Tag Archives: blog

Marketing

Should authors blog?

I’ve asked this question for a long time, and over time, my answer has evolved.

Simon and Schuster is supposed to have told their authors that they must blog . . . in 2010. It’s been five years. Internet marketing isn’t on a different plane five years later—basically on a different planet now. I’ve been blogging since 2006. Two. Thousand. Six. Blogging’s simply not as effective as it used to be—not for getting traffic, not for bringing in search engine users, and especially not for sales.

However, you might still want to blog as an author. Why?

The advantages of a blog

A blog still gives you a chance to “own” or “host” the conversation with your fans—if you can get them there. They are already on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., but remember that the content you post and the fanbase you build there could go away in an instant.

A blog gives you a quick and easy website. You might not even use the blog functionality if you’re just using the pages, but it’s good to have the place to stick your latest news as well as the usual, static information you’d want on a website.

Along with that, a blog gives you a place to promote. It’s your homebase where people are less likely to be annoyed or feel like you’re getting in their face to sell to them (versus social media).

HUGE caveat

There is one HUGE caveat: if you are a nonfiction writer, you probably need to blog. It’s the cheapest and perhaps the fastest to way to start your platform, which is super important for publishing whether you’re going indie or traditional. This helps to build your authority and your writing.

Also, it’s way more likely that people will be searching for a nonfiction topic than for “clean spy romance,” so it can be more effective with search engines as well as social media—because which would you rather share: a post with an interview with a character/list of fun facts about an author/pretty pictures of a book’s setting OR an informative post on a topic you’re interested in and that helps you with your life?

The effectiveness of a blog

Have you EVER bought a novel because you read the author’s blog? I don’t mean, “I went to an author’s blog because I liked her other books and there discovered that she has another book out so I bought this book because I was already a fan.” I mean, “I discovered this author through her blog and have purchased novels (or fiction of any length) by her.”

[click through for poll]

I’m a nonfiction author, too, so I’ll keep blogging, mostly focused on that side. I’ll still have announcements about new releases and promotions on the fiction side, and I’ll be using the pages of my site just like any other author would—to highlight good reviews, to share deleted scenes and bonus features, to be the “center” of my promotions—but when it comes to blogging about your fiction? I just don’t see it making a difference to your search engine traffic or your sales. Your mileage may vary—and if it does, great! Come share your story!

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Marketing

Blogging: Intro to HTML

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This entry is part 8 of 8 in the series Marketing: blogging

Ever had a blog post do something crazy? Weird highlighting, changing fonts, double spacing? Learning even a little HTML can help you troubleshoot those crazy errors.

On Friday, I gave this presentation at the iWriteNetwork conference, and I thought it would go well with the blogging series we did a little while back, so I’m sharing it here today.

To find the HTML in your blog, above the post window, find the “HTML” button or tab. It will show you the HTML codes that present your document.

Some HTML basics

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language.

When I want to look something up in HTML coding, I usually Google it, and click on any result from http://w3schools.com.

To “turn on” a style or feature, put it inside less than/greater than signs, like this: 

<b>, <em>, <strong>

To “turn off” a style or feature, add a slash after the less than:

</b>, </em>, </strong>

Everything between those two tags (technically elements, but we’ll go with tags) will obey those tags.

A few tags are “self-closing,” and have that slash at the end, right before the greater than sign. Image tags and line breaks are two of these:

<img src="picture.jpg" /> (always use straight quotes!)
<br />

Formatting text for the Internet

Centering—there are two methods to center text. I recommend picking one and memorizing it.

<p style="text-align: center;">Centered text</p>
<p align="center">Centered text</p>

Bold—again, there are two methods; pick one

<strong>Bold text</strong>
<b>Bold text</b>

Italics—yep, two methods.

<em>Italic text</em>
<i>Italic text</i>

Styling text, from color to line spacing, is done mostly with a p element or a span element. P is for whole paragraphs, Span is for text within paragraphs.

Begins with:

<p style=" or <span style="

Must be STRAIGHT, not curly or “smart” quotes!

