Misleading facts in the About the Author section
In the 'About the Author' section of Cuckoo's calling, it says that Robert Galbraith spent several years in the military etc etc. But now that we all know who Robert Galbraith is...does this not constitute a lie? Is an author allowed to lie about himself/herself like this? How is it legal?
Can any one write a book and then lie about their background to gain credibility?
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1 answer
Yes, it constitutes a lie, technically speaking. Yes, it is legal.
The use of pseudonyms is an established practice in publishing. There's a wide range of reasons where writing under a pseudonym might be obviously beneficial to the author:
- The author's real name is similar to the name of a more-popular author; readers might confuse the two.
- The author is writing something that would be embarrassing to have linked to their real name, e.g. erotica.
- The author has written previous books which have been commercial failures; they want to distance themselves and "start afresh."
- The book addresses incendiary topics, and the author's identity needs to remain secret to avoid retribution.
- The author fears they will not be taken seriously if their identity is known, e.g. a woman writing in a male-dominated field.
- Consider, also, the practice of ghost-writing - where the publisher presents the book as being written by one author, usually a celebrity, when the actual writing was done by an author who worked for hire.
The mere use of a fake name is, obviously, a lie. Supporting biographical facts are also lies. But the acceptance of pseudonyms in publishing is long-standing, because it's generally to our benefit to let everyone publish whatever their identity and their privacy needs, and because we usually care a whole lot more about the content of the book than about the identity of the author.
At any rate, lying is not illegal. Indeed, there are special legal provisions for writing under a pseudonym (particularly to establish ownership of copyright).
There is a point at which lying about your background can be outright fraudulent - for example, if you claim your book is non-fictional autobiography, but the facts turn out to be false. I don't know if even this is outright illegal, but it certainly can provoke outrage or sever contracts.
However, simply lying about who you are, for the purposes of author information in a fiction book, is generally not seen as problematic. It's simply part of the author's brand and persona, and it's difficult to spin that as being harmful to anybody.
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