Arg! Is this a good name...

[sting8]

I'm an author of a new book and am putting up a website for it. I am struggling with the name of my domain.

I was going to just use firstnamelastname.com like many authors do, but my name is 13 letters and not particularly easy to spell.

I was thinking of doing it anyways, and getting one of those free redirection url services, creating an easy to remember url that points to it - I could give that to people who don't know me well enough to remember how my name is spelt.

Good idea?

[treeline]

Your name is certainly distinctive and definitely you. People with the book, or an article mentioning you or the url can easily type it in. Nice self branding.

If you only plan one book, consider the title as url. Or use just your first or last name, if available. The good thing about firstlast.com is that it is intuitive.

As for people guessing at the url, they are probably using a search engine. For typos, even on names, you often get:

DID YOU MEAN: Correct Name Spelling

Many people find sites by clicking on links on sites or search engines. Spelling is no issue here. Plus sometimes distinctive is memorable. Who used to spell lycos or altavista or...?

[digitalv]

Definitely go with your real name, but you may also want to register some common misspellings just to be sure you won't lose any traffic (or worse, someone ELSE will register them and snag away traffic that was meant for you).

No one would have guessed how to spell M. Night Shyamalan either, but he seems to be doing OK :)

[gail]

Going with your name for the URL gives one central place for your customers to find info on you and the book... plus any future book (-;