I’ve read two or three articles about this in the past week and, being someone who has never shown his face on his own blog, I’m curious about it.
So in the Comments area, I’d love to hear your feedback. Would you like Stephen King‘s work as much if you didn’t know what he looked like? Clive Barker‘s? What about J.K. Rowling? John Grisham? Has seeing an author ever strengthened the connection you feel to his or her work, or has it ever damaged that connection? Or do you not care at all?
If it influences your answers in any way, here’s a picture taken of me at a family barbecue a couple days ago.
So…do you feel closer to me now? 🙂
Jonathan Janz 
Wow… You look like John Carter!
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Dude, I’ve got serious primordial skills. And the ability to make a mean grilled chicken breast. 🙂
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I had this post filed away as a “read later”. As soon as I read it, I was reminded of the pic you have of yourself in the doorway. (Yep, double-checked – it’s you, not another author that did that.) I think you recently mentioned that you’re 6’4″. Between the two, I have enough of an image of you.
I don’t generally care what a one-off author looks like anyway. If it’s someone I’m going to read over and over, however, (as in multiple books) I guess I get curious.
I’m leery of authors that go out of their way to be not seen (or described) at all.
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Very interesting answer, Renae. I’ve pretty much decided to include a couple of images on my blog and elsewhere. I’m sort of shy about that sort of thing, but I don’t want folks to think I’m hiding. Basically, I keep my teaching career separate from my writing career. But now that quite a few images of me at conventions and signings and so on are starting to pop up, I might as well post a couple of pics that my wife approves.
Your thoughts are definitely ones I’ll take into account. Thanks for sharing them with me! 🙂
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Of course we want to know what you look like. Today if we can’t see your face online we assume you’re hiding your identity because your not a real person or some such. I always want to know what the author looks like. And the voice over artist. Its just a natural proclivity for fandom to want to know that stuff.
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Thanks, Michael, for your candor and for sharing your opinion. What you’re saying makes a world of sense. Some pictures of me from conventions and signings have begun to appear out there, so I’ve included a couple of pictures my wife took just so folks could put a face with the name. Hopefully it won’t prevent them from reading my work. 🙂
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Folks will still read, for sure. But You know some writers are studio made. I mean they’re not real people, just pen names staff writers use. It’s fine, people still read them. The most famous one is probably Richard Bachmann. I also remember a story of someone–a man who wrote romance under a female pen name and couldn’t or didn’t want to reveal is true identity because he thought it would alienate women.
That’s the one big advantage of being a writer–you can change your identity.
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