Help Please! Building an author's website

[Carol Rose]

I'm going to appeal to your wisdom once more, Carol. Do you think a Twitter following is sufficient as an online presence, while I fight my way through the slush pile?

My plan is to begin building a website and marketing when I get a literary agent, and the book release is then presumably a year or two off.

I've always been told I need a website because it's my readers' landing page, so to speak. On there, they can find links to everything else. So yes, build one and maintain it.

As for an online presence, I wish I had a definitive answer. It seems to be the new trend among agents and some publishers that they want a potential author to have a following, and they take that into account when making a decision. Not all do this, but some I'm told do. I suspect they want to make sure an author will be able to market him/herself and the book to an extent. So much of what we all do is online now. I used to think a following meant more if the author wrote non-fiction, but that doesn't seem to be the case any longer.

Facebook and Twitter seem to be the big two right now. I know some authors who also have Tumblr, Tsu, and other social media accounts, but right now they say Facebook and Twitter are the ones they interact with the most. There's some benefit to Google+, but honestly I don't use it as much as I should. I've found it's mostly authors pimping to other authors. I've also never given my Twitter account much effort, to be honest. 140 characters isn't enough for me. LOL! Most of my Facebook posts are the length of a small chapter. I do most of my interaction on Facebook, and I keep my website current with something new every day.

 

[Nicole Wilson]

From what I've heard, social media is nearing "must have" state. I'm not sure if they're specific on which social media they want you to have, but they are looking for a couple thousand followers (ugh) because they want you to have a fan base already built to market your book to.

I don't know if websites are a must, but it definitely is a big plus in the eye of agents. Even if you don't have books to put up, you can do blog posts, info about your WIPs, something so that it's fresh every week or so.

 

[Carol Rose]

When people first started telling me that, Nicole, I was like WHY???? But then I remembered how old I am, and how every generation after mine has literally grown up with the Internet. Now, I'm online just as much if not more than my 24 year old daughter, a fact I can prove when I analyze the data usage per month for devices on our wireless carrier plan. LOL!!

 

[Nicole Wilson]

When people first started telling me that, Nicole, I was like WHY???? But then I remembered how old I am, and how every generation after mine has literally grown up with the Internet. Now, I'm online just as much if not more than my 24 year old daughter, a fact I can prove when I analyze the data usage per month for devices on our wireless carrier plan. LOL!!

I love it, for the most part. I'm only up to a couple hundred likes on Facebook and haven't cracked on hundred on twitter. I "technically" have a Google+ page, but I have advertised it much nor do I really know how G+ works. I do use Goodreads a lot, but I don't have much of a following. That, and LinkedIn, are the only social medias I have. I've never used Instagram, Pinterest, tumblr, etc. So I'm not sure how much my social media presence will impress agents.

But I work in IT and love doing web design, so building my website and keeping it up to date was and is a lot of fun. Though it and my social media are a bit distracting and an excuse for me not to write sometimes.

 

[Carol Rose]

*ears perk up* You work in IT??? That's good to know. What I understand about computers and web design could fit inside a thimble. LOL!

 

[Nicole Wilson]

*ears perk up* You work in IT??? That's good to know. What I understand about computers and web design could fit inside a thimble. LOL!

I do work in IT and I love it. New technology and applications are so much fun for me to learn.

 

[Jason Byrne]

I've always been told I need a website because it's my readers' landing page, so to speak. On there, they can find links to everything else. So yes, build one and maintain it.

As for an online presence, I wish I had a definitive answer. It seems to be the new trend among agents and some publishers that they want a potential author to have a following, and they take that into account when making a decision. Not all do this, but some I'm told do. I suspect they want to make sure an author will be able to market him/herself and the book to an extent. So much of what we all do is online now. I used to think a following meant more if the author wrote non-fiction, but that doesn't seem to be the case any longer.

Facebook and Twitter seem to be the big two right now. I know some authors who also have Tumblr, Tsu, and other social media accounts, but right now they say Facebook and Twitter are the ones they interact with the most. There's some benefit to Google+, but honestly I don't use it as much as I should. I've found it's mostly authors pimping to other authors. I've also never given my Twitter account much effort, to be honest. 140 characters isn't enough for me. LOL! Most of my Facebook posts are the length of a small chapter. I do most of my interaction on Facebook, and I keep my website current with something new every day.

From what I've heard, social media is nearing "must have" state. I'm not sure if they're specific on which social media they want you to have, but they are looking for a couple thousand followers (ugh) because they want you to have a fan base already built to market your book to.

I don't know if websites are a must, but it definitely is a big plus in the eye of agents. Even if you don't have books to put up, you can do blog posts, info about your WIPs, something so that it's fresh every week or so.

I love it, for the most part. I'm only up to a couple hundred likes on Facebook and haven't cracked on hundred on twitter. I "technically" have a Google+ page, but I have advertised it much nor do I really know how G+ works. I do use Goodreads a lot, but I don't have much of a following. That, and LinkedIn, are the only social medias I have. I've never used Instagram, Pinterest, tumblr, etc. So I'm not sure how much my social media presence will impress agents.

But I work in IT and love doing web design, so building my website and keeping it up to date was and is a lot of fun. Though it and my social media are a bit distracting and an excuse for me not to write sometimes.

I do work in IT and I love it. New technology and applications are so much fun for me to learn.

I have...thirty-eight Twitter followers. I'm getting there! I wondered if they dealt more in thousands than dozens. I also have a Google+, but use it as a log-in for Youtube and such.

My web background is in Photoshop, Flash, AfterEffects, etc. so if you know JavaScript Nicole, along with Carol's considerable literary success we're building quite the A Team.

