Everyone does it. You know what I'm talking about. If you have any kind of public or net presence, you hit up google or your favorite search engine and you search on your own name.
Sometimes, the search is for fun, to see what other people do who share your name. For instance, I'm not only an astronomy professor and science fiction writer, I'm also a world-class drag racer, a police sergeant, etc., even though "Mike Brotherton" isn't the most common names.
When you publish a novel, you start getting random strangers (or science fiction fans at least, who may be strange but are usually far from random) talking about you. It's a roller coaster ride. I don't care how great a book you've written, someone will hate it. I don't care how awful a book you've written, someone will love it. High school english class is great place to see this in action. A teacher will be pushing Dickens, or Hemingway, or Austen, and a good portion of the class will hate it. That same teacher will dis pretty much every media or game tie-in book as a matter of course (including my friend Eric Nylund's very nice HALO books).
So when I search on "Star Dragon + Brotherton" I get hits of both kinds. I've gotten many good reviews for the book, and come across message boards where people out-of-the-blue hold it up as an example (a "gem" even in one instance) of good hard science fiction. I also see posts from people who tried to read it and gave up part-way through.
Writers should ignore reviews and be true to their vision no matter what people are saying. If you don't do that, you're not going to produce quality work. I just have to remember that what I consider quality work is not quite what everyone else sees, and vice versa. But if there are enough readers out there who share enough of my vision, I can have a career and be appreciated. I'm writing for me, and them, and not for everyone.
I try to remember that when I see the posts about being unable to finish my book.
Posted by Mike at December 22, 2004 11:41 PM