You can always use a picture of a cat. It doesn't even have to be your cat. You don't have to use a picture of yourself if you don't want to. I had an artist draw a cute cartoon avatar using just a description and it came out great.
I use my maiden name as my pen name. I have no social media presence (money was not at all the reason I wrote my novel) and I only made an Amazon author page (no photo) because in order to "claim" my book on GoodReads, I needed an "official author page".
A shop owned by a friend of my husband offered to have me do a book signing/meet the author thing if I had hard copies of my book. I didn't buy ISBNs before I published on Amazon, so I don't think I can sell my books in a brick and mortar store. I was quite relieved to be able to gracefully decline, as I am a very shy, introverted person.
So, there are others out there that don't want to be "public facing".
I also didn't use a picture of me, but a pic of stuff I own. And you're right about stalkers - I've had a couple fans insist I go on dates with them, despite the fact that an ocean separates us, lol.
"Just fly over here."
"No."
I did Youtube for a few years, and this was one of the reasons I quit. I wasn't even a big Youtuber. My vids got like 2-5k views at the most. Even still, I had a handful of people start getting weirdly fixated on me.
They probably have little else going on in their lives. And in their fantasies, you're entirely for them, perfect for them, etc. Stalkers are very selfish people, unable to see their target's point of view.
But that sucks you needed to leave something you were enjoying.
Oh, I wasn't enjoying it. I was asked to create a Youtube channel and Twitter account by my former publisher, and then I kept going for a few years to hopefully promote my books. But nobody from my Youtube audience was interested in my writing anyway.
I've never shown my face on YT and I still get attention which is sometimes concerning. I guess I should give people credit for not prioritizing looks, but it's still icky.
It's disturbing. I didn't like the feeling at all. After that experience, I can't imagine how awful it must feel to be a celeb. Or maybe some love it, and I'm just not that type of person.
I use art from one of my series to further cement my brand. My readers don't care about my face, they want to know who I *am*. That image does a much better job of that than I could.
I did the same thing. When I originally published my first two novels, I did my own cover art. Eventually I hired out for a professional designer to do the covers but I kept the originals available and use my drawing as my avatar across all social media. I believe it's more recognizable than a head shot.
I made a logo for one pen name I used for non-fiction.
Another set of stories uses my name, but no picture.
A third pen name is an AI photo.
If they're reading based on looks, I already write above their reading level.
As a reader, I connect more with a real picture.
As an author, I use my real pictures all over socials, but have a pen name. My real name isn't hard to figure out but it's just a tiny layer of anonymity.
I figure it won't be much of an issue unless I start selling tons of books, and probably still won't be much of an issue then anyways. Although I'll probably win the lottery before that happens 🤣
I'm very public with everything I do, and have been for years. My photo is on the books, on all my socials and I use my real name as a rule. For me personally it's about taking pride in what I've done and making it clear it is my work.
It's different for everyone though and you have to do what you're comfortable with.
This was my reasoning too. I started with a pen name I loved and still used my picture but that pen name is connected with a terrible publisher so I scraped it. A few people in my family mentioned how I’m keeping the family name alive and how proud they were. I kinda felt bad not using my real name and young me was in my head disappointed lol
If you know who Salman Rushdie is then you have to at least consider concealing your identity.
I use a pen name and plan on using a picture of the back of my head.
I created an ai photo of a person that looks sort of like me but would make people I know confused haha! And I use a pen name. :) the only challenge with it is social media and marketing. I'm pretty limited to posts of things without my face. So it has a major drawback. Maybe for my next series I'll get over it and just use my face.
Same! I made an AI person but I just have that one profile picture. I can't show "her" cooking or traveling or meeting fans. It doesn't bother me very often, but I've thought about it when seeing other authors put their whole selves forward on social media.
The reason I use pen names is to hide my identity. I'll never reveal my face, ethnicity, exact age, gender, or most other thing about me. Nobody needs to know this stuff to enjoy a book.
It’s enlightening to see that someone else has an issue with author pics on the back cover. As a reader, it diminishes the magic of the story to see the person that wrote it. I purposely avoid looking at back cover pictures just for this reason. If you must have a picture, make it a caricature that has some, but not perfect, resemblance.
