I read part of a conversation about pseudonyms and writers. I know many writers in the past have used different names depending upon what they are writing. Some have had reason to mask from readers the fact that they are writing romance trashy novels as a woman whilst writing serious novels as men. And vice-versa for women writers. Sometimes the trash makes more money but makes them feel guilty.
But mainly the suggestion from publishers that writers use another name is purely to do with marketing. They don’t want to get their genres mixed up. Readers I have known are often genre specific and might never find their favoured authors other works, but most readers love to take a dip into another shelf, another world, see what else is being written. Its part of the enjoyment of reading. Where would we have been in Hugo had changed his name when writing political treatise? Or being a journalist?
I am writing across several genres and to my mind a writer should be able to master many styles and show their readers they can master those styles. If their readers want to travel with them all to the good, if not that is the reader’s choice. I think writers who change their names are not achieving very much even when one of those names is Ed McBain.
The whole idea of having a name one writes with and another in real life is one of privacy. Its affectation in other places.