I still cannot comment on Benjamin Tate’s blog, so I’ll just say here that Ben has accepted my apologies for any confusion sown, raised some good points about how superchains are missing out on the advantages of hand-selling over order centralization, and has lots of information about his up-coming stuff. So go check that out:
http://benjamintate.livejournal.com/
Also, because I forgot to mention it before, the cover on his novel, Well of Sorrows, is, well, pretty awesome (though I’m afraid I don’t know who the artist is):
And if you promise not to tell the bookstore computers, you can also check out an SFFWorld interview with Ben from last year under his alter ego Joshua Palmatier:
http://www.sffworld.com/interview/277p0.html
Because I think it would be as amusing as a fuzzy elf if he ends up being “Joshua Palmatier writing as Benjamin Tate” on some of his book covers. Plus, it’s a good series too and complete.
The Open Window 
Joshua and I have actually server on numerous panels together at Seattle-area conventions, most recently last month at Norwescon. He and I spoke briefly about the name change question, because he seemed to be among a legion of mid-list authors of my acquaintance who have had to end up taking this route, either for the Bookscan reason you mention or simply because the marketing team at the publisher felt books “would not sell” under the old name. I think I know at least five local mid-listers who have had to do this…
It’s becoming a very strange epidemic. I’m hoping that it’s being used as a stop-gap measure, a harkening back to the old days of multi-pen names to satisfy a bookseller demand for “new” looking stuff. But while SFF readers will tolerate it, it really isn’t selling to them and it is a strategy that is counter to how SFFH authors build audiences in general. It’s very hard to make a splash with a new series if your old readers cannot find you, small though that crowd of old readers may seem, and the bulk of the fanbase is not necessarily on the Web and aware of all the pen names. If the economy improves, there will hopefully be less pressure to do this.