Setting Up Google Alerts

If you're a follower of this blog, you know why it's called, "The Failed Author", even more so now, in light of my previous post.

But do I let that stop me? Nope! People don't only learn by reading articles about success. Failure, too, is a great learning tool. And thus, I am pushing ahead.

Not all my topics are earth-shattering, but when I learn something I didn't know, I can't help but wonder if other people ever pondered the same thing, like favicons, for instance. A few posts back, I mentioned that an author should Google their book. I found a great review once by doing that, one that I never would have found if not for Googling. The trouble is, I seldom remember to type my book title into the search bar, so now I have set up Google Alerts, not just for my book, but for "me" (my pen name).  Google allows 1,000 alerts to be created per gmail account, but I don't have a thousand books, believe it or not.

Like everything that should be simple (the process itself is simple), there are a couple of things to note. 

First the basics:

1. Go to Google Alerts.
2. In the box at the top, enter a topic you want to follow.
3. To change your settings, click Show options. You can change:
   • How often you get notifications
   • The types of sites you’ll see
   • Your language
   • The part of the world you want info from
   • How many results you want to see
   • What accounts get the alert
4. Click Create Alert. You’ll get emails whenever we find matching search results. 

 

Edit an alert

1. Go to Google Alerts.
2. Next to an alert, click Edit.
3. If you don’t see any options, click Show options.
4. Make your changes.
5. Click Update Alert.
6. To change how you get alerts, click Settings check the options you want and click Save.

Delete an alert

1. Go to Google Alerts.
2. Next to the alert you want to remove, click Delete .
3. Optional: You can also delete an alert by clicking Unsubscribe at the bottom of an alert email. 

Okay, but what if my alert is for a title? Should it have quotation marks around it? Yes. Same for my author name. 

You can also track relevant phrases. I don't know if "Running From Herself" would return results that also include reviews, but just to be on the safe side, there's no harm in creating a separate alert with that phrase.

And, since I'm obviously a patsy, this note from Google is also a sound one:

"Consider potential book piracy: Set up alerts for terms like "[Book Title] free download" or "[Author Name] PDF" to detect unauthorized distribution of your book." 
 

Also:

"Track your website or blog name: If you have a distinct website or blog related to your book, set up an alert for that as well." 

I've currently got room to add 993 more alerts 😀, so perhaps I should include all my books. Who knows? One of them might get mentioned sometime. Doubtful, but not impossible.

Nope, nothing has shown up for me yet, but it's only been four days. And at the very least, I don't have to try to remember to search out my book. Google can come to me.

Authors, you want to know what's happening with your book. Who knows? You might get an awesome review and not even know.