Your Business Name.
Picking a pen name and picking a name for your publishing company have many of the same issues attached to them. Since we covered Pen Names in the BASICS section, some of this may sound repetitive, but there are differences between pen names and business names, so you'll want to keep the following in mind when you do so.
Since it's a business entity, you may wish to have it sound more formal. Avoid Pen Name Publishing as you may have several Pen Names throughout your career. It's best to find something that makes your brand better. If you write Antarctic Adventure stories you might pick a pen name like Captain E.H. Frostbite and a publishing name of South Pole Publishing. The Pen Name speaks to who you are while the publishing name speaks to the type of books you write. The two names work together to further the overall brand.
Most publishing companies have a symbol to go with their name. If you were to scan the spine of the books on your shelf you would see these symbols, or trademarks, just below the author's name at the bottom of the spine.
Note: Trademark is both a noun and a verb and different from Copyright. We cover Trademarks in more detail in another post. But you should be aware of them and make sure you are not infringing on an established/registered trademark when picking your pen and/or publishing names.
As we mentioned in the BASICS section, all businesses are media companies. Your business name is just as important as your pen name when it comes to leveraging its use. Picking a business name is a bit more challenging than picking a pen name.
A good business name should meet the following criteria:
First and foremost it should describe what the business does. Something as simple as "The Jason Company, LLC" might sound simple and even a bit clever, but it tells people nothing about what the company does. The name you pick should immediately inform the person reading it of what it is that you do. Again, this goes to that all-important branding that was mentioned earlier.
Note: Incorporating your pen name into your publishing company name is limiting and should be avoided. You want the two entities to be separate and allow them both to have the ability to expand their reach into other genres and mediums.
Distinctive Names
To make this process easier you can add a suffix such as "press" or "imprint" or "books" to the end of your company name. "Make Me Famous Publishing, LLC" for example.
The flip side of this is being too specific. "Dark Water Fiction, LLC" may tell a lot about what kind of book your company produces, but someday you may wish to publish cozy teenage mysteries or historical romance, and the publishers name no longer fits the genre(s) it's producing.
Your publishing company name should be distinctive. Like your pen name it should be easy to remember and spell. It should invoke an idea of what it is you produce without being too restrictive.
Your company name should also be scalable. It should be able to handle both a few books or a thousand imprints without changing. If you label your business "Tiny House Books, LLC" it conjures an image of a small press. "Just Me Publishing, LLC" does the same, with the added bonus of limiting yourself to never publishing other authors works right from the start. Pick a name that can allow your company to grow unhampered.
Branding.
It helps to pause and apply the name you're considering to every advertising medium you can think of. Will it sit well on the spine of a book? How about in an email? A FaceBook ad? A billboard? Can you make a good logo from it? Are the initials enough to leverage into a symbol people can recognize? How will it look on a business card?
Note: It's important to remember that your business name will be considered intellectual property. This, along with copyright and trademark, will protect you and your work from being pirated or stolen. If you have proven to yourself that the name you have chosen is brandable, the next step is to trademark it. We'll go into this process later on.
Things to avoid:
Foreign names or phrases. Stick to the country/language you are registered in and/or holds your largest reader base. Otherwise readers will think you write in that language.
Slang. Most slang is regional. Not everyone knows yours, or they may have a different meaning for it than you do.
Acronyms. You may as well use question marks. Just don't.
Sexual innuendos. Unless you plan on writing erotica and nothing else, not a good idea.
Idioms. If I weren't familiar with the phrase, "Piece of Cake Books, LLC" would make me think you write about pastries. "Monkey Business Publishing, LLC" might make me think you write about primates. Imagine my thoughts when I find out the truth.
Viability
Keeping these criteria in mind when picking your pen and company names will make the road ahead much smoother. Chances are high that your first, second, or even ninth choice will not be a feasible option for you to use. You should have a few names in mind for both your Pen name and your Company name before proceeding.
