Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A Should I bother allowing images (headshots) for pen names?

Some writers put their image on the back of books, some don't. I think in the end as long as you provide it as a choice and not make the image required, you shouldn't have an issue. Some people...

posted 7y ago by ggiaquin16‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T06:49:13Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/29424
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar ggiaquin16‭ · 2019-12-08T06:49:13Z (over 4 years ago)
Some writers put their image on the back of books, some don't. I think in the end as long as you provide it as a choice and not make the image required, you shouldn't have an issue.

Some people may not want their picture up at all because they don't want their appearance to decide if they should read the book or not. Someone may not want to read the book for race or sex reasons, maybe the author has defects or scars from an accident. You just don't know and all of these petty things are sadly reasons someone very well may put a book down.

Also, the whole idea of having a pen name is so that you create a second identity. Whether to hide their real identity for writing or personal reasons, having them put up a picture kind of defeats that purpose if they can associate the 2 different authors by the same picture.

So in the end, don't make it required to have a picture. Simply have it as an option.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-07-28T20:57:38Z (almost 7 years ago)
Original score: 7