Pseudonym the attempt was not entirely successful – and the two are still sometimes confused by booksellers. A pen name may be used specifically to hide the identity of the author, as in the case of exposé books about espionage or crime, or explicit erotic fiction. Some prolific authors adopt a pseudonym to disguise the extent of their published output, e.g. Stephen King writing as Richard Bachman. Co-authors may choose to publish under a collective pseudonym, e.g., P. J. Tracy and Perri O'Shaughnessy. Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee used the name Ellery Queen as both a pen name for their collaborative
Pen name Asadullah Khan Ghalib", or just "Mirza Ghalib". The French phrase "nom de plume" is occasionally still seen as a synonym for the English term "pen name": this is a "back-translation" and originated in England rather than France. H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler, in "The King's English" state that the term "nom de plume" "evolved" in Britain, where people wanting a "literary" phrase failed to understand the term "nom de guerre", which already existed in French. Since "guerre" means "war" in French, "nom de guerre" did not make sense to the British, who did not understand the French metaphor.