“Hello, Is it possible to sell a story using a different name to my own with no photos that I could be recognised from? Many thanks.”
Alison says: In a nutshell, Lisa would like to be paid for her anonymous story. It’s a common inquiry but sadly it is often virtually impossible to sell anonymous stories.
If you pick up any national newspaper or magazine, you won’t find many anonymous stories with no photos in them. Partly this is because the person – who you are – is often the story. But stories that are anonymous, with no photos to illustrate them aren’t terribly interesting for the readers (who believe they are made up) and therefore editors are reluctant to run them.
At the same time, there are plenty of people contacting us, newspapers, magazines and TV who are happy to be identified and photographed – so there’s no need to print anonymous stories.
There are of course times when people must remain anonymous. For example, there might be legal reasons why you or members of your family cannot be identified. But, even then as in the case of rape (when all victims of rape and sexual abuse are automatically granted anonymity), many victims find to get their story out there, they have to ‘waive their anonymity’ – ie: agree sign a written declaration that they are happy to be identified and photographed.
Sometimes it is possible to change someone’s name or some names in an article – again this is usually done for legal reasons. But your story would have to be very sought after for this to be a possibility. Papers and magazines need to state in the copy if someone’s name is changed – if all names are changed then it is an anonymous story and again, leads to questions in the reader’s minds as to the integrity and credibility of the story.
On the subject of payment, there is often much less (if any) payment for anonymous stories so the idea of ‘selling’ one as Lisa wants to do, is unlikely.
At Featureworld it is important to us that interviewees feel comfortable telling their story so if someone is already talking about being anonymous in their first email, we are unlikely to take their story up in the first place.
It is a shame Lisa hasn’t given any more details about what her story is and why she would want to remain anonymous. Then we could give Lisa some proper advice about whether her story is one of those rare cases where it is possible. However, it is our policy never to even encourage someone like Lisa – who has doubts – to go ahead and persuade her to be identified, however potentially good her story might be.
All stories are looked at individually though and so to get some proper advice on your situation, the best way forward is to contact us using the form to the right >>>
