Authors are being told to write under pseudonyms to present themselves as debut writers and feed the publishing industry's "obsession" with new, marketable voices, Joanne Harris has said.
In a lengthy Twitter thread, Harris, whose latest book The Strawberry Thief (Orion) was published this month, said the hunger for new authors meant some publishers were no longer spending enough time building enduring relationships with their existing list. Instead they focused on debuts, which were seen as more marketable and likelier to get literary prizes.
She wrote: "There's evidence of increasing numbers of experienced authors (most of them women) being advised to write under a different name, so that their publisher can present them as debut authors. And there are a number of recent cases of publishers taking on authors previously published elsewhere and presenting them as debut novelists."