When you are picking a pen or company name you must check and see if it's viable in relation to how you plan to market that name. Here are the main areas this applies to:
Web Domains:
Are the web domains associated with the name available for purchase? At a minimum you will want to secure .com, .net, .biz, and maybe even .edu if you are writing non-fiction.
Trademarks:
Are there any trademarks filed with the government in that name? Are there any major businesses with the same name? The Trademark Office database is searchable and free to use. Since all businesses are media companies, it's important that your prospective name is not already registered by someone else. If you were to use the same name it would result in advertising and branding issues and very likely lead to a cease-and-desist letter or a lawsuit.
Social Media accounts:
Are they likewise available? If you are unable to secure the most popular ones you may need to consider a different name. At a minimum check: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X (formerly Twitter) as well as Threads and Bluesky — both of which have become significant author and reader communities since 2024.
Email address:
You'll want to have one that matches PenName@provider.com as closely as possible.
Again, all of these items go to branding, which will become very important when it comes to marketing your name and your books.
But first, we have to make sure the names you have chosen are viable ones.
How to check if the Pen name or Company name you like is available.
Start with Google. A simple Google search will tell you if it is worth searching further. If the name you like brings up any famous people or businesses it's time to move on to the next one on your list. Be sure to use the filters that Google provides, especially the "News" function. The name you hope to use may not be A-list famous, but it could still be the same name as that multi-state serial killer they caught last week, who will be very famous soon.
Tip: It helps to use quotation marks around the name when you search. This tells the search engine to search for exactly what's between the quotation marks. This way the results will include only those that match exactly what you searched.
After Google, check your State's business database for the business name. After that, check the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) TESS database for any trademarks on the name. Then check for domain availability on GoDaddy, Namecheap, or Cloudflare. Finally, check each of the social media platforms directly.
AI Tools for Business Name Generation
AI tools can be genuinely useful for the name brainstorming process — particularly for generating large numbers of options quickly and for stress-testing names against the criteria described above.
A useful prompt approach: describe your genre, your target reader, and the tone you want your publishing company to project, then ask an AI tool to generate 20 business name options that are scalable, distinctive, and appropriate for a publishing imprint. Then run the output through the availability checks described in this article. AI can generate the raw material; you do the final selection and verification.
Name stress-testing: Describe a potential name to an AI tool and ask it to evaluate the name against the criteria in this article — memorability, scalability, branding potential, potential confusion, trademark risk areas to investigate. The AI won't replace the official trademark search, but it can flag potential issues worth investigating.
Domain and social handle alternatives: If your first choice name has an unavailable .com domain, ask an AI tool to generate variations and alternatives that preserve the brand meaning while creating a domain that's available.
Logo concept: AI image generation tools (Midjourney, Adobe Firefly) can help you visualize rough logo concepts for your shortlisted names before you commit to a name or pay a graphic designer.
Note: AI tools do not have access to real-time trademark databases or domain availability systems. Any availability information from an AI tool must be verified through official sources.
ScribeCount Author OS — Your Publishing Company Identity in AuthorVAULT
AuthorVAULT in the ScribeCount Author OS stores your publishing company information alongside your catalog data. Your imprint name, the pen names operating under your LLC, and the connection between them are all part of the Author OS's identity management. The Sales Dashboard can display income by pen name and by imprint — giving you a clear view of which publishing brand is generating income and which may need attention. As your publishing company grows to include multiple pen names or imprints, AuthorVAULT's catalog management scales with it — maintaining separate records for each brand while the Sales Dashboard shows consolidated income across all of them.
Conclusion
Choosing your publishing company name is one of the most permanent decisions in your author career. Take it seriously. Apply all the criteria in this article. Check availability thoroughly before committing. And remember: the best business names are those that are scalable enough to outlast your current genre, distinctive enough to be remembered, and brandable enough to work across every medium where your company will have a presence.
Pick a few candidates. Run them all through the availability checks. Let the results guide you to the one that survives all of them — and that one is your name.
- Randall
