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May 28, 2012

How Do You Use Your Author Website? [Discussion]

After spilling some lessons I learned after my first website failed miserably, I started to wonder about the websites of my indie author friends (that’s you!).

Think of the wide variety of authors in varying genres out there in indie publishing land — there must be just as many different approaches to their author websites. A thriller writer’s website would be way different from that of a historical romance writer, of course, but there’s bound to be a ton of variance even within genres.

So, if you would, please take a few moments and share the following:

  • How does your website appeal to your target reader (in terms of colors, design, layout, content, all of the above)?
  • Did you design your own website, use a template or have someone else design it for you?
  • Does your website use a platform like WordPress or is it static HTML?
  • Do you update your own website or does someone else make updates for you?
  • Does your website have a blog? How do you use it?
  • How do you feel about your website? Is there anything you’d change about it?
  • What advice would you give to other indies getting ready to create their author website?

I can’t wait to hear your responses! To join the discussion, please leave a comment below addressing any (or all) of the above questions. Also, mention the discussion to your indie author friends — we’d love to hear from everyone!

Filed Under: Author & Book Branding, Marketing & Promotion

  • Website Appeal: I’ve tried to make my website plain, dark and simple. My genre of choice is Urban Fantasy (although I haven’t published anything yet!) so i think my choice of colours is suitably subdued without being too stark or morbid. Also, I’m in the process of finding a better WordPress theme, as well as photos to replace the stock images the default theme came with! In fact, can you suggest anywhere I can find suitable pictures?

    Website Design: I designed the website myself, insofar as I didn’t pay anyone to design it for me. The template is the default WordPress one, which as I mentioned earlier I’m in the process of finding a replacement for.

    Website Platform: Yep, WordPress (I feel like a broken record :P)

    Website Updates: I update my own website. Right now I’m focusing on at least three times a week, with every Friday being Thank God It’s Fiction Friday, where I post a sample of one of my stories! Also, every fortnight I post an update on my progress towards getting myself self-published.

    Website Blog: Yep, it uses the WordPress (there it is again!) blog system.

    How do I Feel: Pretty damn proud, actually. Of course, there’s some work that needs to be done, and the choice of url may not have been the best (It’s the protagonist of my story) but apart from that I’m really happy with how it looks and functions.

    What Advice: It’s hard to say, because I’m still pretty new to all this myself. But if I had to, I’d say that they should really think hard about what to name their site. Really hard.

    • Dimitri, thank you *so* much for taking the time to answer all of those questions! You rock.

      We mention our love for WordPress quite a bit, too, so it’s great to see you going with that platform. As far as themes go, I recommend paying a bit for a premium theme if you don’t get a custom design. That way, you get some support and updates if you have issues, both of which are important for WordPress designs. Great premium theme sites include StudioPress (https://www.studiopress.com/) and WooThemes (https://www.woothemes.com/). 

      If you’re looking for free photos, I go first to https://sxc.hu, which is a free stock photo site. Sometimes the selection isn’t the best, but for free, I’m not complaining! If you don’t mind including photo attribution, you might also want to try Flickr’s Creative Commons search (https://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/by-2.0/). We’ve found some gems there!

      If you don’t mind paying a bit for photos, I recommend checking out https://fotolia.com or even https://istock.com (which has gotten expensive, but for small/web size it’s not too bad).

      Phew! I know that was a lot of info, so if you have any more questions just leave them here or shoot an email to [email protected]. 

    • No problem, always a pleasure to share with others any information I can! And thank you for the wealth of links and information. I’ll be sure to check them out as soon as I can.

  • Surfynbyrd

    HI!  I like this interactive project, what a great idea Toni.  My name is Elizabeth, I am a Dental Hygienist and I recently authored my first children’s book Teddy Visits the Dentist.

    I started off with the free amazon author central page https://www.amazon.com/author/elizabethmahadeo?tag= I really like the option of having this page.  It is linked to the book on amazon, all I had to do was input my data and it’s done.  Pictures, video, twitter and blog feeds all included.  This was easy, especially at first when I was learning so much about this new world of publishing and marketing. 

