an exclusive New York City private school," but because PW Daily reports "the author dropped off manuscript pages at the St. Martin's lobby."

Well, I tried poking around in the LMQ talent roster, but after asking Massie about one woman who straddles the line between commercial and literary fiction and another who's been a National Book Award nominee, and getting negative answers both times, I decided to throw in the towel and let Sarah have a crack at the mystery.

Sarah adds:Well, I've done some additional investigating, but my answer's the same as Ron's - still no answer one way or another. The most intriguing find is that when all key points are thrown together in one gigantic Google search, only one name was spit out. But the excitement abated quickly once that author confirmed she wasn't "Lucy," either. So the hunt continues, but what of the larger picture of adopting pseudonyms?

One publishing insider had several things to say on that front: "To my mind, there are two ways of playing the pseudonym to dodge bad sales game: first, keep it totally, utterly secret, even that it's happening. Don't make a fuss about it from the moment of acquisition. The author, agent and publisher work together to keep it a stone cold secret (I know a couple of examples of this working out just fine.) Or keep it totally, utterly unsecret, from the moment it happens. Make a fuss about it from the moment of acquisition. No secret, no shame, just trying to buy a little extra attention from the booksellers so they don't order based on last book's net."

One recent example of the insider's second point is Random House/Mortalis's upcoming publication of AN ACCIDENTAL AMERICAN by Alex Carr. Nobody has ever tried to hide that Alex Carr is Jenny Siler, author of EASY MONEY and FLASHBACK among others, and this pseudonym was both a way of establishing a new kind of series for her (international espionage in the Le Carre/Furst mode) while simultaneously getting the accounts to take a new, fresh look at her work without referencing previous sales points. It's one thing for a pseudonym to be completely closed off or opened up - but when it's in between, that's when problems (and endless guessing) ensues...