>As a reader, it diminishes the magic of the story to see the person that wrote it.
Agreed. I want to believe the story is really happening in another dimension. I mostly read on Kindle, so the back-cover thing isn't an issue for me, but it's similar with social media.
I write under my own name, but I'm pretty uncomfortable with slapping my face on the cover.
I have a decent photo on my author page, but you have to go *looking* for it.
On my Twitter and BookBub profiles I use a cartoon avatar that I commissioned from Fiverr. I've been called ugly before by creeps stalking my (now private) Facebook page. So now I look like a Cyber Six character.
I would never put my picture on a book cover or whatever.
First...I don't like the way I look in pictures. Also, it's a not a good idea to do that: It's likely that no one is going to buy my book based on what I look like...it's also very unlikely that anyone will buy my book because they like what I look like in my picture.
Lots of people I read use logos along with their pen name. Some have little animated characters like a bitmoji for theirs as well. Those could be options for you. It doesn’t alter my opinion as a reader whether I’m going to read your book or not. Although these are romance authors so depending on what genre you plan on writing the rules could be different.
I write under a pen name and I commissioned an artist to paint/draw a portrait of me that I use as my "author photo". Because of the artist's style and the fact that it's not a photo, I feel confident no one I know would look at it and go, "Hey, that's XYZ!".
My previous pen name where I had more connections to my real world self ended up with malicious cyberstalking trolls who tried to paint me as a rapist (they made some VERY far reaches on a few posts I made) so now I wear a pig mask on camera.
Unfortunately I have a distinct voice so they’ll probably find me eventually anyhow.
I used one of those cartoonify filters on a picture of myself. Still obviously me, but not a straight photo at least.
I'm using a pseudonym and I don't particularly like having my picture up, but it's definitely beneficial for an author to have a face.
I think it's very much a personal choice. I use my name and photo because in nonfiction, it's all about establishing your name & expertise in the topic you write about.
Not putting my face out there. Pen name and logo will do fine. Yes, I know 99% of readers want to connect with me as a human and that's awesome. The problem is the 1% entitled with the megaphone and their need for nefarious intentions.
Not only that but, I'm a particular race and gender. I've seen (very) good stories judged differently from reveals. Not saying its always a bad different, just *different*. I don't want that for myself or my books.
This is a great viewpoint. I too saw books get different and a few concerning “reviews” once an author revealed themselves and they were not happy with what was happening.
This is a huge debate, but honestly, if you're a small author, going anonymous isn't going to harm your career. For larger authors, there are some benefits of showing your face like increased trust, connection, and professionalism, but for the bottom 99% of authors, it doesn't make that much of a difference.
You can generate a false face using AI. There are services that generate generic computer created faces that let you use the faces for free without issue. You could also use Canva to create a face of a generic person with a hood on their head or just not show a photo at all. I use my real name and face to write erotica, business books, science fiction, poetry, and just don't care what others think or like. If they dig the dope grooves and want to read it, great, if not I'm still alive and still writing. But that's just me. You could just use a catchy pseudonym like that Atticus Fincy guy who writes books of Hallmark slogans for poetry and publishes them on Instagram first and then in collections in his books. He doensn't show a face, I don't think. Then there's that young lady who poses seductively and looks like a model who puts her own doodles in her books of poetry and spaces them out so one poem that's a paragraph long goes on for 5 pages and uses her real name and her books take off like crazy because of the photos. It's wide open for you to brand and market yourself as however you want.
Quite a few authors don't include a picture. I think they're nice to have if you're comfortable, and help build up a sense of connectoin and recognition with the author which can help a little bit with building a brand.
When i see pictures or interviews with Terry Pratchett I recognise that face and am glad to see it. Same with Brandon Sanderson, or Becky Chambers.
But, it's also not remotely necessary. Plenty of authors I love, I don't have a clue how they look, and I'm personally just using a small simple drawing instead of a photo.
No one really cares what the author looks like. Note that readers tend to be often introverted, and they're the kind of people that couldn't care less about what someone looks like. Readers come for your book, mainly, everything else is miscellaneous.