    I then created a blog at https://emahadeo.wordpress.com.  I like this site.  I am using my blog as 1. creative outlet 2. professional outlet for dental stuff and author stuff.  I chose a free theme which I am happy with.  I think it is user friendly and attractive to look at.  What I am researching currently is whether or not to buy my own domain.  My future plans are to make my blog my website.  Do you know if I am able to sell books from it if I do this?   

    I am slowly getting there…I am doing all my own work (and learning it along the way) so it is definitely a process, but I am enjoying it.  Do I have any advice?  Hmm, I am not an expert at this stuff but I know I am enjoying it.  So my advice is to follow your dreams.  

    Do you have any advice for me?  Is there anything I should know…

    • Good job, Elizabeth (and kudos for DIYing it)! The theme you chose for your site is nice, very simple and clean. 

      I would definitely recommend buying your own domain — we have a couple of posts about doing that, but just holler if you need any help. 
      After purchasing your domain, you can simply forward it to your wordpress.com blog, which prevents you from needing to pay for hosting until you really need it.As for selling your book from your site, the best thing to do is include a ‘Buy Now’ image or link that goes to your book’s page on Amazon — then readers can purchase the book easily from a site they know and trust. Hope this helps!

    • Surfynbyrd

      This helps a lot!  Thank you.  I am going to check out your posts about buying my own domain now, I appreciate the info, definitely helps to make these big descisions a little easier!  I like the ‘Buy Now’ option with a link, I have that now but have titled the page the same name as my book- and you reinforced it is a good idea which I appreciate coming from someone who is experienced on these things like you are.

    • Glad I could help! If any more questions come up as you’re working through things, don’t hesitate to give me a shout :-)

  • I use the Flavors.me platform and integrate my blog, twitter stream, etc. into it. That way the content is regularly updated, and if there’s something I’d like to add, I can do it myself.

    Since I write paranormal mysteries, I’ve tried to give the website a spooky yet modern feel to it.

    I want the site to drive sales, but so far it’s mainly a way to engage readers, who can contact me through the contact form.

    It’s probably not as sophisticated from a technical standpoint as I’d like, but for now, it’s easy to manage so I’m happy with it.

    Since my sales are almost all off the Internet, I have to have an online presence and I think other authors should as well. And don’t forget your author bio!

  • My web design is clean and contemporary, and the colour palette matches the colours of the book I am currently promoting- grey with pops of yellow. I hope it looks professional yet inviting.
    I bought a template from Tumblr which also gave me access to support and was well worth the investment. I customised the colours and what elements I wanted to include.It is hosted by the tumblr platform.

    I make my own updates. I don’t like the idea of someone else posting content for me.
    I have a blog where I post about the writing and publishing process, and reading. I only blog about once a month but I’m trying to blog more. I recently started taking part in the Top Ten Tuesday meme from The Broke and the Bookish.
    I’m happy with the look and feelof my website but I’d like to get more engagement, especially comments.
    I recommend tumblr – it’s easy to use and really professional looking.

  • My website just went up in August, and I’ll probably change the design somewhat as my “brand” sorts out. I have a historical fiction selling now, a non-fiction coming out later this month, and an epic fantasy being considered, so I’m not sure exactly what flavor to make my website! (Suggestions from all are welcome!

    Fiction readers tend to get this: https://lauravanarendonkbaugh.com/on-spoilers-i-hate-them/ I’ll try to direct most of my non-fiction readers to my more topical business site, where they’ll see more of this: https://blog.caninesinaction.com/2012/08/when-you-should-not-socialize-your-dog-part-1/

    My author site is self-hosted WordPress, using a professional theme and otherwise designed and maintained by me. I have a blog, which I’m updating at least twice weekly — currently running a topical series based on your fun 12 Days Of… seasonal idea, so a new facet of historical Japanese culture (or its influence on modern culture) each day.

    Advice to others….

    1) Make it look nice. Not necessarily pretty, or hyper-customized, or flashy, but neat and clean and easy to identify and navigate. I see too many sites that look like 1998 or are hard to browse.

