I first thought I'd use my maiden name. My husband even purchased the URL stacythurber.com before anyone else nabbed it. Then I Googled it.
My name didn't come up first. Some doctor in California (which is funny, since I was born in Santa Monica
I also followed the advice of Bob Mayer (in a workshop I attended at the FF&P conference) and set a Google alert on Stacy McKitrick. I got a couple of hits (from other bloggers). All good, right?
Until the last couple of Google alerts I received were not me.
Seems there is a brand new country-western singer by the name of Stacey McKitrick. Her name now shows up first when MY name is Googled. And her concert announcements show up because Ticketmaster misspelled her name.
I've got to laugh over that, though. I can't count the number of times people have misspelled my first name (I tell them the E is my middle initial, not in my first name). I guess she gets the same problem.
So, should I be worried? Or is it a good thing? Maybe people will find me when they look for her!
What would you do? Hope for the best or go searching for a new pen name?
9 comments:
well, when I decided to use Anne Gallagher there were at least 15 others with that name, including a chef from NY and a doctor in IL. So I just put "writer" after my name.
annegallagherwriter
So now if anyone googles me, they have the doctor the chef and the writer pop up on the screen. If people are looking for me, well, there I am.
It's easy to change on your blogspot name too. Instead of Stacey's rantings dot blogspot dot com you could have
stacymckitrickauthor at blogspot dot com
Then direct the url from the other .coms to here.
Anne - I don't really want to change my blog URL. It only has my first name, and there is a link to it on my web. And I've seen problems when others have changed it. I hate cleaning up problems!
No, my main worry was if two of us in the "entertainment" industry has basically the same name (especially with us both starting out), if that would cause problems.
I wouldn't worry about it. If you do you'll always be chasing the next name that pops up. :)
Don - Good point.
Leave it alone - writing is different enough from music that no one should get confused.
Signed, one of those people who put an e in your name and should know better - aarrrrggggh!
Jennette - Ha ha ha ha ha! You're forgiven!
Stick with your name. You already have a web presence and you're in different occupations.
I decided to include my maiden name so that all the searches for me did not go to science fiction sites (although those still show up).
Funny story, I was looking at my stats the other day and one of the web searches that led someone to my blog was "Erin Kane naked." I assume that they didn't mean me, so there must be some Erin Kane out there who does naked stuff. A little disturbing.
Anyway, I'm sure the searcher was disappointed to end up on my blog about Job. :)
If I were to do it over again, I would get a pen name, if only to distance my professional life from my personal one.
It isn't as important now that I'm retired, but I would've liked it while I was working.
Keep your name if you like it and not worried if someone other than fans find you.
Erin - Maybe people associate romance with naked? Who knows! I'm baffled at some of the hits I get, too.
Maria - I think even if I had a pen name, if someone was hell bent on finding me, they'd find me. I just wanted a name I knew I would answer to!
Right now I'll take it as a good thing. Maybe I'll find a future reader that way!
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