Why it can be hazardous to be pseudonymous

Mark Farley is a self-proclaimed “Bookseller to the Stars” and runs a blog by the same name. Working at a major chain UK bookshop, he gets to meet many an author. But sometimes, it doesn’t always go smoothly:

The other day I get a call from a publisher saying that Barbara Vine

would be coming down to sign her books and did we have it in yet? Yes,

we do and of course we would love her to come down and sign the books.

She is told to ask for me and of course, I get a visit.

“Hi, I’m Ruth Rendell, here to see Bookseller to the Stars…”

“Oh, I was expecting someone else today….”

“Well, you have me instead….”

At this point, I think she thinks I am some sarcastic bookseller and just chuckles to herself.

(Please note: The penny in my tiny little confused mind has not yet dropped)

“Oh Ok, Which book have you come to sign then?”

I

am truly sincere and also really confused! We have her backlist and a

couple of her latest hardback but that was out in October. Seeing me

drowning, Another Bookseller to the Stars pulls me up back onto the

side of the boat and informs me that they are one in the same person!

Fuuuuck!

So I am fumbling around with piles of hardbacks and I am

dying in embarassment in front of one of the greatest english authors

alive…. and I deservedly spend the rest of the shift pretty gutted

and ashamed. But to be fair, she looks nothing like the photo I ensured

I looked at for when she came and when the publisher called, she was

called by her pseudonym aswell.

So now I am not allowed to talk to authors….

Of course it was all smooth out in the end, but still, I must sympathize, as I am sure I came close to being similarly clued out on a couple of occasions in my bookselling days…

(original link via Martha O’Connor)