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[John Marston]

Scammers or just really good teamwork?

Lauded Spanish female crime writer revealed to be three men | CNN

Spain’s literary world has been thrown into chaos after a coveted book prize was given to “Carmen Mola” – a lauded female thriller writer who turned out to be the pseudonym of three men.

www.cnn.com

 

[Kilau]

It took 3 men to do the work of 1 woman, talk about gender inequality.

 

[jason10mm]

Why would it be considered a scam? Pseudonyms are used all the time in writing. I knew a male school teacher that wrote romance bodice rippers using a female pseudonym, both to hide his personal identity and as a marketing ploy since female writers of romances get more sales (at the time anyway). So unless these guys whipped up an entire fake backstory to claim some stolen valor, link the fictitious author to some real world tragedy, or the like, who cares? Especially for fiction.

About 80% of the annual release books you see in airport stores are ghostwritten anyway, the name on the cover is basically meaningless.

 

[AJUMP23]

I think this is smart, create a fictitious person and then use a team to write popular series under that name. Make some money.

I think Tom Clancy had several people writing the side books for him while he was alive and Clancy focused on the main series. This is not a new practice.

 

[Soodanim]

Funniest part of the article:

The news stunned many fellow literary figures -- and not everyone is thrilled about the news. Beatriz Gimeno, who describes herself as a writer and a feminist -- and who was once the director of the Women's Institute, a key national equality body in Spain -- took to Twitter to criticize Martínez, Díaz and Mercero.

In a tweet, Gimeno said: "Beyond using a female pseudonym, these guys have spent years doing interviews. It's not just the name, it's the fake profile they've used to take in readers and journalists. Scammers."
In 2020, a regional branch of the Women's Institute included Mola's work as part of a selection of "feminist reading" alongside Canadian poet Margaret Atwood and Spanish writer Irene Vallejo

I can't help but think that because something that she or her peers felt met her/their ideals turned out to actually be written by men it's being reinterpreted as someone infiltrating with malicious intent. If it was promoted as part of a curated selection of feminist reading, you know it would have been praised for the female author's feminist qualities and now the Institute has egg on its face. But if you're being revisionist because it turns out three men wrote them, are you really advocating equality or are you just advocating a women's club?

 

[Enjay]

No lie it wouldn't surprise me to find out lots of books were actually written by committee. I never believed that story about jk rowling writing harry potter while commuting to and from welfare or whatever the inspirational story is they tried to make of her.

 

[Ionian]

Clive barkers last book comes to mind. It's all over the place and obviously finished by someone else.

 

[Keihart]

Not that there is anything wrong with that

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Well, thats media for ya. The industry where people are always changing their names or for book writing, being a ghost writer, in this case faking their gender.

You dot see someone making Intel chips claiming their name is Ben Dover. When you meet your mortgage broker for advice, you dont see a guy sitting at a desk named Sally.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Slayyy, Kings!

 

[zeorhymer]

Is Beatriz Gimeno a transphobe? Sounds like she's a TERF considering that these authors obviously identifies as women hence their pseudonyms.

Spoiler

See. I can also be an alphabet weirdo too.

 

[Kamina]

Slayyy, Kings!

Yasss!

 

[Patrick S.]

Ree disliked this.

 

[thefool]

Gender is a social construct, right?

 

[thefool]

Ree disliked this.

Very small offtopic (sorry Evilore), i just read ree was sold. The thread there about it looked fun

edit: ok, we have a 100 page about the subject lol

 

[kiunchbb]

Those 3 men together identified as one woman.... we need a term for this. We need to refer to all three of them as "she" and "her" instead of "they" and "them".

 

[KrakenIPA]

I always liked ghostwriter reveals, this one is great! Just three dudes getting together to smoke cigars, drink brandy, and storyboard some mystery novels. Paraíso encontrado.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Funniest part of the article:



I can't help but think that because something that she or her peers felt met her/their ideals turned out to actually be written by men it's being reinterpreted as someone infiltrating with malicious intent. If it was promoted as part of a curated selection of feminist reading, you know it would have been praised for the female author's feminist qualities and now the Institute has egg on its face. But if you're being revisionist because it turns out three men wrote them, are you really advocating equality or are you just advocating a women's club?

Isn’t it though the same example as DC editor scandal? There the ethnicity was appropriated, here gender. The men could have written under their true names and maybe even selected to receive awards as men who write feminist writing, but it was not what happened here. Especially given feminism and women rights you can make a cas men will never be in a position to understand some things e.g. watching their back while going home after dark, accepting drinks from strangers, being cat-called on the street, etc.

 

[Artoris]

 

[Soodanim]

Isn’t it though the same example as DC editor scandal? There the ethnicity was appropriated, here gender. The men could have written under their true names and maybe even selected to receive awards as men who write feminist writing, but it was not what happened here. Especially given feminism and women rights you can make a cas men will never be in a position to understand some things e.g. watching their back while going home after dark, accepting drinks from strangers, being cat-called on the street, etc.

