10 Website Tips for Authors Seeking Clicks & Sales

 

1.      Your website must be easy to find. The name of it should not be long. It should be easy to say and spell. You can have a few different domains that lead to the same site - one with your name or your name plus “author” or “writer” attached to it, such as Jane Doe Writer or Bob black Author. If you have a book series, use that name as your site’s domain name. Or, use the name of an individual book. Or something that reflects how people search for things. For instance, if your book is a spy thriller, you could name your site www.spythrillerbook.com, since people may search for “spy thrillers.” Maybe people, search for “great spy thrillers,” so capitalize on it and name your site as close as you can to that search term.

2.             Ensure that your site is easy to use and navigate. This means have a tool bar that reflects what is and should be on your site. The tool bar headlines should make sense. Most author websites need these on their tool bar: 

 

Home - landing page of the site

About or Bio - a biography and a photo of yourself

Book(s) - about your book, purchase links, book excerpts, reviews, and testimonials

Contact - include your social media handles and a grid for messages 

Events - list of past and upcoming appearances/ presentations 

Media - list links shared of news media coverage 

Blog or podcast or newsletter—your access to your own blog, podcast, or newsletter 

3.                  Your site must have plenty of margin space, a readable typeface (avoid italics, all CAPS), a default font of 12-point and 20-point of bigger size for headlines. It cannot be cluttered and it may benefit from breaking the width of the screen into a few columns. People don’t want to have to read chunky clunks of text - break it up into fewer, smaller paragraphs. Use bullet points and insert images to break up a screen of words.

4.                  Your site has to be mobile-friendly and also look right on a desktop/laptop. Don’t ignore that.

5.                  Keep it fresh. Always update it, revise the look, and don’t let things age poorly. Your last blog post should not be dated from four months ago. An event that is listed as happening in the future, but that took place already, should be listed in the past tense. 

6.                  Avoid hype or lies. People can see through that.

7.                  Make sure it is not littered with factual errors, bad spellings, or buttons that click to nowhere. It has to look right and function properly. 

8.                  Think about what your site seeks to convey. To set the right tone and message that you seek to share, look at things like your: 

 

·         Website design

·         Writing tone

·         Information clarity

·         Readability

·         Color schemes

·         Number/ types of images used

9.                  Give something away, both to lead to people into signing up for your mailing list and for the content to inspire people to want to read more. This giveaway is used to capture people’s names but it can also serve as an audition for newcomers to see what a good writer you are. 

10.               Lastly, have content, like a blog, on your site, so that you can share links to it on your social media. You want a site that gets clicks, and the best way to invite visitors is to share things that others can click on and connect them to your site.

What Makes For A Really Good Book?

What I have always enjoyed about a good, well-written novel is that through the art of fiction, pure truths about the world or the human condition are shared, insightfully and powerfully. The plot, setting, and character development — though collectively important to a book’s appeal — are all a distant second to a writer’s ability to capture something that resonates so purely and authentically with the reader. It is the silent parts of our lives, the thoughts and feelings that we often ball up inside of us, that feel heard and validated when someone else states exactly how we see things. It is in the reading, and often re-reading, of these flashes of agreed-upon reality that we feel understood, accepted, and most importantly, are no longer alone.

Do You Need Book Marketing Help?

Brian Feinblum can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors like you to promote your story, sell your book, and grow your brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator! 

 

About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over 10.5 million page views. With 5,700+ posts over the past 15 years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2026, 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.”  Copyright 2026.

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully) and (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/10-things-my-dog-taught-me-about-marketing-books). He was recently interviewed by the IBPA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0BhO9m8jbs

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, three times at BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association, Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, five times at Morgan James Publishing Red Carpet, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

 

You can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/ or https://www.facebook.com/brian.feinblum