The other Bob Blackmans

Drooper from The Banana Splits looks nothing like me

Tap The Horsepower Whisperer, The Wormton Lamb or Anarchadia Publishing into any search engine and they all show up fairly well in the resulting, er, results. But a number of publishing types have said market yourself as well as your books so I checked out my own branding and looked up “Bob Blackman” on the internet. 

This was very interesting. I found a whole list of Bob Blackmans on the net and none of them was me. Actually, that’s not true. The last one was me.

Top of the heap was an American football trainer called Bob Blackman who was listed on Wikipedia. Apparently, he suffered from polio but this didn’t seem to stop him and he died in 2000 aged 82. It sounds to me as if his top ranking is entirely justified.

Next up was Councillor Bob Blackman who is a Conservative politician. Oh dear. I despise most politicians but especially those who represent the Fascist Repressive Party.

In third place was Robert Blackman, the costume designer for Star Trek. For several years, whenever I’d seen the end of an episode, I’d seen my name flashed up in the credits. Now I know why and I have to say I think he’s done a cracking job even though I may be biased.

There were a number of get-rich-quick network marketing sites that I think pop up as soon as you enter anybody’s name. “How you – Bob Blackman – can find wealth and happiness with this fifteen minute plan guaranteed to…. Etc. etc.” but I didn’t count these.

Fourth was a DatingDirect site – date Black Men today!

Fifth was – well, you’d better try this link to YouTube. This particluar Bob Blackman has to be seen to be believed. I would just like to say how proud I am to share a name with this man.

http://gerkoo.com/search/Bob+Blackman

Bob Blackman also broadcasts about folk music on WKAR-FM in the USA. He represents the construction industry and is a member of the Transport and General Workers Union. He is a management consultant and a computer programmer.

Bob Blackman was also an engineering officer in Starfleet during the 24th century - or will be. There must be a connection with Star Trek's costume designer.

That made me, the real Bob Blackman, seventeenth if you count all the dating and get rich quick sites. At least I made it onto the first page of results from Dogpile - all results no mess.

But if you look me up on Amazon, I am happy to say that I am top of the heap although there aren't many of us. One Bob Blackman has written a Christian science fiction book, "The Commission", about colonising a planet. He’s not me.

Another has written a book entitled Guide to Motoring Costs. He isn’t me either but sounds like he might be.

A spurious result on Amazon was a book called "Reducing the risk of disaster in our communities" because Bob Hansford and Rachel Blackman had collaborated on this worthy tome.

All I need now is to get myself listed on Wikipedia. The only trouble is the on-line encyclopaedia won’t let you list yourself. I know. I’ve tried. I suggested to Pete Cross, author of "Shadows in the Sky", that we could list each other because we are both world famous in Cornwall. Wikipedia won’t let you list your mates but I thought this was worth a try. Pete, however, is too modest and doesn’t think he’s famous enough yet.

 

Any volunteers out there in the blogosphere to list me on Wikipedia? I’ve already written your contribution.