Inside those quotation marks, you can change all kinds of things about your text. All of the following “properties” must come INSIDE those marks, and include the semicolon. (Use just ONE of each tag.)

Color

color: red; OR color: #FE7898; [a HEX code] OR color #555;
[For HEX codes that are the same digit/letter]

Size 

font-size: 14px; OR font-size: 14pt; OR font-size: 2em; OR font-size: small;

Background

background-color: yellow; OR other styles for color

Line spacing (all these are about double spaced)

line-height: 200%; OR line-height: 2; OR line-height: 25px;

Font gives several options to browsers to figure out a type of font to display

font: Georgia serif;

Once you have everything you want to change about your text, close the quotes and tag: "> (And remember </p> after the paragraph text!)

For example:

<p style="color: red; font-size: 20pt; background-color: #555;
text-align: center; line-height: 200%;">Here is my sample
paragraph. It's pretty hard to read with the gray background and
red text, so I really can't recommend using this exact color
scheme, but you get the idea.</p>

Gives us:

Here is my sample paragraph. It’s pretty hard to read with the gray background and red text, so I really can’t recommend using this exact color scheme, but you get the idea.

Outline format: headers

HTML comes with an outline format that uses headers, <h1> through <h6>.

The highest level header is for your site name. Typically, there will be only one <h1> element on a page.

<h2> elements are often used for post titles. There can be more than one <h2> on a page.

I use <h3> elements for subheadings inside my blog post. You’ll notice they’re purple here 🙂 .

Images

IMG stands for image and SRC stands for source. That’s where the URL of the image itself will go. The rest of the properties are optional, but I recommend at least using the alt text, and included a search keyword, if you’re looking for a (slight) SEO benefit.

<img src="imageURL.jpg" height="80" width="60" alt="the best
dog in the whole world!" align="right" style="float: right;" />

Note that if you want the top of your image to be inline with the text, you’ll want the code for the image and the text together, without line breaks (hard returns or <br />), and the image must be right or left aligned. Like this:

<img src="imageURL.jpg" height="80" width="60" alt="the best dog
in the whole world!" align="right" style="float:
right;" />This text will line up with the TOP of the image.

Links

Links are the currency of the web! The Link anchor text is the text that shows up colored and underlined when you look at the post. Search engines use the actual anchor text as a vote, so describing your friend’s site with “click here” isn’t as helpful to their SEO as it would be to say “sci-fi author Jane Doe.”

To make a link, you use an “a” (anchor) element, with HREF (hypertext reference)

<a href="URL.html">Link anchor text</a>

You can also use “a” elements to link to a specific part of a document. For example, if I wanted to make a link to the text formatting section of this document, I would insert this HTML code just before the subheading. (“format” is the name I chose; you can use anything you like.) 

<a name="format"></a>

There’s no text required—it makes any text look like a link, but it’s not clickable, so I skip it.

Then, to link directly to that part, use:

<a href="pageURL.html#format">Link anchor text</a>

These anchors also work on the same page. Here’s that link to the text formatting section on this page.

Special characters: HTML Entities

I have a few of these memorized, but I often just Google the name of the character and “html entity” if I need to find it. Include both the ampersand and the semicolon.

  • Straight apostrophe: &apos;
  • Accents, e.g. é: &eacute; [the direction of the accent] OR &#233; [the alt code] — the ‘e’ is case sensitive!
  • Ampersand: &amp;
  • Straight quote: &quot;
  • Less than: <
  • Greater than: >
  • Cent: &cent;
  • Copyright: &copy;
  • Em dash: &mdash;

Two quick cut-and-paste tips

If you look at your HTML code and see that every paragraph has a line-height: 200%; property that you don’t want, I recommend cutting and pasting the code into Notepad (Text Editor on a Mac, I believe) and using Find and Replace to get rid of it.

Pasting text from an email or Word doc? I recommend pasting the text directly into the HTML window or Notepad/Text Editor. Notepad makes it easier to add line breaks between paragraphs, and find and replace any characters that won’t display properly. You will need to add bold or italic formatting manually.

