Have you ever used Google, Bing or Dogpile to search for your name on the internet? Since your name is your brand, it’s important to find out how that brand is being used on the internet.  Here are some things to discover…..

YOU MAY HAVE BEEN QUOTED. I discovered that someone who blogs for a science fiction website has quoted from my short story, “The Dinner Guest.” He found the short story in the print anthology Canadian Tales of the Fantastic (2011).

SOMEONE MAY HAVE COMMENTED ON YOUR WRITING. Some websites are set up to notify you if anyone comments on your writing, but not all of them. Positive comments are better, but even negative comments prove that readers are paying attention to what you’re writing.

YOUR EBOOK MAY HAVE BEEN PIRATED. I’m not a well known writer and my eBook isn’t a bestseller, yet several websites are offering it as a free download along with thousands of other eBooks. I don’t recommend downloading your eBook to see if it works, because there’s always the possibility it’s a scam and you’ll unknowingly download a virus with the eBook.

IT WILL HELP YOU KEEP TRACK OF WHERE YOUR BOOK IS AVAILABLE. Through  simple searches using my name and book titles, I’ve found my young readers novel, Fluffy: a Cat’s Tale and my eBook, What If? A Collection of Short Fiction by J. Paul Cooper displayed by online bookstores in Japan and Australia, as well as several European online bookstores. Even if your books are out-of-print they may still be circulating through the marketplace as used books on Amazon and eBay, and people may still be borrowing them from libraries.

I hope that you’ll find time to write this week, because it’s your voice, your passion.

Copyright © 2017 by J. Paul Cooper