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Not too long ago in one of our videos I mentioned I had asked our Authors to develop Avatars in lieu of photos if they wished to remain completely anonymous. Interestingly, something quite a few of our Authors desire. See, we have a dilemma. We are growing. Gathering new Authors, developing contracts , setting SMART goals and acting like a business. A new concept for sure. Which is why we are beginning to design a new page on our website. An Author’s page. A place where readers can stop by and check out their favorite Authors. Read about them and look at their pictures. See the rub? If someone wants to remain anonymous online, it isn’t too hard. At least not for some of our Authors. However, we need something our readers can look at. Something they can identify an Author with. Which is why I have asked them for Avatars.

Author Avatars. Now most of them wanted me to create one for them. I balked. I have too much to do, to spend my time creating an Avatar for someone who will not like it. I know these Authors and believe me, anything I create they will not like. They will want it black if it is white. Want a feminine physique if the image is too athletic . The list goes on and on. So, I made it simple for myself. I told them they had to create their own. Leave me out of it. Did I say it was simple? Man am I stupid. Or better yet – TOOPID . In big black bold letters across my forehead. We started this a month ago and it’s been a struggle all the way. Take Miranda. Miranda is a teacher . Looks like one. Talks like one and hides her talent at writing great hardcore Erotica . The last thing she wants is for someone to put two and two together and discover what she does on the side. Even now it isn’t a good thing for a schoolteacher to show off her sexual writing abilities.

However, Miranda doesn’t want to be constrained. She has chosen many Avatars. None of which can be shown to the public. Erotic, sexual and sensuous Avatars which depict her writing style exactly. Only I can’t show them to the public. As a compromise, I told her we will put one of her more suggestive Avatars inside the books and she needs to produce one a little less risqué for general consumption. She rallied about censorship and called me a traitor. In some ways, I must be because I want the world to read her works. If that means I cave into peer pressure a little, so be it. Jocelyn and Lillian and several of the others felt the same way. Each wanted Avatars that were of the “shock and awe” variety. Each took great pains to put together such creations. Again, I had to make a deal with them. Create the ones they felt were truly them for the books and give me one they liked to call “vanilla” .

I once gain suffered under the traitor category. Each reminded me why we started The Pyrateheart Press, in the first place. Freedom of Speech and to hell with what anyone else thought. Only I do think about what other people think. I want them to visit our Website. I need them to look at our Authors and read their samples. I want to hook them by any means necessary. Maybe I will use these peoples original Avatars. If I can find a way to keep them from being seen by the general public. Who knows? Perhaps they are right. Perhaps I am being overly cautious. However, I want people to see the real person behind the Avatar. Discover the Writer . The Creators of the stories the readers enjoy.

I’m not sure how this will unfold. What I do know is they will have Avatars soon on an Author’s Page. By the way. Have you looked at our website recently? We have made changes on the home page and will be making a few more changes that I am excited about. Take a look. Then tell your friends who will hopefully tell their friends and perhaps it will spread like the hysteria of the Covid-19 virus.

I’m Ross, Editor at The Pyrateheart Press and I’m out.