What's in a Name, Part Two

 So I'm having issues with my author name. This is not entirely a new thing. Who knew that using just initials, rather than my whole name, would cause such problems? Well, actually... 

There was a numerologist I met at my first book signing who tried to warn me that it was a bad idea, for some reason--but, by then, I had multiple books published, contracts signed for half-a-dozen more, and had invested several years  in websites, email addys and author promotions. It seemed a bad idea to switch. 

But if I'd 'd known then what I know now...I think I would have done it. Apparently it makes a lot of difference if you use periods between the initials or not. And given that my first publisher decided to add an extra space between the P. and the G.? World. Of. Pain.

A lot of the time, online searches don't recognize that PG Forte and P.G. Forte are the same author--even though we're both showing the same books. Goodreads still doesn't recognize me without the dots. Amazon has finally learned not to care...although Author Central still insists on greeting me as simply P. rather than PG...which drives me low-key crazy. Facebook, OTOH, insists on styling it as Pg--which confuses everyone.

 How would you even pronounce that?

As someone whose given name is Patricia (and who's been through Patty, Pattie, Patti, Pat, Patricia, Patrice, Patsy, Tish and probably a few more that I can't recall). And as someone who can't even agree with all her own siblings on how our long-ass, Sicilian last name should be pronounced, let me just say that I. DON'T. GET. IT. 

It's not that hard! Really. It isn't. And yet...

It's been difficult to get traction--and that's not even counting any of my other issues, like writing in multiple subgenres, or changing taglines and website layouts to suit my mood. 

Which reminds me. Have you seen my latest tagline/website banner? I wrote a blog post about them HERE.

To make things worse, in the last few years--while I've been less productive than usual--some pharmaceutical company in India has started selling pain medication (or, I don't know...it could be a vitamin? It's not real clear) called PG FORTE. 

You can't make this shit up. 

I mean, I guess it's better to be associated with something that takes away pain and leaves you radiantly healthy rather than the opposite. But seriously???

Which leads me to this week's fixation. Google's Knowledge Panels. I lust after them. I google other authors' names simply so that I can drool over how pretty and full they are. I'm turning chartreuse with envy. But, google my name and no adorable little box pops up to greet you. Le sigh.

HOWEVER, if you google author P.G. Forte books you'll find a box with some of my currently-out-of-print books. AND if you google Forte PG (although why, for the love of all that's sane or rational, would you ever do that?) you'll find a box with some of my indie books. My traditionally published books are just missing altogether.

Which kind of makes you wonder what those PR departments are doing, doesn't it? No? Just me?

Anyway, I've been working with Google to try and "claim" my knowledge panels, with an eye toward updating and consolidation, but it's been hit or miss. They've verified me as P.G. Forte, but they can't find proof that I'm Forte PG. 

Well, duh.

To make matters worse, it seems Chrome had set all my profile links to private. And Safari was pleased to inform me that they've been actively preventing Google Analytics from "profiling" me across nine different websites--including all my own blogs. 

Look, as an introvert, I do like to hide from time to time. And, yes, privacy is very  important, and sadly lacking in the world today. But TOTAL INVISIBILITY just doesn't strike me as being a good promotional strategy for a business.

I  guess maybe I should have paid more attention to what that numerologist was saying all those years ago.