Troubleshooting

Go find a crazy post on your blog and dig into the text to see if you can find out why it’s displaying oddly.

Note: If you’re trying to put two images with captions side by side in Blogger, you will need to use a table. Blogger puts the caption into a table row below the image and won’t display two tables side by side.

Don’t have a crazy post? Cut and paste this code into a new post and preview to see what’s displaying strangely. Then dig into the code to fix it!

<p style="background-color: red; text-align: right;">We use
crutches when we're lame. Gesture crutches? <strong>They're often
a symptom of writing that's limping along.</strong> Don't let your
writing limp! Make it run, jump, dance and sing!</p>
<strong>Describe the laugh</em> to make it pop. Write it fresh!
"A suuuure-you-can laugh" or "Her laughter was bright and thin
 and tinny, like the sound of cheap jingle bells you buy one
year—and the next find inexplicably silent."
Is this hard work? <strong>YES!</strong> Is it worth it? We
can&mdash;well, actually, we probably <em>can't</em> cite
<a href="http://example.com">examples of less-than-engaging
writing in published books: unless they're book-throwing bad, we
tend to gloss over this boring body language just like we do a
lot of other unstellar examples.

Can’t fix your crazy posts? I’m happy to help! Come join in the conversation!

Photo by Jesper Rønn-Jensen

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Marketing

Who are you blogging for? Connecting with your blog community

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This entry is part 3 of 8 in the series Marketing: blogging

Just like in writing, in blogging, you need to know your audience. In writing, sometimes it’s enough to know the reader expectations within your genre. In blogging, sometimes it can be enough to know your niche.

Last week, we talked about finding that blog niche, whether you center your blog around writing, your research interests, or your hilarious life. But no matter what your topic is, it’s really important to keep in mind who you expect to read your blog.
Continue reading Who are you blogging for? Connecting with your blog community →

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Marketing

So, seriously: should writers blog?

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This entry is part 2 of 8 in the series Marketing: blogging

If you’ve been hanging around the blogosphere for a while, you’ve probably heard arguments from every side about whether writers should blog. Yes! No! Maybe!

From the Yes! camp, we hear that writers who are seeking publication should be getting their name out there through a blog. Also, a blog is a great way to connect with future readers and other writers, possibly refine your voice, write every day and build your platform. And look! It doubles as a soap box!

From the No! crowd, the arguments are more diverse. Maybe you don’t have time to write and blog, or maybe your blog voice interferes with your fiction voice.

From the Maybe! crew, the stipulations usually relate to your blog topic: you should blog about X or Y, but never about writing, politics, religion, your family, the color yellow, peanut butter . . .
Continue reading So, seriously: should writers blog? →

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Marketing

Author websites vs. author blogs: the smackdown

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This entry is part 1 of 8 in the series Marketing: blogging

Website, or blog? They’re not (exactly) the same thing—and which one is right for you?

A website vs. a blog

A blog is a chronological, topical Internet location with lots of regularly updated, fresh content. A website, on the other hand, is typically a static, topical location on the Internet with lots of “permanent,” evergreen content that might occasionally need updating.

An author’s website will have information about their books—where to buy, marketing materials, media kits—as well as the authors themselves. An author’s blog will have updates about something that interests them, and might interest you too (blogs that just focus on how awesome the author is or when the next book is coming out basically don’t count).

An author website is where you go to learn more about an author and his/her books. An author blog is where you go to get to know an author.

A website can integrate a blog as part of the site, or it can be a separate corollary, if you want to devote the time to running both. Some people will tell you a blog can’t also function as a website—but I completely disagree.

When is a blog not a website?

Obviously a blog is a type of website. (Duh.) Blogs do sometimes have a stigma of being less professional or cheaper than a website, and thus actually being harmful to an author’s (or any other professional’s) career.

