Book publishers are sometimes reluctant to publish books where the author has an overtly feminine name.  So they sometimes insist that authors [[wikipedia:Pen name#Female authors|shorten their first name to a single letter]], to disguise the fact that they are female.  Examples of this include: 

* [[wikipedia:J. K. Rowling#Name|J. K. Rowling]]
* [[wikipedia:D. C. Fontana|]]
* [[wikipedia:K. A. Applegate|]]
* [[wikipedia:S. E. Hinton|]]
* [[wikipedia:Julianna Baggott|N. E. Bode]]
* [[wikipedia:J. D. Robb|]]