About An Authors WebsiteBefore we even get into how to create an authors website, let's take a look at why you need to have a website. The Internet has over 1 billion users and over 200 million of them have bought books online. Why not provide a means of contacting them? With a website you have worldwide reach, you can help promote and sell your books, become known as an expert in your field, be seen as a profiessional and make a media kit available. Did you know that 98% of traditional media now look for their experts online? That's amazing and you'll want to be able to tap into this trend. Pages Needed on Your Authors WebsiteHome Page: Your home page will generally have a bit of general information about your latest book, a graphic of the cover, a link to an order page, links to your previous books and/or your services.About Your Book: Each book will need a page that provides a summary of the subject matter or plot, page count, publisher, ISBN, publicaton date, price and information on how to order. Excerpts: Book excerpts can entice visitors to buy your book if the excerpts are of interesting material or exciting parts of your novel. Author Bio: Every authors website needs an author bio page. You'll need to tell your visitors a little about yourself. With a novel, you'll probably want to be a bit more personal but with a non-fiction book you'll probably want to focus more on your credentials. Appearances and Signings: If you're doing a lot of appearances and book signings then you might want a page about these. It's extremely important to keep this page updated, however. Your Media Kit: If you want to be interviewed by the media you need a media kit. This can include a cover letter, a press release, interview topics/story ideas, your author bio, book fact sheet, book cover photo and clips of previous interviews and reviews Other pages you will probably want to include but that aren't absolutely necessary: Reviews that have been done on your book. Background information on your books A Table of Contents for non-fiction books A video book trailer if you have one Information on any virtual book tours you may be doing
Keep Your Authors Webiste SimpleWhen creating your authors website you want to keep it simple but have as many pages as necessary. Here are a few ideas so that you can do just that.Your authors website should reflect the type of book you've written. For non-fiction authors and those who want to become known as experts in their field, it's important to have a professional look to your site. Authors of novels can create a site with a theme that fits their genre of book. An author who writes mystery might have a mysterious looking site, while a romance author might have a more romantic look. Experiment with this and have fun. Use ALT tags for your graphics. This is useful if you have visitors who have problems with graphics. It also is helpful for search engine optimization. Create shorter, separate pages rather than long, long pages. It makes it easier for your visitors to enjoy your site. Keep your site uniform looking. Don't have different themes for different pages. If you do it can confuse your visitors. Be aware of color and its significance. Do a Google search on color and its effects and use colors judiciously. Be aware of the color combinations you use as well. Be sure you don't use backgrounds that make it difficult to read your text. It's important to make your site as user friendly as possible and heavily patterned backgrounds will only encourage your visitors to leave quickly. Be aware of the size of your fonts and also how readable they are. Use standard fonts like Ariel or Times New Roman for ease of reading. Use fancy fonts only for a headline or a quote or some small comment. Check your links before you publish your site. Be sure they're all working. Test your site in a variety of browsers. You'll want to be sure it looks good in several. Proofread your site for any typos or spelling or gramatical errors. As an author you're expected to be a good writer. Keep your authors website current. Update your events and book signings or any other area that you can. If a site is dated visitors will leave without a second thought.
Things Every Authors Website NeedsDifferent types of books require different kinds of websites, but any authors website needs the following:Navigation Bars It almost goes without saying that you need a good naviagtion system for your authors website. You want your visitors to be able to navigate your site with ease and comfort. Plan your navigation well. Copyright notice You can often use a footer to provide a copyright notice on every page of your site. It's something you should have. Traffic Statistics Tool You'll want to be able to tell what traffic is visiting your site. If you use Sitesell (the hosting service this site is built on) then you'll have detailed traffic statistics. Most web hosting services have some form of traffic counters. Check out your host to find out about yours. Contact Information You'll want to provide some way for visitors to contact you. You can use a form on your site so that you don't have to publish your email address or you can use a secondary email address for this purpose. If you are a speaker you'll probably want to provide a phone number as well. Graphics We're a very visual society and a website with no graphics often seems plain and uninviting. Strive to use at lease one graphic on each page, even if it's small. Links Most websites provide at least a few links to other sites of interest. Remember to do that for your site as well. Our Authors Website ServicesWe offer a variety of packages to help you get an authors website up and working for you. They include:Our Three-Page Website Includes: Our Six-Page Website Includes: Additional pages: $50.00 each For further information call or email Marg at 780 712-1158 or marg@web-savvy-book-promotion.com
Free Teleclass on Why Every Author Needs a WebsiteMarg offers a free teleclass titled "Why Every Author Needs a Website and How to Create One: An Intro" that you are welcome to participate in.If you'd like further information on it, you can just click here Then scroll down till you see the course. |