But this really depends on the design of the site itself. I can point you to some really unprofessional websites that are not blogs, aren’t laid out like blogs, but that still do not give a favorable impression of the author of the site. Similarly, I can show you some very professional websites that are built on blog software.

When it comes down to it, it’s not the back end of the website that matters, or whether you spent $1000 or $10,000 on a fancy Flash design (which search engines can’t read anyway). What matters is presenting yourself professionally.

A website or a blog: which is right for you?

While it’s definitely not an either/or proposition, I think it’s important to make a conscious choice about whether you want to have an author website, or an author blog (or both. Or neither, but good luck with that one).

The pros and cons:

  Pros Cons
Website
  • Easy to maintain—almost “set it and forget it”
  • About the author and their books
  • May be a little more distant
Blog
  • Very easy to connect with readers on a personal level
  • About the author’s life/chosen topic
  • Requires regular updating (weekly)
  • Not all readers want a personal connection

Now: choose your own adventure. Are you ready for a blog or a website?

I’m ready for a blog

Great! The two best blog backbones out there are Blogger and WordPress. Blogger is probably more user-friendly out of the box than WordPress, and the free version of Blogger is more customize-able than the free version of WordPress. (Both pale in comparison to to the self-hosted version of WordPress, which is free, but you’ll have to pay for web hosting. My web host, BlueHost (aff) is about $7 a month, and they’ve been really good to me for the last five years.)

Both Blogger and WordPress feature posts and pages. The posts are the everyday updates, the timely news and the fresh content. The pages are for timeless content: About Me, Books, etc. (Note that there is a limit of 20 pages on Blogger, and in Blogger you can’t create subpages, or a hierarchy of the pages.)

I’m ready for a website

Great. Get a blog.

I’m not joking or being facetious: I think blog software is probably one of the easiest and most user-friendly ways to to establish a blog or a website. But instead of using the post feature for the majority of your content, you’ll rely heavily on the pages. At the risk of repeating myself, in most blog software, the posts are the everyday updates, the timely news and the fresh content. The pages are for timeless content: About Me, Books, etc.

Another advantage to using blog software is that, if you choose, you can add a blog later that’s already seamlessly integrated with your site.

I’m still overwhelmed!

Start small. Get a blog.

Okay, yes, I’ve been blogging for going on six years, so that doesn’t sound overwhelming to me: but you can cut your Internet presence teeth pretty easily with a blog.

The NUMBER ONE RULE

Be professional! Be professional! Be professional!

That doesn’t mean you have to write your site content or website posts like the entire Association of Authors’ Representatives is looking over your shoulder. It means making sure that your site’s overall appearance (and its content, too) show you’re serious about your writing (even if your writing isn’t exactly serious).

What do you think? Website or blog?

Photo credits: blog checklist—Owen W. Brown; blog microphone—Michael Sauers
blog newspaper article—Annie Mole
The photos aren’t meant to be a subliminal message;
I just couldn’t find anything for the query “website.”

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Marketing

Seven Things An Author’s Website Must BE

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This entry is part 4 of 4 in the series Marketing: Websites

This post originally ran on Romance University last year.

We all know we’re “supposed” to have a website if we’re pursuing a career in publishing—but we’re not all sure exactly what we’re supposed to do with it! Today, we’re adding seven more secrets of successful sites—what your website must be:

Findable
Bottom line: a website’s no good to you if no one can find it. Make sure your website doesn’t block search engines, or put up any barriers to them finding your site. Links to your site with your name as the anchor text (the text of the link) can help search engines to find and rank your site for your name.

If possible, YourName.com or YourPenName.com is the best address for your site. Lots of free hosting services (including Blogger) will let you redirect your site to YourName.com (some for a modest fee). If YourName.com is taken, try to get something as close to that as possible by using initials (especially if you’re using them in your credits) or an extra word such as “author,” “writer” or “books.” Note that hyphens, i.e. Your-Name.com, are used less often and can be harder to remember.

