October 18, 2014

Why book bloggers use pseudonyms

Last January, I read NO ONE ELSE CAN HAVE YOU and thought it was a funny little mystery, just falling onto the right side of the twee line.  Yesterday, author Kathleen Hale published a piece for the Guardian, "Am I being catfished?" that reveals that a) she has no idea what catfishing is and b) stalked a book blogger without realizing she was doing anything wrong.

It is a horrifying article.  She finds the woman's address and work address.  I sometimes consider just going by my real name here, since it is a bit of an open secret.  But then I read this.

So yes authors, many of the book bloggers you interact with are using fake names.  Maybe lying about their personal details to muddy the waters.  Obviously, this is one incident with one disturbed person.  (See another article by Hale where she throws hydrogen peroxide in a girl's face and stalks her for two years and yet still makes herself out to be the victim.  Wow.)  Still, I think I'll keep my pseudonym. 

Also, kudos to HarperTeen for backing away from this mess.

4 comments:

  1. I've been offline and largely 'away' from blogging for the past couple of weeks... but then I logged on to Twitter and saw this today.

    What in the ever-loving world. I mean, WHAT. And yes, protect that anonymity!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know, right? This is just so crazy that I don't even know how to process it. (And there are people in the comments defending her for stalking a woman for writing a bad review! I mean, seriously?!)

      Delete

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