For many writers, books on controversial subjects can bring them more than bad publicity -- they can also bring reprisals and death. However, the new field of electronic book publishing is creating the possibility of anonymity, giving authors some freedom from government censorship or private retaliation, Wired reports.
One online e-bookseller -- Booklocker.com -- is making the freedom to be anonymous a crucial part of their everyday business, Wired reports. Using the site's forms, authors can publish their writings in an electronic format under a pseudonym. The site's creator, for her part, has pledged to try to keep their identities secret.
"These people can't just put a Web page up on GeoCities. That's too easily traced back to them," Angela Adair-Hoy told Wired. "By using Booklocker.com only we know their identity. They get their information out and we keep their identity safe."
Authors already are using Booklocker.com's service to publish books they fear could jeopardize their safety. Two interviewed by Wired -- under the pseudonyms "Savasan Yurtserver" and "Michael Sunstar" -- have published controversial texts on religion and history.
While anonymous publishing might seem a haven for the paranoid, Wired reports, writers around the world have seen reasons to fear revelation of their identities. When asked about the need for anonymity, Bobson Wong, executive director of the Digital Freedom Network, referred the magazine to several cases where journalists' reports or activist's e-mails have led to jail terms.
Despite censorship, the Internet provides a communications medium with more potential to allow writers to reach the world than ever before, Wong said.
"The Net is still in the nascent stages but you can reach an international audience quickly and cheaply in a way that couldn't be done before," Wong told the magazine. "A person in Nigeria couldn't have phoned or faxed The Times of London without some extraordinary measures.
"Now one person with a computer can be a digital Gutenberg and with a few mouse clicks email all the major news agencies in the world. And that's pretty amazing."
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