Useable
Visitors to your website should be able to navigate easily and find what they’re looking for. Use an easy-to-understand set up: generally, websites have navigation links horizontally below the header and/or on the right or left sidebar. Also, think carefully about what you call the various areas of your site. “About me” or “Biography” is a lot easier to find and understand than “Everything you ever needed to know” or “100 things.”

Shopable
Imagine you’ve just finished a book by a great new author and you head to her website to see if she has any others. Great, she has some listed—but how can you find them? She doesn’t say! Are they out of print? Do you have to order them through her? (How?) Should we resort to Amazon? Ooh . . . pretty books . . . what was that author’s name again? Ooh, sale!

Give your website visitors an easy way to get more of your books—give direct links to your books where they can buy them.

Shareable
If you want your visitors to tell their friends about your site, make it easy on them. Include links to email articles from your blog, or share them on Facebook and Twitter. But even more important than making it easy to share your site is making your site worth sharing. Give your visitors an experience they’ll want others to have, whether that’s laughing, loving or learning, and then give them a way to share that experience.

Professional (yeah, I ran out of ables)
This site is your business card, your TV commercial, your sales flyer and your public persona all rolled into one. Being professional doesn’t mean being stodgy, but it does mean putting your best foot forward in attitude and appearance. Match your design and your writing style on your site to your chosen genre. You can be funny (even irreverent!)—and you should be if you’re writing humorous books—and still be professional.

(The same rule goes for your interactions all over the Internet!)

Informative
One of my pet peeves is visiting “thin” sites: sites with almost no content or information. You don’t have to be the next Wikipedia, but you should have enough information to draw visitors into your site, let them know who you are, maybe even let them see what you’re working on. One of my friends had an editor approach her about her book from what the editor read on her website. If you have your first pages or chapter polished for a contest or querying, I think it’s a good idea to make them available on your site as well. And don’t forget your About page—let us get to know you!

Fun!
A fun site doesn’t necessarily mean you need to hire somebody to create a bunch of animated games tangentially related to your works. A “fun” author’s site should include bonuses. It could be games or contests, or it could be something as simple as deleted scenes from a published book. If you’re lucky enough to have a group of dedicated fans, help them to interact and build a community (and don’t forget to participate!).

Conclusion
Whether you’re preparing to query or publishing your pentology, your author website can work for you and for your visitors. By making sure your site is findable, useable, shopable, shareable, professional, informative and fun, you’ll create an experience your website visitors will want to repeat, whether they’re agents, editors or readers.

What do you think? What else do you look for in an author’s website, and what are you striving to do with yours?

Photo credits: frustrated—Sybren A. Stüvel; asleep at computer—Aaron Jacobs; loving your site—Chris Champion

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Marketing

Five more things an author’s website must do

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This entry is part 3 of 4 in the series Marketing: Websites

Continuing with some good advice from years past, part two of the post from last week!

Last week, we started to look at four things an aspiring author’s website must do. We looked at the “get ready” and “get set” phases—gearing up for submitting your work for publication. This week, we have a few things that all authors—aspiring or not—should be doing with their websites, as well as just a little advice for soon-to-be published authors. There are volumes more to say on what an author’s website should do and have and be, but we’ll stick to these few today.

The 1-2-3 phase: attract interest for your book

After your book has been accepted for publication, your website is an even more powerful tool. If you’re still solely on a blog on a free domain (i.e., ilurvewritin.blogspot.com), it’s time to buy your own domain, preferably YOURNAME.com. And along with a new domain, this is a good time to upgrade to a “real” website—keeping your blog, of course, but also hosting a stable website—or at least a blog with a full complement of pages. Ideally, the blog and the website design will be integrated seamless.

In this phase, it’s time to focus on that book to attract as much prelaunch interest as you can.

How can you do this? There are a few things you’ll want on your site before the book launches to help drum up interest:

  • An awesome, engaging description of the book
  • The cover (so people will recognize it in a bookstore)
  • An excerpt, preferably from that incredibly intriguing beginning (with permission from your publisher)
  • A link to your book on Amazon—hello, pre-order! (Also, you can use an affiliate link [how to sign up as an Amazon affiliate] to make a few extra pennies off any sales).
  • Your book trailer, if you’re doing one.
  • Anything else that will make people want to run to the bookstore on launch day!
  • Send author friends (especially ones with newsletters) a short paragraph about your book, with links.

