I know some of you have published and I'm assuming a lot of you have thought about your author photos. Did you get these professionally done? Did you go with black and white or color? Were you inside or outside? Smile or serious? And how long do you use the same photo? I know this isn't exactly a writing question, but it is an extension of writing. And right now I feel like daydreaming about my author pics. Can I just use a selfie from Instagram if it comes out real good? I also wanted to add to this and see if anyone here has experience publishing shorts with places that also publish a pic of the author. What sort of pic did you use for this and how did you decide?
Sorry, this didn't get much attention... I'm an "undercover" author - don't make personal appearances, don't use my real name, don't put my real picture on things. I have a drawn avatar that's based on my real face that I use sometimes, but mostly I just tell publishers that there's no picture available and they work with it.
I only got my picture added with my story in one magazine. I used the same picture with both stories in both issues because I feel it makes me look older and more mature I guess. I'm always told I look so young for my age so I chose the boring, classical music listening, party pooper, bookworm looking picture of me. I think people would see me as a more professional author from the picture too since its outside and I'm wearing an old green checkered flannel with that firm, math teacher look on my face.
Same as @BayView . I don't use or allow others to use photographs of me in conjunction with my pseudonym in the effort of plausible deniability that I am in fact Laurin Kelly. I'd say of the authors I know in my genre about 50% use or post photos of themselves and the other 50% follow the same pattern as me and Bay.
Adding onto this, does not doing public events have an impact on how a publisher views you, in the sense to take on the work or not?
I think that depends on the expectation. Personally I write for a small niche genre where appearances at public events isn't very common, so it hasn't been a factor for me.
I did not have mine done professionally, my wife took it. I put one the back of "Come, Follow Me, but did not use it on the back cover of E&D. I use it as my Amazon author's page , but I use the same avatar on my author's page as I use here, since @K McIntyre and I are sort of symbiotic, and that one is a selfie, taken on an anniversary weekedn
That is an interesting observation. Though if you are making a publisher (provided you have one) money, and prefer to remain anon. due to what you write, I doubt they really care if you show up to events. So I don't think it matters for those who prefer to be niche and in the shadows. Or they have a contact that protects them from public outings/events. Some people live very private lives, so they use pseudonyms to maintain their 'professional' separate from their personal. Keeps people from stalking you, and or bothering you. Some keep their cards close to their chest.
The picture I use here as my profile pic is the same one I use for my pseudonym. It is actually me, but not enough to identify me by.
I use the only 'professional' photo I have of myself, which was a test picture by our wedding photographer over ten years ago. It's the one I have on my avatar here. I DO still look like that, just with slightly less hair now.
If people identify me as the author of something I wrote, that's great. So I use my real picture most of the time, unless I get tired of looking at it or find a picture of a fox that catches my eye. My girlfriend is a photographer, but you don't need a professional in order to have a good picture taken of yourself. I do need a pseudonym though. My real name is far too boring and common, which isn't good from a marketing standpoint if you want to be easily found (or discovered in the first place).
Well, since I intensely dislike 99% of the pictures of me, I need to replace the one I use. Someday, when I get around to it. Too busy writing these days.
