Start Your Author Website Already!

Author websites are important. You know this. We know this. Luckily most of our authors quickly agree and start setting one up once their book’s design is finalized. However, there are always a few doubters out there. If you are one of the authors who thinks it’s just not worth your time, well, we have an inspiring little story for you. One of our Synergy Books authors, Wendy Kays, wrote a book about dealing with a gaming-addicted loved one, Game Widow. Tolly Moseley, her publicist from Phenix & Phenix, was just starting to pitch the book when a producer from Dr. Phil contacted her about it. Turns out the producer heard about the book and looked it up online to get more info. She found Wendy’s website and saw the press materials that were up with Tolly’s contact info. She gave Tolly a call and the rest is (almost) history. Check out Tolly’s article about it here.

So now that you are thoroughly convinced and have denounced your anti-website ways, how do you get started?

1. When to set it up
The site should be up and running at least six weeks before your publication date. Ideally it would be set up before you start approaching bookstores to set up events (which should be happening months before your pub date). You should aim to at least save a domain (the actual website address) by the time you have a final book title and your book design is in process. Once the book design is final you can start getting the site designed to match the book.

2. What to include
These are pages/sections you should definitely include:
a. Home page – include snippets of endorsements and reviews you’ve received, a brief blurb on book and author, a picture of the book cover and easy-to-see tabs to get to other pages on the site.
b. About the Book – here you can include longer reviews (or have a separate reviews page if you have a lot) as well as a longer book summary.
c. About the Author – your full author bio should go here as well as contact information if you do not have a separate contact page (and you don’t mind people contacting you).
d. Press Room – this is where you will add the final press releases you get from your publicist as well as any links to online reviews, interviews, clips, etc.
e. Event Calendar – if you add an event calendar be sure to fill it up and update it frequently so your viewers can see that you are active and potentially visiting a city near them!
f. Where to buy – you can sell books directly from your site if your publisher allows it. You should also include links to Amazon.com, BN.com and BookSense.com to cover all your bases. If you have an independent bookseller in your area with an online store, include a link to them as well or link to http://www.indiebound.org/.

These are some helpful extras to consider:
a. Sample chapters from your book to give readers a taste.
b. A blog so that you can start connecting with your readers and building a community around your site. (It’s also a great way to get feedback from readers to use in future books.)
c. Background information on your book – This can be on the “about the book” page. You should include any research you did on the book, why you wrote the story in the first place, or any other tidbits that readers might find interesting.
d. Fun stuff (especially for kids’ books) – You can include a teacher’s guide, quizzes, games, trivia, etc.
e. A separate page for booksellers and libraries – This page should include more specific information about the types of events that you do: what themes fit well with your book, how you get people into the store, feedback from event coordinators or librarians from past events, etc. Also be sure to include distributor ordering information (our authors can find this on their sell sheets).
f. Links to radio or tv interviews or other audio/video you can use to promote your book. This is a great way to show your readers what you are like in person and to help build a personal connection. Not to mention the fact that many media outlets require proof that you do well on camera before they will consider you. This knowledge is courtesy of our sister company, Phenix & Phenix, who recently created a viral video package to address this issue. You can read more about why they created it here. (If you are interested, their next shoot date is 10/29/08.)

3. How should you design it?
The best option is always to get a professional designer. They know the ins and outs of good design and can get the site running quickly. If you want to design it yourself be sure to model it after other good sites and be careful to avoid common web design errors.

How to find a good website designer:
a. Find the websites of your favorite authors or authors with books in your genre. If their sites look great, see if you can find out who designed it (usually at the very bottom of the homepage with the copyright info).
b. While you can hire any web designer your best bet will be to go to one who specializes in websites for authors.
c. Scrutinize the website of the web designer. Hopefully it’s beautiful, easy to navigate and practical.
d. Review the example sites of your prospective designer. Be very critical—they only put up the sites they think are their best work. If you see flaws, don’t assume that they’ll do better on your site.
e. Contact any referrals the designer provides to you. Their design skills are important but you’ll need to talk to an actual customer to see how quick, professional and amenable to changesthe designer was.

Resources
The following sites have good tips on what to include and what not include to have a great website:
Remodeling
Blue Tent Marketing (this one has good tips for working with designers as well)
Web 2.0 Design

These sites have visual examples of bad design. Sometimes it’s easier to learn the dos by checking out the don’ts.
123Live
Web Pages That Suck (this one includes a list of the “Biggest Mistakes in Web Design 1995 – 2015”)

Once you’ve set up that beauty of a site don’t forget to let your publishing contact and publicist know (as well as everyone else you can email). We love to help promote it and will want to include it on any relevant materials we send out to distributors or media contacts.