You can also look at the terms people are advertising and searching on in search engines, to see if any of those people might be interested in your site—then use those terms (“keywords”) on your site, in page titles and content, in natural language. (You’re a writer, right? So write!)

The Go! phase: sell your book

As with the 1-2-3 phase, your website can be a major vehicle for selling your book (and your backlist, if you have one). Candace E. Salima gave a great presentation on this subject at a conference I attended in April.

How can I do this? Well, along with the above ideas, it’s also a good idea to spread the word on other websites through advertisements, reviews, releases, contests, and other publicity.

But that’s not on your website. On your website, always, always, ALWAYS have a purchase link. Have “bonus features” to your books on the website—recipes, play lists, deleted scenes—anything you think will interest your readers.

Also, make your website somewhere that people will want to come back to—do something for them, reach out to them (see building a community), be accessible. Even if they’ve already bought your book, they’re still your customers, your readers, your fans, and striving to build a relationship with them (individually and collectively) can help sustain you, both emotionally and financially.

Always: sell YOU

Your website is also a great way to sell you—and I don’t mean prostitution. I mean building a brand that will lead to agents, editors, fans, loyal readers, subscribers, fame* and glory* (*results not typical). If you have something to say, some kind of message, that’s part of your brand. If you write in a specific genre, that’s part of your brand.

How can I do this? Make your site professional and consistent—use the same layout, color scheme, graphics, etc. on each page. If you have a theme running in your published books (especially their covers or color schemes), go with it on your website.

On your site (perhaps the about page), talk about what draws you to your genre or your message. Encourage your visitors to share their stories of why they’re interested in the same topics.

Also, talk about or at least hint at future projects to keep your readers—your potential customers—interested. If it’s feasible, think about running a regular newsletter (monthly, bimonthly, quarterly). You can keep your most loyal, interested fans updated on your progress, offer special contests, and interact with them.

Have photographs of yourself (for visitors and high quality ones for media contacts). Feature other peoples’ interviews with you (or interview yourself). Allow people to get to know you (somewhat—we all need our privacy, and we don’t all need to know if you’re wearing clean underwear right now!). This goes hand in hand with the next point, something you should always strive for with your author website:

Always: build a community

A community based around a blog, forum or website means that people feel welcome. People can participate and interact with you. People come back.

How can I do this? Building a community around your blog or website can be as simple as encouraging discussion, responding to comments and writing on requested topics. Whatever you do with your website, interact with your visitors. Even if you don’t have a blog, you can interact with your website visitors—host a forum or weekly chats to connect personally with them. Use your email newsletter to appeal to them.

Always: build your platform

If you’re lucky enough to have a unique selling proposition just by virtue of who you are and/or what you do, bank on that. If you’re a computer engineer writing about high-tech computer hacking, tout those qualifications on your site. Once you’re published, you can also use that platform to launch yourself into public speaking opportunities on related topics—building your brand and your platform in the real world.

How can I do that? Feature your qualifications on your about page—maybe even write a “sub” page to your about page, just devoted to that. Include it in your FAQ (if you have one). Create an FAQ around that industry. List your speaking engagements on related topics, and make it clear you’re available for such gigs. (What would you speak on? Something related to your platform and your writing or research—if you’re writing fiction on high-tech computer hacking, you could speak about how to protect yourself from hackers, for example.)

Always remember: your website will be the major way you’ll interact with most of your readers and potential business associates. Use it wisely!

Next week, we’ll take a look at an easy way to set up a website!

What do you think? How else could you do these things on your website? What else should an author’s website do?

Photo credits: excited reader—Chris Johnson; bookseller—Herman Brinkman; bricklayer—Jovike

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Marketing

Four things an aspiring author’s website must do

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This entry is part 2 of 4 in the series Marketing: Websites

Continuing with our series, a repeat of another post from three years ago, part 1 of 2!

