Hey, all. I am thinking about publishing erotica (under a pen name) on Amazon KDP. But since we do have to put our legal names and SSN on here as well, is it possible that grad schools or employers--when doing background checks, etc--would connect me to the stories and look unfavorably upon it?
I am particularly concerned because I'm going into the education field...but I really would like to try my hand at it too.
I was listening to a writing podcast today, and an author was asked to name the biggest mistake she'd made all year. The author, who's been self-publishing books for several years, said something like, "I accidentally posted erotica under the wrong name on Amazon, and I didn't realize my mistake right away."
I haven't published on Amazon, but a couple of times, small publishers have posted my personal email address and the name of my small hometown... info that, quite intentionally, isn't in my bio. I didn't find out right away, either.
Facebook is where romance readers are; if you want to publicize your erotica, you'll probably want to be there. I cleared the cookies from my browser; created a Facebook account using my pen name, a new email address, and no personal information; then, I created an author page. Result? Facebook recognized my identity anyway and recommended my author page to real-life colleagues. (
Gizmodo also wrote about this problem yesterday.)
You're about to spend goodness-knows-how-much time/money/life to go into education. I gather you've joined more than one writers' forum to ask about privacy--you know education and erotica is a sensitive combination. Maybe Amazon is foolproof, but in my experience, privacy is only as good as humans protecting privacy, and humans continually make mistakes.