3 ms·

Makes me ask myself: which hugely successful works of fiction (excluding stuff like the Bible) are out there convincing readers solely through their content bec

by ephbit 4y ago

Makes me ask myself: which hugely successful works of fiction (excluding stuff like the Bible) are out there convincing readers solely through their content because the author remains anonymous/pseudonymous and how can they reliably be found?

karaterobot 4y ago
First thing that came to mind was Elena Ferrante, but also one of my favorite authors, K.J. Parker (who is no longer pseudonymous but was for a long time). But why does it have to be fiction, and why does the author have to be anonymous? There's a big difference between being anonymous and being a social media influencer: I'd guess most of the best and most influential fiction and non-fiction authors have fallen in that range. The thing to avoid is a world where publishers would say "Sorry, Mr. Faulkner, we won't be publishing your little book until you get a few more followers."
- ephbit 4y ago
  > But why does it have to be fiction .. ? My immediate thought was: would it even work to publish a non fiction book anonymously? > There's a big difference between being anonymous and being a social media influencer. Agree. My reasoning was: even without any digital social media, charisma (and other factors such as having connections or previous success) is probably a trait that positively influences an author's success. If you want "pure quality of the oevre itself" to speak for itself, then shouldn't it have been published anonymously?
- toyg 4y ago
  Ferrante is extremely likely to actually be someone who was already connected to publishing (either the wife of a celebrated Italian writer, or a nome de plume for both of them), so it's hard to say "she" got there "on merits alone". But I agree on the rest of the comment.
bluGill 4y ago
top web fiction, royal road, and so on - there are a lot of places budding authors can post their fiction. Since we are talking about unknown authors the burden is on you to find them. That means get off the top lists and search things that are way down in the rankings (most of the ones on the top of the list will publish on Amazon in the future as that is where the money is)
barry-cotter 4y ago
Plenty of authors don’t do publicity. Patrick Süskind has become very rich and he hasn’t done an interview in my lifetime.
- grozzle 4y ago
  Counterexamples can disprove an absolute law, but the topic here is a causal tendency, there are of course some exceptions.

by ephbit 4y ago

karaterobot 4y ago

First thing that came to mind was Elena Ferrante, but also one of my favorite authors, K.J. Parker (who is no longer pseudonymous but was for a long time). But why does it have to be fiction, and why does the author have to be anonymous? There's a big difference between being anonymous and being a social media influencer: I'd guess most of the best and most influential fiction and non-fiction authors have fallen in that range. The thing to avoid is a world where publishers would say "Sorry, Mr. Faulkner, we won't be publishing your little book until you get a few more followers."

ephbit 4y ago
> But why does it have to be fiction .. ? My immediate thought was: would it even work to publish a non fiction book anonymously? > There's a big difference between being anonymous and being a social media influencer. Agree. My reasoning was: even without any digital social media, charisma (and other factors such as having connections or previous success) is probably a trait that positively influences an author's success. If you want "pure quality of the oevre itself" to speak for itself, then shouldn't it have been published anonymously?
toyg 4y ago
Ferrante is extremely likely to actually be someone who was already connected to publishing (either the wife of a celebrated Italian writer, or a nome de plume for both of them), so it's hard to say "she" got there "on merits alone". But I agree on the rest of the comment.

bluGill 4y ago

top web fiction, royal road, and so on - there are a lot of places budding authors can post their fiction. Since we are talking about unknown authors the burden is on you to find them. That means get off the top lists and search things that are way down in the rankings (most of the ones on the top of the list will publish on Amazon in the future as that is where the money is)

barry-cotter 4y ago

Plenty of authors don’t do publicity. Patrick Süskind has become very rich and he hasn’t done an interview in my lifetime.

grozzle 4y ago
Counterexamples can disprove an absolute law, but the topic here is a causal tendency, there are of course some exceptions.