Not Anonymously Yours

A few booksellers where I live recently informed me of a rumor that's been going around. Customers have been buying copies of the book Jay's Journal and insisting that I wrote it.

I can almost understand how this rumor kind of sounds real for a very brief moment.

• My name is Jay.
• Jay's Journal is written by Anonymous, which is often shelved right beside Asher.
• Thirteen Reasons Why is about cassette tapes recorded by someone who committed suicide, and Jay's Journal is a real journal (though highly altered) written by someone who committed suicide.

[from the back of Jay's Journal]
Jay thought he could handle anything. The first time he took drugs was for fun. But what started as an escape quickly spiraled into a haze of addiction. That was just the beginning of the dangerous path that ultimately led Jay to take his own life.

Here's the thing...

• Jay's Journal was published when I was three years old.
• If I ever do write something anonymously and try to pass it off as a real journal, I probably won't name the main character after myself.

But what really has me confused is that people are arguing with the booksellers, swearing that I wrote this book and that it's a true story.

One, I've never done any drugs. And two...I didn't kill myself.

I swear!

But sometimes, as Hannah Baker says, you can't disprove a rumor. So this bookstore ordered extra copies of Jay's Journal to keep up with the demand.

Maybe I should autograph the books and really freak people out!