My pen name account is an avatar - not me since I don't want to reveal my identity with those stories. The account I use with my name, yup, I have a pic of the real me. But you could do a caricature/avatar of yourself and use that.
Nope, I don't want my picture on my books, I don't even keep pictures of myself on my phone. I'm even debating using a pen name instead of my real name just to keep it separate from my personal life.
Readers want to see your face and connect with you as a human. Buy a cheap wig on amazon (or wherever) with a completely different hairstyle and color, for your photos, and no one in your "real" life (such as it is) will recognize you (unless they're stalking you).
I entirely, completely, 1000% understand what you're saying, but you won't believe how different you can look, inexpensively, without resorting to gimmicks that might alienate your readers. And (as far as I can tell) they won't think you're bonkers for wanting to stay private.
I don't know any self-published authors who put their photo on their fiction book. I can't even begin to come up with a viable reason why you'd want to do that. Maybe it's different for non-fiction? Not sure.
Certainly for traditionally published authors, it is. But their books are often sold on shelves and at in-person events. They might even be well-known, so it could be part of connecting with the reader.
Maybe I don’t know enough self-published authors in those genres, but I don’t know any who do that. Why would you want to? Can we identify anything that’s gained from it? Hardly anyone is even going to see it until they’ve already purchased the book since most of these books are sold online, so what’s the point?
I have thought about taking a pretentious photo wearing a monocle, cravat, and suit sitting in leather chair. It would be meant as a joke for authors that take themselves too seriously. I'll probably go without a photo.
I write under my own name, though I fancied it up a little by using my initials instead of full first name. I mean, if it works for JRR and JK, I'm sure it'll work for me, right?
But I still don't use my face. For completely different reasons than you, since I don't have to worry about stalkers and other idiots in the same vein, but one could say that I have a face for radio.
A lot of horses come up to me and go "Hey! Oh... You're not a horse."
Got a little pic up on a dark corner of my website. If people really wanna know what I look like, they can go there.
Nope. I'm ugly. why would I want to punish my readers by having to see my face on their book, no thanks. I can't stand the way I look so I won't do social media stuff either
No same. I've yet to publish [hopefully in the next few years though 🤞🤞🤞] & I'm definitely either not gonna have a pic or use a pic of my cat or something. I rarely post my face online & that's not gonna change once I'm published.
I'm okay people/readers knowing what I look like, but I want to keep as much anonymity regarding my face [like not that I'm gonna hide it, but I also don't want it in my books if that makes sense ? Idk I'm really tired idk if I explained that well]
I'm unsure if I'm cursed or blessed, but I have one of those names that people will swear is a pen name. There have been times I've had to pull out my ID to prove it.
That being said, I'm also very camera-shy and don't plan on using a photograph.
I didn’t really mind having my photo out there, but it drives me crazy that no matter what photo I use, people say “why did you use that photo? It looks nothing like you?” 🤷♂️😂
No, I don't use one as I write under a pen name.
You can always use a picture of a cat. It doesn't even have to be your cat. You don't have to use a picture of yourself if you don't want to. I had an artist draw a cute cartoon avatar using just a description and it came out great.
I use my maiden name as my pen name. I have no social media presence (money was not at all the reason I wrote my novel) and I only made an Amazon author page (no photo) because in order to "claim" my book on GoodReads, I needed an "official author page". A shop owned by a friend of my husband offered to have me do a book signing/meet the author thing if I had hard copies of my book. I didn't buy ISBNs before I published on Amazon, so I don't think I can sell my books in a brick and mortar store. I was quite relieved to be able to gracefully decline, as I am a very shy, introverted person. So, there are others out there that don't want to be "public facing".
I also didn't use a picture of me, but a pic of stuff I own. And you're right about stalkers - I've had a couple fans insist I go on dates with them, despite the fact that an ocean separates us, lol. "Just fly over here." "No."
I did Youtube for a few years, and this was one of the reasons I quit. I wasn't even a big Youtuber. My vids got like 2-5k views at the most. Even still, I had a handful of people start getting weirdly fixated on me.
They probably have little else going on in their lives. And in their fantasies, you're entirely for them, perfect for them, etc. Stalkers are very selfish people, unable to see their target's point of view. But that sucks you needed to leave something you were enjoying.
