'Every
author knows they should have a website. Not every author is sure what
to put on that site.
Website coding has become much more powerful in the
past few years, allowing tech-heads and designers to do beautiful,
pointless things. Don’t worry if you can’t do any of these things.
Your aim is to let as many people as possible see the information about
your book and, hopefully, buy it. Plan to make your site simple and
elegant so that even readers with old computers/browsers can access your
site.
A good author/book site is more than a static
brochure, though. Online, readers have become accustomed to be being
able to do more than just look at a page. They want to click on
interesting links, sample the product before they buy, find out what
other people are saying about the product. This is why your author’s
website should have a few distinct pages.
Home Page
The first thing to note about your home page is
that it should really reside at YourName.com and/or YourBooksName.com
(both domains can point to the same website). Having your book and
author names registered lends an air of professionalism to your site and
your project.
Registering a name is no longer expensive
(between $10 and $35 for a two-year term) and you can find any
number of hosting companies vying to host your website for very little
money. There are even some free services you can take advantage of,
although it may undermine the sense of professionalism, if your readers
notice that you are hosted on a free service. Good web hosting packages
are available for a few dollars a month and allow you to have your own
site and your own email address (you@yourname.com!).
Your home page should not contain acres of text. It
should contain the essential information and enticing links to other
pages. Allowing your readers to click through satisfies their need for
interactivity.
‘The essentials’ means:
Title
The title of your book should be prominent, large,
and in an easy-to read font. This is more important than replicating the
font and text effects on your cover. Keeping a consistent look is nice,
but not if it makes your title hard to read on the screen.
Cover art
Your book’s cover should be displayed somewhere
fairly prominent. To avoid long download times, make sure you resize the
image. Amazon.com’s images are around 90 x 140 pixels. This is
probably a little small for your main page but may be a good size for a
‘thumbnail’ on the subsequent pages. Remember that most computer
monitors are set at a resolution of only 800 x 600 pixels. This means
you can resize your cover to be 200 pixels wide and still fill a quarter
of most people’s screens. The fewer pixels you include, the faster the
image will download. Don’t worry if all the text is not legible at
these small sizes. You will be reproducing the text in your Title and
Author Name sections.
Author name
This one is kind of obvious, but I had to mention
it. And don’t skimp on the font-size when displaying your name. Even
if you are not a well-known author, you want the browser to remember
your name, don’t you? So make it at least as big and bold as the
title.
Summary
A short summary of the book should go in here. Most
casual browsers will not stop to read more than about three lines of
text, so be brief. Try summing up the themes of your book in one
sentence (see my articles on writing a summary). Don’t worry, you will
get to say more on a different page.
Order Now button
Don’t be shy. You want the reader to buy your
book don’t you? Have a button or link on every page that allows a
browser to buy the book on impulse. Make sure they can complete the
transaction right there and then. If you don’t have credit-card
processing facilities at your site, make sure you provide a link to
somewhere that does. If your book is available through Amazon.com,
Barnesandnoble.com, Chapters.com, WHSmith.com or another
well-established online bookstore, provide a link to that store. In
fact, provide a link to all of them. The aim is to provide a link to as
many places as possible, so that your reader can select the venue with
which they are most comfortable.
One recommendation
You are going to add a whole page of testimonials
later, but the home page should carry one gee-whizz, knock’em dead
recommendation, perhaps even above the title and picture.
If this quote is from an expert in your field, a
best-selling author or a celebrity, great! If you have none of these,
pick a quote from a reader that sounds the best, the one that captures
the essence of your book or shows that the reader ‘got it’. (You
have been keeping a file of feedback, comments and testimonials,
haven’t you?).
Links to other pages on your site
Down one side of your page or, if you prefer at the
top and bottom of your page, provide links to the other pages in your
site. Don’t worry about making pretty graphics for these links, text
works just fine and loads quickly even on the oldest browser.
Excerpts Page
Readers like to take a look at the text before
buying a book. In bookstores they thumb through books, online they read
excerpts. Most readers don’t read more than a few paragraphs online,
but you should give them a lot to choose from. Giving the introduction
and first chapter is a good place to start. Then cut to a scene further
on in the book, perhaps one with a lot of suspense, or one that typifies
your character’s dilemma, or that illustrates the most interesting
thesis of your book.
Some publishers put the whole text of the book
online for readers to browse. They gamble that few people are willing to
read the whole book online, even if it is free, but that being allowed
to browse any part of the book will allow them to become intrigued.
Some authors allow worries about plagiarism or
copyright infringement to stop them putting excerpts online. In this
case, however, the benefits probably outweigh the risks. Readers will
rarely buy a book without reading at least a couple of paragraphs. Yes,
it is easy to copy and paste text from a website, however, if someone
really wants to plagiarize your work, they can do it --- they can retype
the text from your book. Of course, it is easier just to copy and paste
from a website. Ask yourself how realistic is the risk of plagiarism.
Have you registered the copyright? Are you willing to defend it in court
if you find out that someone has abused your copyright?
As long as you have your cover designer's
permission to use the cover art in all reasonable marketing efforts, you
should not worry about putting it online.
Author Bio Page
This page allows you to tell the reader something
about you, the author. As with the cover bio, this should be written in
the third person, although you can add a chatty, first-person
“author’s note” if you like.
If you have written other books, include a
bibliography on this page (with links to somewhere they can buy any of
the titles that are still in print).
For more on writing the bio, see my article
“Inventing The Author”
Testimonials
This is where you get to overwhelm the reader with
quote upon quote upon quote about how great your book is. You should be collecting comments from anyone willing to say
a word or two about your book. Even if none of your reviewers is
well-known, the sheer volume of positive quotes can convince a reader
there must be something in this book…
Upcoming books/projects
If you have another book coming up, devote a page
to building buzz about it now. If not another book, perhaps you have
another project that would interest readers.
If you do have another project, keep the content on
this page changing, to encourage people to come back. Create an online
journal that you update regularly to let people know how you're getting
on with the new project.
Other Services
If you offer other services, why not tell people
about it? Are you available to talk at meetings? Do you write columns
and articles? Provide contact information, examples and an invitation to
contact you.
Press room
This is an area, like your press kit, for members
of the media who might like to write about your book. If they cannot
catch you on the phone, and are working on deadline, journalists may
turn to your website to find the information they need. Make it easy for
them. Include your standard press release and author bio, along with
links to high-resolution pictures of your cover, and yourself.
Displaying a high-resolution picture on the front page would be
wasteful, but journalists may need high-res pictures in order to print.
Don’t make them wait until they can get hold of you to ask for a
‘glossy’. The Press Room should also contain contact information for
the author or author's PR agent, along with links to the pages
containing testimonials and excerpts.
Fun Stuff/Extras
If your book lends itself to a quiz, put a
quiz online. If you, or a friend, have the necessary technical skills to
make this a truly interactive quiz, great! Otherwise, a list of
questions and multiple-choice answers (think: Cosmo quiz) can provide
some fun. If your book doesn’t lend itself to this kind of thing,
perhaps you can provide a list of resources, or other sites that people
interested in your book may find interesting. This way you are giving
your readers something useful in return for their time.
You are unlikely to need a chat room or message
board unless you are working hard to build a community. If you do want
to do an online chat, you can find an established venue to host it.
The most important thing your site should do is
hook your readers and make them want to buy a copy of the book for
themselves, and later, for all their friends.
Examples of good author sites:
http://www.booksbybyers.com/
http://www.wiseowlbooks.com
***
If
you have any questions about getting published, email me at jd@jdwrite.com. If
I don't know the answer, I'll find someone who does!
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