My Byline but Not My Writing

Disconcerting and frustrating don’t begin to express it.  This morning I was searching Google for articles by Frank Turner in the old Ilwaco Tribune  and up popped a site called “Muck Rack” with excerpts from article after article by  “Sydney Stevens.”  The problem:  some were by me; some were not.   The ones that were by me seemed to come from the Chinook Observer.  Most were from series I have written during the past few years.  But several that I saw (and I have not yet done an extensive search) are purportedly by someone with the same name and written for a site called wbride.com.  I haven’t checked it out yet.

No, thank you.

But I have taken a look at this “Muck Rack” site.   The home page says: “The all-in-one PR software you’ve been waiting for — A centralized Public Relations Management (PRM) platform to help your team build media relationships, collaborate from anywhere, and measure success.”   And it offers a “Demo.” So I guess it’s some sort of advertisement or “opportunity,” though it doesn’t say so.  And I’m not sure how it targets me, in particular — maybe just because i’m doing the Google search.  Another cyberspace mystery — and not in a good way.

Presumably you can let the site owners know of problems but, try as I might, I could not access them through their little box which gives problem choices (none that fit) to check.  I checked several, anyway, but it appears that the process is an example only — doesn’t go anywhere, so there is no recourse.

Badgers??? Not written by me…

The more I think about it, the more I conclude that it’s a site that can help you find articles by a certain author if he/she has been published on the internet.  I wish the screen that popped up had shown articles by Frank Turner rather than by me and other people named Sydney Stevens.  I might have been interested in exploring further.

I can’t decide if the site presents a good opportunity or not.  If I follow-through enough to find out, I’ll probably be inundated with email messages etc.  from them.  (Ms. Skeptical) Or, be sucked to spending money for something that doesn’t work. (Ms. Frugal) If any readers have used it, I hope they let me know.  (Ms Hopeful)  Also, the name is a bit-off-putting.  Too similar to muckrake which to this author, does not have good connotations at all.  Boo!  Hiss!