An
author’s website is his or her storefront.
It both tells and sells. It’s
your brand. It’s your foundation for
your books, blog, social media, and marketing materials. Your site anchors your message and
persona. So how will you make sure it is
very good at what it is supposed to do?
Authors
do not have to have flashy, $10,000 websites, but they can’t settle for
bottom-of-the-basement free sites either.
But I’ll leave that up to authors to find a decent hosting platform and
web designer. Let me tell you of the things you should think about, including best practices.
Let’s
start with the core basics.
You will likely have these following
elements on your site:
·
Home
page.
·
About
you.
·
About
your book(s).
·
Blog
and/or newsletter.
·
Contact
information (include social/media handles).
·
Testimonials
(for you/your book/your company).
·
Something
free to sign up for.
·
About
your company/services (if you have one).
·
Media/appearances (past and upcoming).
Your
site should best represent your brand.
The font, typeface, colors, images, sound clips, video, and text combine
to form a picture of who you are.
Your site should be:
·
Easy
to navigate and find things.
·
Able
to answer questions one’s likely to ask.
·
A
tool to sell something.
·
A
place for people to connect with you.
·
Interesting
but not complex.
·
Full of information
but not overwhelming others with it.
·
Better
than competing authors in the same genre.
Your
website should be logical in how it presents you. No one will be standing next to the visitor to
your site to explain what to do or where to go.
It should speak for itself. Say
what you mean and mean what you say. Use
your words judiciously – less is more – but make sure you state what you are
about and explain your unique selling proposition.
If
your site is just as good as anyone’s – or worse – that it is not good
enough. Competition is fierce. Just as you wrote the best possible book, had
it edited professionally, and had a great title and cover picked out, put
together a really good website. It is an
extension of who you are.
Your
website needs to take the user on a journey, one that informs, enlightens,
inspires or entertains. It’s your chance
to really excite people about what you can do for them. People will decide whether to buy your book
or do business with you, based heavily on your website.
Ask yourself these questions about your site
before it goes live:
·
Does
it present a focused, well-articulated brand promise? Is it presented in a compelling way?
·
Do
you offer a consistent voice or message that rallies around a catchy slogan?
·
Do
you present a special or irresistible offer, test sample, or free item?
·
Are
your claims credible, accurate, important, and reasonable?
·
Is
your site SEO optimized to reach your target readership? Does it include popular
keywords?
·
Does
it come off as too salesy – or as a resource?
·
Is
everything spelled correctly and edited properly?
·
Does
it use inviting headlines, bullet point-filled content, and clear calls to
action?
Your
website doesn’t have to be perfect, but it should be pretty good. You can always add to it and modify content but
make your introduction to people a successful one. A good website is just as important as a good
book.
“According to a
report by the International Publishers Association (IPA), the UK publishes more
books per capita than any other country.
The annual output of just under 200,000 new and revised titles is
roughly four times the figure of forty years ago, and works out at around
twenty new books per hour.”
--For the Love of Books Stories of Literary Lives,
Banned Books, Author Feuds, Extraordinary Characters and More by Graham Tarrant
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