 

[Brian Clegg]

Jason, I think you're being sensible. Although I would see if you can get your hands on some variant of Jason Byrne as a URL as soon as you can. You can try the odd endings (I had to go for brianclegg.net).

A blog isn't a bad thing to do as well as Twitter, if you can build a following for that. But the author website seems rather sad when there are no published books. Once there are, I think it's essential, particularly because, to be honest, most publishers' websites are terrible.

 

[Jason Byrne]

Jason, I think you're being sensible. Although I would see if you can get your hands on some variant of Jason Byrne as a URL as soon as you can. You can try the odd endings (I had to go for brianclegg.net).

A blog isn't a bad thing to do as well as Twitter, if you can build a following for that. But the author website seems rather sad when there are no published books. Once there are, I hink it's essential, particularly because, to be honest, most publishers' websites are terrible.

That makes sense. Thanks very much Brian; I appreciate your advice. I'll have to begin looking into good platforms for a blog. And something meaningful to say.

 

[Carol Rose]

My web background is in Photoshop, Flash, AfterEffects, etc.

*makes note to pick Nicole's and Jason's brains in future*

That sound so diabolical! *insert evil laugh here*

 

[Jason Byrne]

*makes note to pick Nicole's and Jason's brains in future*

That sound so diabolical! *insert evil laugh here*

Brain readily and happily available for picking!

 

[Nicole Wilson]

I have...thirty-eight Twitter followers. I'm getting there! I wondered if they dealt more in thousands than dozens. I also have a Google+, but use it as a log-in for Youtube and such.

My web background is in Photoshop, Flash, AfterEffects, etc. so if you know JavaScript Nicole, along with Carol's considerable literary success we're building quite the A Team.

Ha! I hate coding actually :| BUT I can do HTML! And I have been incredibly successful at making WordPress bend to my will without any code or child themes.

That makes sense. Thanks very much Brian; I appreciate your advice. I'll have to begin looking into good platforms for a blog. And something meaningful to say.

I also suggest you get that URL now, even if you don't build the site until later. URLs only cost maybe $15 a year, depending on who you go with. (1and1 has worked great for me.) I DO NOT recommend those free hosting platforms if don't use a site builder like WordPress.com or Wix. If you are planning to host your own site (I may be going too much into IT-speak, so let me know if I need to explain something), use a paid service like Bluehost. They dont cost much either, plus you get support and much better quality service (I.e. your site doesn't go down for "maintenance" as often).

*makes note to pick Nicole's and Jason's brains in future*

That sound so diabolical! *insert evil laugh here*

Pick away! I love this stuff

 

[Monique GOLAY]

zgloops

 

[Karen Gray]

I'm in the middle of building my site, I think It's grown way bigger than I meant it to be haha! But I like to share content, snippets of the books that are complete, past short stories and poems etc and other things as well as contact info. You can get a pretty good wee site from Wix which is what I have until I get thistlesandroses finished.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I use Wordpress for my blog, which I prefer the look of to Blogger or any of the other free blogging sites. Wordpress has lots of features and allows you to tailor its appearance in many ways. It almost has too many features, at least for my techno-addled brain, and I sometimes find myself looking for solutions on how to do things through Google. This isn't because the Wordpress Help pages are lacking, but it's sometimes easier to get assistance from a third party whose had the same problems as you - and not from someone who already knows how to do it and who talks in gobbledygook.
It's important to remember that it isn't essential that you have a separate author website and blog. What with all of the other social media stuff we're advised to do these days, with Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr, FaceBook and making posts on forums, why make things even more complicated and time-consuming?
It's easy to make your blog site more of a static website, on which you post blog entries : http://www.2planawebsite.com/basics/blog-or-website.html

 

[Carol Rose]

I've used Blogger for five years now and really love it. No problems at all, and now that they've expanded the number of pages you can make, I have plenty of room for everything. It all depends on what each person likes the look of, and how easy they find the platform to use. Since so many are free, you could even play around with a few until you find one you really like.

 

[Brian Clegg]

I've used both Blogger and Wordpress, and have dropped Wordpress in favour of Blogger. Although Wordpress is far more powerful, Blogger is quicker to use and can look perfectly reasonable. My book review blog www.popularscience.co.uk is on Blogger*, and I think does the job well. The main reason I switched from Wordpress is that they kept updating the software, which was messy to do if you were hosting the site yourself, as I was, and it made more and more demands on the server, so it kept having problems. Plus once the database got totally screwed up and I had to restore the whole thing. I've never had any problems like that with Blogger.

* For obscure historical reasons the home page isn't Blogger, but ignore that!

 

[Monique GOLAY]

Hi Monique, yes Carol Rose is my real name. Agent Pete was kind enough to let me change my user name back to the one I used on the old Litopia site. Less confusing for me.

I'm not sure I'm qualified to help anyone with their website. I responded to Jason's question about his online presence, and honestly I don't feel qualified to advise anyone on that either. All I can do is let people know what has worked for me so far. I was able to find the links to your books easily enough on your site, if that helps. I'm hoping other Litopians will chime in here and give you advice on what to possibly change or not. Thanks for asking, though.

Dear Carol,
I Wonder if you mind deleting the reference to my internet site with monsite.com as I have a confidentiality issue . . . thanks!!! Mo

 

[Damian North]

I had great fun building a website with Wix.com
Have used Wordpress before but found it very complicated and once designed - it became very boring.
With Wix you have 1000's of template to play around with for free. You can save as you go along etc... cut pasting etc... very straight forwards.
Kids in my school use it for fun too - Wix allows you to publish your website for free. But, if you want a proper domain name etc... they charge a reasonable hosting and server fee.
Worked for me.
I'm happy with my website, can add and delete at will. Great fun - I used the bank templates they have.
Good luck building it .