Writers, editors, artists, why don't you display your name?

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

I've discovered a lot of writers and sometimes bought their books after enjoying their posts on forums. I often find it frustrating when forum members are talking about their work to those who know them well, but I don't know them other than their username. If you're ever going to admit who you are on a forum, why not display your name in your signature if not your username?

I have to dig around and sometimes I can't find anything. I could ask them directly but they may not be a regular and I don't want to show interest so directly when there's a chance I won't end up liking their work or ever getting round to reading it (I have about 10 books by a few TLO members that have been sitting there for 3 to 5 years).

I guess that some are tired of seeing too much self-promotion in the books world and just want to be a good contributing fan but once you're talking about your own work, you may as well display your name.

A name being familiar helps a lot, because after a name appears enough times to clip onto your memory, you tend to want to know more to attach to that name, especially if you see it in different places and are looking around listings of books and stories.

[Frater_Tsalal]

I think in my case it's because I joined back in 2009 and back then I had had very little of note published under my own name.

[Ibrahim]

The weirdest thing about the vogue- it seems like etiquette sometimes- for pseudonyms is that occasionally one is inveigled into a discussion of matters which can be said to be of rather personal nature- and that's okay, one chooses to do so or not; yet the correspondent/interlocutor hides behind World On Fire or Monster From The Chasm or what have you. It does feel like someone just staring at the hand you've just offered in introduction. The sound of one hand shaking no other.

[qcrisp]

I am an open book. I.e., there are two sides to me.

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

Frater- since you have more published now, are you choosing to keep no notation of who you are?

Ibrahim- why just your first name?

It just occurred to me that like celebrities and powerful people who are not recognised by their appearance, a famous or powerful person using a pseudonym might take pleasure in pomposly asking "do you know who I am?" Maybe Reese Witherspoon will make herself known after her opinions on white dad writers don't go down well.

[Frater_Tsalal]

Robert, I don't know, I tend to develop sentimental attachments to things I guess, and I've been using the handle "Frater_Tsalal" so long on here now it would just seem weird to change it. Heck, except for one brief moment where I changed my avatar pic to Kim Kardashian as a joke, I've never even changed my avatar picture.

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

I understand not changing the username, I wouldn't change it either because it can be confusing when people do that but there's the signature space that a lot of people use. Someone here even lists their collections in the signature space.

[JadedFool]

I believe many writers may likely browse the internet with a pseudonym in order to keep a disconnect from their personality and their work. Say you would be likely to read an author you might have communicated with personally, but I'm sure quite a few authors have potent opinions that may rub readers the wrong way, forever dissuading them from their literature. And perhaps it's that fear that keeps them in the shadows.

Personally, I tend to enjoy a writer's work the less I know about them. It adds an air of mysticism. Take Ligotti for example. Sure, he'll do interviews here or there but they leave much to the imagination. I've never heard him on a podcast, never seen a video interview, and because of that, a little magic is added to his work.

[Ibrahim]

Quote Originally Posted by Robert Adam Gilmour

Ibrahim- why just your first name?

Like i said, Robert, the pseudonyms felt almost like etiquette, so being loth of both total pseudonymity & of full submersion in custom, i chose what seemed the middle path of my first name only; full details are in the profile section, where anyone may find them if they so choose.

There are additional reasons, having to do with Google & the panopticon.

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

Yeah, I do wonder how many well known creators use a pseudonym to be more opinionated without harming their career. I don't imagine it's that common.

Would you enjoy Ligotti's work more if there were no interviews and no information about him at all?
I think a lot of the classic weird fiction authors are made more interesting by their biographies and letters. Some of them might even seem like a different author if we only had their fiction and poetry.