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Legal Eagle

Defamation

Q: Writing under pseudonym

I am writing an unofficial biography of a well-known rock singer. I shall be using a pseudonym. How can I ensure that my real name is not discovered?

A: You can't - at least not totally, in the real world! You will need to do a deal with a publisher. He may be willing to give you an undertaking only to publish under your nom de plume and not to disclose your real identity, but he will almost certainly insist on qualifying such an undertaking so as to render it inoperative if disclosure is required by law (e.g.: by the Inland Revenue or by a witness summons or other court order), and also if he needs to disclose your name in order to protect himself against legal liability or to pursue a claim against you relating to the book. 'Unofficial' biographies (presumably written without the subject's co-operation and approval) are notoriously fertile targets for libel suits because frequently, in order to make them more saleable, authors of such works tend to take a certain amount of poetic licence and sensationalise them in a way which upsets the subject. Publishers of such works are therefore particularly alert to protect themselves against libel claims, and will want to ensure that if they are sued they can in turn join you as a party to the action, or sue you separately for an indemnity. This would involve your real name and address being disclosed to the subject and recorded on a court file which, to a limited extent, is available for public inspection, e.g. by the press if its interest is aroused.

Conceivably you might try to publish the work yourself, but you would still have to get it printed and distributed, which would involve contracts of some kind with the printers and distributors, where the same considerations would apply. Presumably, you would also expect to be paid royalties which would create a paper trail to your bank through which your identity may be discovered by due legal process if, for example, your bank were to be ordered by a court of law to disclose it.

I suppose it is conceivably possible that you could create a fictitious name and address for yourself, open a bank account in that name, negotiate a deal with a publisher, perhaps using a friend or literary agent to negotiate for you in your assumed name and involving just one lump sum payment up front without royalties (a difficult thing to achieve in practice), close the account after payment is received and then cause your fictitious name to vanish. Numerous fiction writers over the years have written about characters who create false identities in order to commit a crime or carry out a particular daring adventure before arranging for their false identity to disappear without a trace (the notorious Mission: Impossible is an example) but this is hardly practicable for most of us in real life and it is not a course I would recommend you to try. I do not think that is what you have in mind or would wish to do. It is flirting with the realm of fantasy for most people to even think about doing it.

I do not consider that your identity would in itself he regarded in law as a trade secret or intrinsically confidential unless made so by contract. Accordingly, all I can usefully suggest is for you to write into your contract with the publisher a clause to the effect that he must not disclose your real identity without your prior written consent, which clause he is likely to want to qualify to the extent described above. To encourage compliance with such an undertaking you may want to stipulate that, in case of default without lawful excuse, you shall have the right to terminate your agreement with him forthwith in addition to any other legal remedies you may have, such as damages and/or a claim for an injunction.

First published July 1998