Anonymity+Blogging x Success = Getting Outed (Oh,and probably a book deal)

Zoe Margolis has a best seller in England and is preparing to write her second book. Journalist Daniel Lyons' satirical novel published by Da Capo Press will hit the bookshelves in October.

Both were former successful anonymous bloggers whose identities just happened to revealed around the time their books were about to be published.

This could be a coincidence, or it could be a new but very viable marketing strategy being used by publishers to garner extra attention for their writers.

You may know these blogomists under their nom de plumes: Abby Lee and The Fake Steve Jobs.

When Zoe Margolis was finally outed as Abby Lee, the blogger behind Girl With A One Track Mind last year,her career in the British film industry came to a screeching halt. Zoe/Abby went into hiding.

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When Daniel Lyons was finally outed this week as the blogger behind " The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs," it was announced that after a brief vacation, the blog was being moved to his employer's website. Forbes.com (Lyons is a senior editor at Forbes) and oh by the way, his satirical novel based on his fictional blog character is being released in October.

When Margolis' identity was revealed by The Sunday Times just three days after her book was published, she went into hiding.

A few days later, claiming she was completely shocked over the outing, Ms. Margolis agreed to an interview with The Guardian and discussed how her career was over.

"I'm a laughing stock." Why, has she shagged everyone she's worked with, and then written about it? "No! I didn't shag a load of people! Very, very few. When you work 16 hours a day, you don't have time for sex."

"I'm really sorry to hear that."

"Thank you. But the point is, getting taken seriously as a woman is difficult enough anyway, but when everyone knows the background of your sex life, and everyone's been laughing about you behind your back, how on earth are you going to make them be quiet and focus?"

But, did she really care about her career as a camera operator? Or was the outing a great career move for the aspiring writer. In a reflection piece on the one year anniversary of her outing,Ms.Margolis writes about the good and bad that has happened over the past 365 days . Here are some of the good.

I could talk about positive things on the blog: how well the book has done; that it’s sold over 140,000 copies of the UK edition; how proud I am that it’s still consistently selling well each week, a year on from publication.

I could talk about how thrilling it was, getting my first paid writing commission for a newspaper and how I was simultaneously proud of that, but also relieved, because it meant my bills for the next month were covered.

I could talk about how chuffed I felt when I received emails from book readers new to the blog, who told me my writing resonated with, or helped them in some way.

I could talk about how amused I have been that a large handful of production companies have approached me to make a film about my “story”, starring me; it is especially humorous and ironic, given the loss of my previous career behind the camera.

I could talk about how honoured I am to be asked my opinion on sexuality and feminism, in the press, on the radio and speaking in public and how grateful I am to have the opportunity to discuss these things in a more mainstream forum than my blog.

By Contrast, Daniel Lyons ,who was outed by The New York Times reporter Brad Stone, claims he expected to be outed months ago.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, Daniel Lyons, a senior editor at Forbes magazine who lives near Boston, has been quietly enjoying the attention.

“I’m stunned that it’s taken this long,” said Mr. Lyons, 46, when a reporter interrupted his vacation in Maine on Sunday to ask him about Fake Steve. “I have not been that good at keeping it a secret. I’ve been sort of waiting for this call for months.”

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The book, in part, led to Mr. Lyons’s unmasking. Last year, his agent showed the manuscript to several book publishers and told them the anonymous author was a published novelist and writer for a major business magazine. The New York Times found Mr. Lyons by looking for writers who fit those two criteria, and then by comparing the writing of “Fake Steve” to a blog Mr. Lyons writes in his own name, called Floating Point (floatingpoint.wordpress.com).

Now, either Ms.Margolis is a wonderful actress or she was completely surprised by her outing. That doesn't mean her publisher didn't tip off the newspapers. It was in their interest to create a stir right when the book was published.Thet succeeded. The book succeeded. The loser were blog readers. Because as Ms. Margolis writes,

My ‘outing’ last year was a huge strain on me and yes, I have managed to find a silver lining out of it, but the ability to freely do the one thing that gave me such pleasure – blogging – has been destroyed. Take the anonymity away from a blogger who depends on it and you get a blog with no heart: true sincerity and authenticity about events, people, thoughts and feelings rely on anonymity. I'll challenge anyone who says that anonymity shouldn’t matter when someone’s writing about their own life. It does.

People have suggested I should have quit the blog when I was ‘outed’. Perhaps I should have; maybe I should now – it’s certainly not giving me the same catharsis as it once did, which was the main reason I wrote it. Mainly though, when I have the time to blog, I do still enjoy it, even if people complain that it is “not what it once was”. Well, blame the Sunday Times for that…

While Ms. Margolis may have some regrets it doesn't sound like she really had to get the newspaper gig to pay her bills. She has movie offers, she has a best-selling book.

Mr. Lyons, on the other hand, seems to be thrilled that he got outed. As he said, he was waiting for it. If no one had figured it out, the timing of moving his blog to Forbes. com in September -a month before the publication date of his book --certainly seems to indicate that there would have been a self-outing to help promote the book's publication.

Will readers continue to flock to read Fake Steve Jobs now that they know who he is? The satire is still sharp as ever but one has to wonder if some of the intrigue was trying to find clues to unveil FSJ. Now that there are no clues to be had the energy of the blog has been forever changed.

The bigger question is, will Lyons, like Margolis, lose his heart or will the publicity unleash a creative power yet to be seen?

One thing is for sure, the publishing industry will be paying close attention.