Sievier’s Monthly (1909): Pseudonyms and Readership in Early Twentieth Century Popular Fiction

Publication year
2008
Pages
245-262
Comment

This article does not have a lot to say about romance because it's discussing an earlier stage of Jervis/Sandys' career. However, that may be of interest in itself, and for those with an interest in the history of publishing in this period:

My primary interest is in romance writers of the inter-war period but research reveals that many of these authors figured in the development of the general popular press and honed their craft by writing for a variety of publications before focusing on their particular genre. This was most evident in the work of Marguerite (Florence Laura) Jervis, the subject of this paper. (245)

Pseudonyms not only provided a hiding place, they also enabled the exploitation of the prevailing commercial climate. Denise Robins notes how she was writing so much that it could not all be published under one name. Larger commercial libraries, such as Boots and W. H. Smith, refused to take more than two books a year from any one author, so pen-names were encouraged by publishers, particularly Mills & Boon who had authors publishing as many as seven novels in a single year. (246-247)