To cherry pick one point, the idea that men don't have to watch their back at night always gets me. The recent Sarah Everard murder in London had people saying the same thing for weeks. That's only true in a made up world where every man who walks alone cannot be mugged or attacked, or that rape is the only crime committed at night.

There may be a valid case about perspectives and experiences, but I'm not sure how that connects to the issue of the author(s) with regards to the books written. Being promoted by a WI would suggest that the books were accurate enough to fool the real thing.

I just don't see a problem, to be honest

 

[Ailynn]

"Well, she's three guys, so..."

 

[dr_octagon]

 

[NewtScamander]

No lie it wouldn't surprise me to find out lots of books were actually written by committee. I never believed that story about jk rowling writing harry potter while commuting to and from welfare or whatever the inspirational story is they tried to make of her.

You are one paranoid idiot.

 

[Clear]

Sounds very similar to "Michael Slade", pseudonymous author of some pretty good to great crime/horror novels who was initially actually 3 people.

Only snag with setups like this is that as contributors drop out over time the writing changes. "Slade's" first couple of novels are terrific, but got less distinctive and memorable as the real line-up shrank back to just primary author Jay Clarke.

 

[HoodWinked]

You are one paranoid idiot.

Chill let's not be so toxic.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

There may be a valid case about perspectives and experiences, but I'm not sure how that connects to the issue of the author(s) with regards to the books written. Being promoted by a WI would suggest that the books were accurate enough to fool the real thing.

I just don't see a problem, to be honest

I agree what you said to some extent, I the problem is still the fact that deception was involved. The men had to have a reason to assume identity of a woman, more likely since they determined it will be beneficial for them.
How is that different than e.g. an author making stuff up and pretending to be a concentration camp survivor in order to sell his autobiography?

 

[Soodanim]

I agree what you said to some extent, I the problem is still the fact that deception was involved. The men had to have a reason to assume identity of a woman, more likely since they determined it will be beneficial for them.
How is that different than e.g. an author making stuff up and pretending to be a concentration camp survivor in order to sell his autobiography?

J.K.Rowling writes under the pseudonym Robbie Galbraith, and that was not public knowledge in the beginning. She also had a reason to assume the identity of a man, and she had a reason to assume the identity of a man since she determined it would be beneficial for her. Assuming a pseudonym of any kind is done because there is some sort of benefit, otherwise you wouldn't do it.

The main difference between the three writers and a fake concentration camp survivor is that one puts out works of fiction and the other would be selling non-fiction that was fictitious. Fiction isn't inherently gendered, which is why the three men got away with it for so long. If you can't tell they weren't written by a woman, then to me there isn't enough of a difference to care.

 

[TheDreadBaron]

I agree what you said to some extent, I the problem is still the fact that deception was involved. The men had to have a reason to assume identity of a woman, more likely since they determined it will be beneficial for them.
How is that different than e.g. an author making stuff up and pretending to be a concentration camp survivor in order to sell his autobiography?

How is this different than any person taking on any identity they want for whatever reason? Either people are free to express themselves however they want under whatever name they choose or they’re not.

 

[AJUMP23]

Remember when the author of Silas Marner, George Elliot, turned out to be a woman. That was a real scandal.

 

[lils]

nice one, lads. good job beating the system

 

[INC]

Wonder if their periods were in sync

 

[Enjay]

Chill let's not be so toxic.

Or at the very least not so boring.

 

[darkangel-212559]

J.K.Rowling writes under the pseudonym Robbie Galbraith, and that was not public knowledge in the beginning. She also had a reason to assume the identity of a man, and she had a reason to assume the identity of a man since she determined it would be beneficial for her. Assuming a pseudonym of any kind is done because there is some sort of benefit, otherwise you wouldn't do it.

The main difference between the three writers and a fake concentration camp survivor is that one puts out works of fiction and the other would be selling non-fiction that was fictitious. Fiction isn't inherently gendered, which is why the three men got away with it for so long. If you can't tell they weren't written by a woman, then to me there isn't enough of a difference to care.

What has The Holocaust got to do with it?

 

[FunkMiller]

 

[FunkMiller]

Not for nothing lads, but I have quite a lot of links to the publishing industry here in the UK. People writing under pseudonyms is a lot more common that you might think. As is ghost writing.

 

[AJUMP23]

Not for nothing lads, but I have quite a lot of links to the publishing industry here in the UK. People writing under pseudonyms is a lot more common that you might think. As is ghost writing.

Did you leak Robert Galbraith?

 

[bitbydeath]

Not for nothing lads, but I have quite a lot of links to the publishing industry here in the UK. People writing under pseudonyms is a lot more common that you might think. As is ghost writing.

*Clears throat* what sort of links?

 

[Toots]

If it's just "three men" and not "three men stacked on top of each other wearing a long dress", then it's not newsworthy

Anyway every author has at least an editor who helps them write their more or less (sometimes more than less). No one who's published truly writes alone.