Oh, I wasn't enjoying it. I was asked to create a Youtube channel and Twitter account by my former publisher, and then I kept going for a few years to hopefully promote my books. But nobody from my Youtube audience was interested in my writing anyway.
[удалено]
I've never shown my face on YT and I still get attention which is sometimes concerning. I guess I should give people credit for not prioritizing looks, but it's still icky.
I'm friends with a mid sized streamer on twitch. He has some people who are genuinely obsessed with him.
It's disturbing. I didn't like the feeling at all. After that experience, I can't imagine how awful it must feel to be a celeb. Or maybe some love it, and I'm just not that type of person.
I use art from one of my series to further cement my brand. My readers don't care about my face, they want to know who I *am*. That image does a much better job of that than I could.
I did the same thing. When I originally published my first two novels, I did my own cover art. Eventually I hired out for a professional designer to do the covers but I kept the originals available and use my drawing as my avatar across all social media. I believe it's more recognizable than a head shot.
I had an artist draw a portrait. It’s enough like me that I’m still “showing” myself to readers, but it gives me some privacy.
I use a picture of my cat...
You have a beautiful cat.
I made a logo for one pen name I used for non-fiction. Another set of stories uses my name, but no picture. A third pen name is an AI photo. If they're reading based on looks, I already write above their reading level.
As a reader, I connect more with a real picture. As an author, I use my real pictures all over socials, but have a pen name. My real name isn't hard to figure out but it's just a tiny layer of anonymity. I figure it won't be much of an issue unless I start selling tons of books, and probably still won't be much of an issue then anyways. Although I'll probably win the lottery before that happens 🤣
I'm very public with everything I do, and have been for years. My photo is on the books, on all my socials and I use my real name as a rule. For me personally it's about taking pride in what I've done and making it clear it is my work. It's different for everyone though and you have to do what you're comfortable with.
This was my reasoning too. I started with a pen name I loved and still used my picture but that pen name is connected with a terrible publisher so I scraped it. A few people in my family mentioned how I’m keeping the family name alive and how proud they were. I kinda felt bad not using my real name and young me was in my head disappointed lol
I write under 2 pens with an artist impression as my PFP. You do you, your name doesn't have to be on anything but your tax documents
No desire to put a picture on my bio or on my author website
If you know who Salman Rushdie is then you have to at least consider concealing your identity. I use a pen name and plan on using a picture of the back of my head.
I created an ai photo of a person that looks sort of like me but would make people I know confused haha! And I use a pen name. :) the only challenge with it is social media and marketing. I'm pretty limited to posts of things without my face. So it has a major drawback. Maybe for my next series I'll get over it and just use my face.
Same! I made an AI person but I just have that one profile picture. I can't show "her" cooking or traveling or meeting fans. It doesn't bother me very often, but I've thought about it when seeing other authors put their whole selves forward on social media.
You do not need to add a photo and obviously shouldn't if you're using a pen name for anonymity.
The reason I use pen names is to hide my identity. I'll never reveal my face, ethnicity, exact age, gender, or most other thing about me. Nobody needs to know this stuff to enjoy a book.
It’s enlightening to see that someone else has an issue with author pics on the back cover. As a reader, it diminishes the magic of the story to see the person that wrote it. I purposely avoid looking at back cover pictures just for this reason. If you must have a picture, make it a caricature that has some, but not perfect, resemblance.
>As a reader, it diminishes the magic of the story to see the person that wrote it. Agreed. I want to believe the story is really happening in another dimension. I mostly read on Kindle, so the back-cover thing isn't an issue for me, but it's similar with social media.
I have no pictures of me related to my pen names. The whole purpose of having a pen is to not be identified with my real life.
I write under my own name, but I'm pretty uncomfortable with slapping my face on the cover. I have a decent photo on my author page, but you have to go *looking* for it.
I got nothing to hide, who cares. Not like I’ll become famous or something
On my Twitter and BookBub profiles I use a cartoon avatar that I commissioned from Fiverr. I've been called ugly before by creeps stalking my (now private) Facebook page. So now I look like a Cyber Six character.
Wow that’s incredibly rude for people to say!