    2) Do it. I attended a writer’s conference this year where the official advice was, “You can’t hope to do this, just pay someone thousands of dollars to fix it for you.” And that’s bunk. If you can write a whole book, you can read a few tutorials. :)

  • Design/Platform/Updates:
    I used a free WordPress template for my site and modified it to suit my theme (luckily, I have experience in web design/programming and I enjoy graphic design as a hobby). I have a blog to which I make my own updates, though I may eventually have guest posts.

    Appeal/Blog:
    My site is still very new (relative to the fact that my fiction book is still an unfinished manuscript), but my intent is to provide story-related content without actually having a book to sell (yet). This is obviously a difficult task, but I plan to tackle it with story-related static content (downloadable excerpts, side-stories, drawings/artwork, maps, etc) and blog posts that relate both to my novel’s themes and to the interests of my target audience – teen girls (judging things by how they look, goal-making, peer pressure, art, etc). While I do have a few posts about writing, I try not to make that my blog’s raison d’être.

    As far as colour and design is concerned, I’ve tried to match my site’s colour scheme to my story and I like to provide as much shareable content as I can (images, etc). People aren’t going to look at my blog unless someone (else!) tells them to. Since I have nothing to sell yet, I don’t do a lot of self-marketing.

    Of course, I’ve also got the required Info/About/Contact pages.

    Feelings/Advice:
    My site still needs work – mainly, I’d like to add more story content, a proper landing page (instead of indexing my blog) and I want to improve my sharing links (to Twitter, etc). Of course, all that takes time, so I like to try to work on things at about the same pace as my novel :)

    As far as giving advice to indie writers: if you’re a fiction writer with no real “expertise”, don’t sell yourself short by writing about /writing/ on your blog (unless that’s all you really want to talk about). Relate your posts to your writing if you want, but blog about other things. As far as website content, SHARE YOUR STORY: what inspired you (do you have photos of those things or places)? Where does it take place? Who are the characters? What’s at stake? Do you have other talents that relate to your story in some way (do you and your main character both love cars)? If you’re not writing about something you know, why not /learn/ about it, and share that?

  • How does your website appeal? Tough for me to answer. I think it’s easy to move around on. Every page has a “call to action” of sorts, a reason for being there and provides information. I also like that my website isn’t very cluttered. When there’s too much to look at, I find that distracting.

    Did you design your own website? I used a premium WordPress template on a self-hosted site.

    Does your website use a platform? WordPress

    Do you update your own website? I update my own website 100%. When building my site, I found it extremely important to know how to add features and content to my own site. I didn’t want to spend money on this when I could use that money for editing or other necessary expenses.

    Does your website have a blog? Yes, I use a blog to talk about the ins and outs of my self-publishing experience as well as the “business” of self-publishing.

    How do you feel about your website? I mostly love my site. I really want to add prettier social media buttons and more visual buttons for the categories I blog about eventually.

    What advice would you give to other indies? I definitely would recommend getting a self-hosted site, using a premium theme, and learning the bare minimum of doing it yourself. I always recommend that indies do their research on EVERYTHING before plunging into spending money. But we should also know when the project is out of our league and it’s time to throw some money at a situation.

  • AJ Sikes

    Appeal? I write weird/sci-fi/noir fiction, so I’m using a color scheme and layout that matches up with aesthetics I associate with the genre: spare color, mostly gray scale or muted tones for all fonts/links, and an atmospheric black/gray/white background.

    Design your own? I use a template, and I admit I’m not 100% thrilled with it. Minimal font choices for one.

    Platform? I own the domain and have hosting through the free options available on Webs.com, which is a Vistaprint company. I’m planning to buy up to have more options once a few more royalty checks come my way. So…2014 or thereabouts 😉

    Update your own? Yep.

    Blog? Yes. I use it to signal boost anthology calls I learn about in the genres I write in/am interested in, and I run series related to my writing (currently on post 2/5 on Monday Morning Noir). I also keep a page of To Be Read and Currently Reading, to share books I like and build a community of readers around my work.

    How do you feel? I want more freedom to choose my own fonts, rather than be stuck with the template offerings. I also prefer more freedom to customize the HTML, which I’m learning and am really a n00b at, but still…I know it can be done and would like to do it!

    Advice to other indies? Register your domain name. Register your domain name. Register your domain name. And be sure it’s with a company you want to work with for hosting. Transferring is a pain in the tailbone.