We’ve covered the seven things an aspiring author’s website must have. But in addition to having convenient features and good appearance, an aspiring author’s website must do certain things to fulfill its purpose, depending on what phase your career is in.

(Side note: I have a blog where I talk a lot about blogging, I reference some posts on my other blog here.)

The get ready phase: networking with other writers

When you’re in the “get ready” phase, you’re actively writing and seeking out other writers, but at present you’re not ready to submit to agents or editors. Since your career is just starting out, your website may just be starting out, too, though it won’t hurt if you already have a fairly well-developed site.

Before you’re ready for publication, your website can help you find critique partners, talk with other writers about writing, explore your genre with other writers, and make the connections that help smooth the path for your career—or at least make a solitary profession a lot less lonely. This is your time to start building a community of writers.

How can I do this? The easiest way to make your website into a networking tool is to make sure there are plenty of ways other writers can connect with you—and often the easiest way to do that is through engaging blog content and comments.

The get ready phase: find your niche

While you’re preparing for publication, it’s also a good time to get your web presence ready—especially to find the niche where you’ll fit in the blogging and publishing (and publogging?) worlds.

How do I do this? To find your blog/site niche, ask yourself why you’re blogging and what you’ll be blogging about. It needs to be more than just blogging about your book and your career—and at some point, it will probably need to transition to be more than just appealing to other writers, too.

This is almost like a market analysis—using a search engine, look for other sites of authors with similar books/niches. See what they’re blogging about (if anything). See what angle you can add to the discussion, especially if it relates to your books. If you can use your website to show how you and your books will fit on a bookshelf, your site is ready for the next phase.

The get set phase: show you’re professional and marketable

In the “get set” phase, you’re in the process of searching for an agent or editor. (You may also fall in the “get set” phase if you have an agent who’s currently shopping your manuscript.) In this phase, one of your big goals will be to show your target audience (agents and editors) that you’re serious about your writing and your career.

How can I do this? Professional appearance—check out advice from professional website designer Kathleen MacIver of KatieDid Design in the free PDF guide to aspiring author websites.

Also important in professional appearance is the “demeanor” on your website. It’s fine to use casual, laid back text and images—but a website for your career might not be the best place to air out your dirty socks (or any of the rest of your dirty laundry!). Also, be sure to read over (and have others read over) your site for typos, misused words, broken links and images, or anything else that would detract from your appearance.

In this phase, you can still rely heavily on a blog, but it’s a good idea to at least set up a few pages (about, contact, works) with links in the sidebar or create a menu bar to help visitors learn more about you and your writing, and navigate your site.

The get set phase: show off your storytelling

Also in the “get set” phase, and more important in the long run, your website is a place to show off your storytelling abilities. In the end, that’s what’s going to get you an agent, get you sold to a publishing company, and get you sold on the bookshelves.

How can I do this? Showing off your storytelling doesn’t mean that every page and every blog post has to be written as if it were flash fiction. (Unless you want to . . . but that’d probably be weird.) It does mean making sure that you have at least an excerpt of your writing on your site—especially if you’re submitting to agents that don’t ask for or allow sample pages with their queries.

However, do not use your website as the only medium an agent can see your query or sample pages, especially not if they ask for any writing from you. An agent or editor will expect you to email them words (either in the body of the email or as an attachment)—not a link to their website. Never make an agent do more work for your writing when they’re interested. Odds are good that they won’t follow links.

(Side note: if you’re sitting there thinking, “But it’s just one click. Why can’t they do that?”, stop. It’s not just one click. It’s one click per person per item submitted. It’s dozens of clicks per day, minimum, if agents/editors are even interested enough to click on the link anyway. Also some email programs also strip out links.)

What do you think? What must an aspiring author’s website do? What does your website do—and what do you want it to do?

Photo credits: bookshelf by Josh; handshake by ThinkPanama; Click by Jordan McCollum

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