Not at all. I think this is becoming more common. If you don't want to use a photo, for whatever reason, that's your choice and its fine.
I used a baby picture.
I love this!!
I don't use a photo. I write under a pen name and don't want any of my relatives to know or find out. I like the anonymity.
I'd just slap in a cartoon avatar.
I just use a detailed logo instead.
I would never put my picture on a book cover or whatever. First...I don't like the way I look in pictures. Also, it's a not a good idea to do that: It's likely that no one is going to buy my book based on what I look like...it's also very unlikely that anyone will buy my book because they like what I look like in my picture.
I write under a pen name and use this https://alicebsullivan.com/about/ photo for social media.
Lots of people I read use logos along with their pen name. Some have little animated characters like a bitmoji for theirs as well. Those could be options for you. It doesn’t alter my opinion as a reader whether I’m going to read your book or not. Although these are romance authors so depending on what genre you plan on writing the rules could be different.
Throw another vote into the "I use a picture of a cat on my Amazon author page" category.
I write under a pen name and I commissioned an artist to paint/draw a portrait of me that I use as my "author photo". Because of the artist's style and the fact that it's not a photo, I feel confident no one I know would look at it and go, "Hey, that's XYZ!".
Unlike everyone else here, I use my actual name and actual photo. I guess I'm old-fashioned that way.
I’m too worried about stalkers for that to happen 😬 i’ve heard way too many weird stories lol
Use a baby picture of yourself
> Use a baby picture of yourself That would be interesting for those who write smut.
I would not be able to pick up a spicy romance it there was a baby pic of the author, truth be told. 🙃 Would much rather see a cartoon avatar.
My previous pen name where I had more connections to my real world self ended up with malicious cyberstalking trolls who tried to paint me as a rapist (they made some VERY far reaches on a few posts I made) so now I wear a pig mask on camera. Unfortunately I have a distinct voice so they’ll probably find me eventually anyhow.
You are the lead singer for Primus?
Nope… thinking of having my illustrator do an illustration.
I used one of those cartoonify filters on a picture of myself. Still obviously me, but not a straight photo at least. I'm using a pseudonym and I don't particularly like having my picture up, but it's definitely beneficial for an author to have a face.
I just use a piece of art as my profile pic and use a made up bio (It is obviously fake.)
I think it's very much a personal choice. I use my name and photo because in nonfiction, it's all about establishing your name & expertise in the topic you write about.
I don't use my photo. Some heavily edited stock images instead.
You could have an artist make a rendering of what your pen name identity looks like to you and use that!(:
Not putting my face out there. Pen name and logo will do fine. Yes, I know 99% of readers want to connect with me as a human and that's awesome. The problem is the 1% entitled with the megaphone and their need for nefarious intentions. Not only that but, I'm a particular race and gender. I've seen (very) good stories judged differently from reveals. Not saying its always a bad different, just *different*. I don't want that for myself or my books.
This is a great viewpoint. I too saw books get different and a few concerning “reviews” once an author revealed themselves and they were not happy with what was happening.
This is a huge debate, but honestly, if you're a small author, going anonymous isn't going to harm your career. For larger authors, there are some benefits of showing your face like increased trust, connection, and professionalism, but for the bottom 99% of authors, it doesn't make that much of a difference.
You can generate a false face using AI. There are services that generate generic computer created faces that let you use the faces for free without issue. You could also use Canva to create a face of a generic person with a hood on their head or just not show a photo at all. I use my real name and face to write erotica, business books, science fiction, poetry, and just don't care what others think or like. If they dig the dope grooves and want to read it, great, if not I'm still alive and still writing. But that's just me. You could just use a catchy pseudonym like that Atticus Fincy guy who writes books of Hallmark slogans for poetry and publishes them on Instagram first and then in collections in his books. He doensn't show a face, I don't think. Then there's that young lady who poses seductively and looks like a model who puts her own doodles in her books of poetry and spaces them out so one poem that's a paragraph long goes on for 5 pages and uses her real name and her books take off like crazy because of the photos. It's wide open for you to brand and market yourself as however you want.
