I’ve always been partial to Amazon, but as an author I have to say that the company’s data systems suck.
For instance, if you search on my name, “Shelley Powers”, you’ll find several of my books, such as Essential Blogging, Unix Power Tools 3rd edition, and so on. However, you’ll also find me on a few other computer books I’ve either never been involved with, or only peripherally involved with.
For instance, you’ll find Sybex’s Mastering Visual C# in my authored list, but you won’t see my name on the book. The reason why is because I pulled out of the C# book when I found out how Sybex handles its authors — poorly. I then high tailed it back to O’Reilly just in time to be a pain in the butt to Simon St. Laurent, my current editor.
However, once your name has been linked to a book in the vaults of Amazon’s data jungle (was that a mixed metaphor?), it’s linked for life. No matter how many times you write them, they won’t fix the problem.
My name is also linked with the Webmaster’s Guide to the Wireless Internet, and all I did for Syngress is create the outline for them. That’s it.
A few of the books in the list are Spanish and Portuguese language versions of some of my books. They’ve always liked me in Brazil for some reason. I’m a big hit there. I’m also a hit in Russia, and have Russian language books for Developing ASP Components and Dynamic HTML. What’s odd is my name looks different on both.
There’s another Spanish-language book with the title “Curso Completo de Cata de Vinos”. I’m not completely sure of the title, but I’m sure I never wrote a book on wine, or have ever been approached to write a book on wine. Now, if I was ever approached to write a book on margaritas…
What was a shocker for me, though, was when I discovered that Amazon has put another author’s name, a Ray Lischner, on my baby, my “Practical RDF”. Who the hell is Ray Lischner, and why is he on my book? That’s my book. Mine! Mine! Mine! Well, and O’Reilly’s, too.
What’s worse is that now that he’s been linked with the book in the Amazon vaults, he’s there for life. Grrr.