Pen Names
Mark a contributor as a pen name of another contributor to keep your roster organized when one author writes under multiple identities.
What Pen Names Are
A pen name in Inkwren is a contributor record linked to another contributor in the same workspace. The relationship is just a parent-child link — there's no separate pen name entity, no real-name field, and no aggregated analytics across identities. Each contributor (primary or pen name) keeps its own profile, stories, publications, and statistics independently.
Pen Names is enabled by default for both author and publisher workspaces. If your workspace administrator has disabled the Pen Names toggle, the relationship is still stored but the indented tree, badges, and "Pen name of" banner won't appear.
Marking a Contributor as a Pen Name
The pen name relationship is set on the contributor form. Add or edit a contributor, and once your workspace has at least one other contributor, a Pen Name Settings panel appears below Email and Website:
- Open the Add or Edit Contributor form
- Scroll to the Pen Name Settings panel
- From the This is a pen name of: dropdown, select the primary contributor this pen name belongs to
- Save the contributor
Once saved, this contributor is treated as a pen name. Leaving the dropdown set to Select primary author (optional) keeps the contributor as a regular (non-pen-name) record.
The Pen Name Settings panel won't appear when you're adding the very first contributor in a workspace, since there's no other contributor to link to. Add a second contributor and the dropdown will appear on subsequent forms.
You can't mark a contributor as a pen name of itself, and you can't link to contributors in other workspaces.
How Pen Names Appear
On the Contributors list
The Contributors page renders pen names as an indented tree:
- Primary contributors render at the left edge
- Their pen names appear directly below, indented and prefixed with a
└─connector - Pen name rows show a small pen name badge next to the name
- Primary rows display a N pen name(s) badge showing how many pen names are linked
On a primary contributor's detail page
When you open a primary contributor (one with at least one pen name), a Pen Names card appears in the sidebar listing each pen name. Click any pen name in the card to navigate to its detail page.
On a pen name's detail page
When you open a pen name's detail page, a banner appears at the top reading:
Pen name of [Primary Contributor Name]
The primary's name links back to that contributor's detail page.
Independent Profiles
A pen name is a full contributor record with its own:
- Name and sort name
- Email and website
- Bio and notes
- Stories, publications, and statistics
Nothing aggregates across the primary and its pen names — each contributor's stats and works show only what's attributed to that contributor.
Tips
- Set up the primary first: Create the primary contributor before adding pen names so the dropdown has someone to link to
- Use pen names for marketing identities: When you write under multiple bylines, each pen name keeps its own bio, website, and profile so you can attribute stories accurately
- Attribute to the byline you used: A story published under a pen name should be attributed to that pen-name contributor, not the primary — Inkwren won't roll it up automatically
- Favorite pen names independently: Each contributor (primary or pen name) can be favorited on its own; useful when you collaborate more often with one identity than another