You know, I trust, that there's a thing in US publishing - I've no idea if it's operative elsewhere - where large-bookseller orders are based on the sales of the author's previous book. So if a book does poorly, the author is forced to take a pseudonym to wipe the slate clean. (Or, if a book is expected to be out of the author's normal style and perhaps not to do well, to take a pseudonym for that book, to protect subsequent releases). This strikes me as incredible - surely booksellers can't be THAT stupid - but I'm assured it's true.

But I hope your panel will get into other reasons for pseudonyms, including one that interests me: to create a more memorable name.