Author Pseudonyms and the Anonymous Reader

Changes in the book industry, from self-publishing to the advent of ebooks, have transformed not only how people read, but they have opened up new possibilities for what they can read and what they can write. Today’s publishing industry represents a level of freedom of speech and freedom from censorship never before known in the history of mankind, and authors and readers can both benefit from it.

Recently, the media has reported on the growing sales of erotica ebooks. Erotica books have grown in sales for two reasons—first of all, people desire to read them—I suspect they’ve always desired to read them. Secondly, they are now accessible in new ways. Previously, few people would have gone to the local library and checked out an erotica novel—most libraries wouldn’t have even carried such books, and many people would have been embarrassed or ashamed to buy them at the grocery store or to ask a librarian for one—especially if they lived in a small town. If you did buy such a book, it might come in a plastic wrap so no one could see its cover.

The surge of ebooks and ebook readers, however, has made it possible to read anything you want by buying it online without having to be face-to-face with a person at the checkout counter who may look at you disapprovingly or tell everyone in town about the dirty books you read. Sure, someone at Smashwords or Amazon might have access to your account, but those people don’t know you personally, and with thousands of people buying these books, who’s going to keep score?

The result is that ebooks have created a new type of freedom for people. (Note, however, that it’s not completely “anything goes”—not long ago, a book with tips on how to become a child molester was available at Amazon for only a couple of days; the book outraged people, resulting in thousands of one star reviews from people demanding that the book be removed—censorship still happens, and in this case, it probably should, but it’s hard to see the masses getting together to stop the sale of erotica books online—especially since so many people are now reading them.) As long as a book isn’t hurting anyone (obviously a book about how to be a child molester will hurt children), it should be available for anyone who wants to read it.

Erotica novels have gotten the most attention in terms of ebook sales, but ebooks have opened up the reading horizon for many other people with more “serious” interests. I imagine the self-help book industry must be seeing increased sales as well. Just as you might be embarrassed to buy or check out an erotica novel, the same is probably true if you wanted to read about mental illness—think of those nosey librarians whispering that someone in your family must have a mental illness if you’re reading that book—and the same goes for books on alcoholism, sex addiction, the books checked out by teenagers who are questioning whether they might be gay, the books checked out by girls or their mothers about getting their periods. Even the most innocent books could cause a person to feel embarrassed about other people knowing what he or she is reading. Imagine the boy who wants to read “Little Women” but doesn’t because he’s afraid his friends will see him with it and think he’s a sissy, or the girl who wants to read “Harry Potter” but her mother refuses because Grandma believes it’s a satanic book since the main characters are witches.

With the advent of the ebook and ebook readers, anyone can access one of these books within seconds and download it to his ebook reader without anyone seeing the book purchased; nor does anyone have to see the revealing cover showing a woman’s cleavage or two men kissing or a titles like “How to Overcome Your Gambling Addiction” or “So You Think Your Child Is a Transvestite.” Ebooks and ebook readers have saved people from embarrassment while giving them access to the information they need or the entertainment they crave.

Not only do readers benefit from this freedom, but authors can benefit from it as well. After all, someone has to write all those self-help books and erotica novels, right? But putting your name on an erotica novel you wrote could be far more embarrassing than just buying such a novel at the grocery store. So why not use a pseudonym?

If you’re writing a self-help book, you probably don’t want to use a pseudonym because you need to have some qualifications to make people believe you are qualified to tell them how to improve their lives, but no such requirements exist for writing an erotica novel. You simply need to have a wild imagination and be able to write well—even if you write badly, you’ll probably sell some books, but if you want to create a legion of fans, you do need to be a good writer—yes, even for erotica books.

Writing a book under a pseudonym has always been easy to do, but it has not been easy to sell such books. Back in the days of brick-and-mortar bookstore sales, the best an author could do who wanted to remain anonymous and hide behind his pseudonym was to hope his publisher would get his book on bookstore shelves and that bookstore patrons would then see the book and buy it—and of course, if it were an erotica novel, the book wouldn’t find many readers willing to risk their reputations to buy the book unless it was in a specialty “adult” store and the readers weren’t afraid to enter the store. No self-respecting author would have self-published such a book—it would be too risky to go to local bookstores to ask the stores to carry the book, and soon wagging tongues would have everyone in town knowing he was the author of “smut.”

But today, an author can write under a pseudonym, format the book by him- or herself into an ebook, and publish the book online. Only the author and the online bookstore need ever know who the true author is. Furthermore, the author has the advantage of being able to market the book online. The author can create his own website for the book—no need to put up a photo of himself—although he might hire a model to pose as the imaginary author he pretends to be. He can promote the book through social media at places like Twitter and Facebook, and he can even be interviewed online through written interviews to protect his true identity.

In short, the Internet and ebooks have revolutionized free speech and censorship of the written word. Authors have more freedom today than ever before to get their words into print, and readers have more freedom to read the books they want to read without having to fear any forms of repercussion because of what other people might think. Ebook sales are growing at a fast pace each month, so readers are obviously gobbling up books they can conveniently buy online, and several authors are making significant incomes through selling ebooks.

Embrace the freedom. Write those books you were afraid to write before. Read those books you were afraid of being judged for reading in the past. Have fun; read what will help you with your problems, and write and sell some books!

 

Irene Watson

Irene Watson is the Managing Editor of Reader Views, where avid readers can find reviews of recently published books as well as read interviews with authors. Her team also provides author publicity and a variety of other services specific to writing and publishing books.

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