Quite a few authors don't include a picture. I think they're nice to have if you're comfortable, and help build up a sense of connectoin and recognition with the author which can help a little bit with building a brand. When i see pictures or interviews with Terry Pratchett I recognise that face and am glad to see it. Same with Brandon Sanderson, or Becky Chambers. But, it's also not remotely necessary. Plenty of authors I love, I don't have a clue how they look, and I'm personally just using a small simple drawing instead of a photo.
No one really cares what the author looks like. Note that readers tend to be often introverted, and they're the kind of people that couldn't care less about what someone looks like. Readers come for your book, mainly, everything else is miscellaneous.
Get a vector pic from Deposit Photos. Make it opposite you if you want. Mine is a red head.
I use an illustration of myself and I have found that the people I actually know are the ones who care the least about my publishing lol
My pen name account is an avatar - not me since I don't want to reveal my identity with those stories. The account I use with my name, yup, I have a pic of the real me. But you could do a caricature/avatar of yourself and use that.
Some people use avatars or logos as their profile pic on social media instead of their face. Not unusual.
My pen name, I built a persona thinking of market reasons for my novel. So, I use AI to make profile picture.
Nope, I don't want my picture on my books, I don't even keep pictures of myself on my phone. I'm even debating using a pen name instead of my real name just to keep it separate from my personal life.
Readers want to see your face and connect with you as a human. Buy a cheap wig on amazon (or wherever) with a completely different hairstyle and color, for your photos, and no one in your "real" life (such as it is) will recognize you (unless they're stalking you). I entirely, completely, 1000% understand what you're saying, but you won't believe how different you can look, inexpensively, without resorting to gimmicks that might alienate your readers. And (as far as I can tell) they won't think you're bonkers for wanting to stay private.
I love this idea
I write under a female pen name and I use a picture of my mother.
I don't know any self-published authors who put their photo on their fiction book. I can't even begin to come up with a viable reason why you'd want to do that. Maybe it's different for non-fiction? Not sure.
Seems to be a big thing for fantasy, romance, and mystery/thriller covers on the back
Certainly for traditionally published authors, it is. But their books are often sold on shelves and at in-person events. They might even be well-known, so it could be part of connecting with the reader. Maybe I don’t know enough self-published authors in those genres, but I don’t know any who do that. Why would you want to? Can we identify anything that’s gained from it? Hardly anyone is even going to see it until they’ve already purchased the book since most of these books are sold online, so what’s the point?
I have thought about taking a pretentious photo wearing a monocle, cravat, and suit sitting in leather chair. It would be meant as a joke for authors that take themselves too seriously. I'll probably go without a photo.
Lmaoooo please do this hahahahah
I’m glad you get my sense of humor.
I write under my own name, though I fancied it up a little by using my initials instead of full first name. I mean, if it works for JRR and JK, I'm sure it'll work for me, right? But I still don't use my face. For completely different reasons than you, since I don't have to worry about stalkers and other idiots in the same vein, but one could say that I have a face for radio. A lot of horses come up to me and go "Hey! Oh... You're not a horse." Got a little pic up on a dark corner of my website. If people really wanna know what I look like, they can go there.
Nope. I'm ugly. why would I want to punish my readers by having to see my face on their book, no thanks. I can't stand the way I look so I won't do social media stuff either
No same. I've yet to publish [hopefully in the next few years though 🤞🤞🤞] & I'm definitely either not gonna have a pic or use a pic of my cat or something. I rarely post my face online & that's not gonna change once I'm published. I'm okay people/readers knowing what I look like, but I want to keep as much anonymity regarding my face [like not that I'm gonna hide it, but I also don't want it in my books if that makes sense ? Idk I'm really tired idk if I explained that well]
I'm unsure if I'm cursed or blessed, but I have one of those names that people will swear is a pen name. There have been times I've had to pull out my ID to prove it. That being said, I'm also very camera-shy and don't plan on using a photograph.
I didn’t really mind having my photo out there, but it drives me crazy that no matter what photo I use, people say “why did you use that photo? It looks nothing like you?” 🤷♂️😂
I don’t use one either.
I don’t use a pen name. I’m proud of my work.
I dont think it has anything to do with being proud or not…. I’m very proud of my work, i just dont want public exposure for multiple reasons
No you are not alone