Personal Websites?

I can't say for sure but I notice a reasonable number of hits. My main thought is that of a reader likes one of my books the website might help them find my other work at other publishers.

http://www.veinglory.com

I think it's very useful to have a website presence. Check mine (hit the link in the signature)...it's one I've set up with my brother, which means we're exposing different groups of readers to each other's books. Since my first has yet to hit the shelves, it's all one way traffic at the moment though! Also, get a forum up and running....they're very cheap and very easy to set up. A forum, particularly one that is seen to be regularly visited by the author, is a big pull to 'customers'....it gives them a chance to actually say they've 'talked' with a real live writer.

A good-looking website with some mutual links is probably the most useful single act of marketing you can do.

More pressingly, it gives you complete control over the first port of call for anyone looking for information on your or your work.

Some of the small publishers do use the internet to search for publishable new authors. After you get published, the website is of little help because it will be visited mostly by people who like your writing already. The amount of new fans attracted through a website is too small to bring a noticeable increase in the sales of your books.

I do think it helps sell books. We have our website set up so that people can read a sample (the first chapter) of any of our books, read reviews they've gotten from publications/websites and see the awards they've won. In addition, a page provides links to every webseller that we can find all over the world, because you never know where someone might be located. In a world of many time zones, having a place where people can sample your book at 2:00 in the morning after seeing a review in a German magazine (for example), is invaluable.

Right now, we get about 1,500 hits a month, and about 80% is new traffic. I know that a lot of writers are more interested in repeat traffic, but I don't know whether or how much it happens in the real world. I think it's sort of like blogging. You either go back again and again to the same site, or you don't. But either way, it's there. Without a website, it WOULDN'T be there.

JMHO!

I won't open a website until I've published a novel. I don't think sales of articles and short stories count until then.

I've also read that if you post unsold work on your website, it's considered published. I don't know how true that is, but it would mean anything sold to a publisher would be second rights.

It certainly doesn't make sense to post, for free, something you are trying to sell to a publisher. However if you have stories whose rights have reverted to you posting them is very helpful to people trying to decide whether they want to buy your work. Posting short stories and serial also helps get those retrun visitors who can become the best sort of loyal customer (one who buys each new release).

I do see some sales coming off my blog and I know that people surf from my webpage to my publisher's site although I cannot track whether they buy. I think it can help if you use more interactive peatures like forums, egroups, guestbooks and network with other writers and publishers in the same genre (reciprocal links etc).

Cathy C said:

I do think it helps sell books. We have our website set up so that people can read a sample (the first chapter) of any of our books, read reviews they've gotten from publications/websites and see the awards they've won. In addition, a page provides links to every webseller that we can find all over the world, because you never know where someone might be located. In a world of many time zones, having a place where people can sample your book at 2:00 in the morning after seeing a review in a German magazine (for example), is invaluable.

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It's hard for me to add anything to this informative reply, but here's my two cents:

No, you don't NEED to have a website to promote your book. Authors did just fine without having websites for a couple of centuries. But think of a book website like a page in a catalog. Someone looking for a book or information that particular subject would turn to that page and expect to see a picture, a synopsis, a price, ordering information, and maybe some reviews. The web allows you to easily do this.

The webpage also lets people looking for that subject matter (or story or whatever) know that a book exists and where they can find it. In some cases, it could be easier to search for a particular kind of book on google than in amazon. Besides, information on your subject could be covered for free elsewhere on the web, whereas your book might have more complete information than what's available for free on a website that may or may not be accurate.

I don't honestly know how "successful" my own site is. I never get any orders from it--well, I did once just recently--and I have links to their pages on amazon. A lot of readers (I've heard) are more comfortable buying from amazon versus the author. And that's fine with me. At least the information about the book is on the page, provided and controlled by me, changeable anytime I feel like it.

If you can offer anything related (or not related) to your book for free, by all means put it on there, especially information, like "how-tos" and other stuff. It can't hurt.

As far as a "personal" site goes, the personal stuff needs to be kept separate from the book site. I have a couple different non-book related pages linked off my main page. In other words, you don't want pictures of your vacation and kids on your main book page. Looks tacky.

Hope this helps,

allen

While querying on my first novel and working on my second, I built a blog (link below) which gets about 1,600 page loads per month. I post newly written short fiction, poetry, photography, etc. Yes, it does take away some of my creative energies, but I believe building some name recognition and getting some folks interested in your writing will pay off later. Also, it has given me a powerful education in what people respond to and like to read.

Every author needs a website, published or not.

blackbird said:

Now, granted, I'm not talking about the biggie names, or even midlist writers who have some publishing credits under their belt, but simply about those who have not published anything, and yet promote themselves via websites. I know this is just my opinion, and one I'll probably get flamed for, but it's just always struck me as seeming a bit amateurish.

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How much difference can it make? A little. It's somewhere you can refer people if they want to see what you're about. And although agents and publishers don't have time to go looking for new talent, if your query letter contains a web address, it's likely they'll check it out.

I think the biggest difference it can make is to the author themselves; it's not amateurish, blackbird (unless the site is badly done), quite the opposite. It's the author now telling the world they are a professional writer, like in any other business you'd get business cards and letterheads printed before you started doing business.

Agreed. A Web site is essentially a media business card and resume. Coming from a professional Web background [among other past lives], I see having a Web site as an obvious addition to your set of promotional materials. Just make sure it's a clean, easy to navigate site. And be sure to copy edit everything posted there.

This subject/topic arises periodically. Some good, additional commentary can be found here:

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?p=293292#post293292

at the Book Marketing and Promotion forum. Some of the posters in this forum have also posted in that forum.

ATP

JA Konrath said:

Every author needs a website, published or not.

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Would you please expand on that thought? If there's nothing else to it, then it's not really very helpful, but I'm thinking (optimist that I am) you must have had a good reason to have said it - would you mind sharing?

Carmy said:

I've also read that if you post unsold work on your website, it's considered published. I don't know how true that is, but it would mean anything sold to a publisher would be second rights.

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An answer to this question would be very helpful, as I am new to novel writing, being only at the outline stage of writing.

More generally, I would be interested to learn what the status is of original writing put up on a personal website. I've seen some websites by writers on which it states that they have taken out a copyright on the material they put on it. What difference does that make, what are the pros and cons of doing/not doing that for someone who wants to write a novel for the first time?

I've also realised that material can be loaded onto a website in a format that can't be copied/pasted, as I have come across some pdf files like that. Is this an alternative to protecting original unpublished writing?

A related question is what if the writing is in draft form that is later revised? Does the revised version that is then not put on the website count as "original"?

One more question: if access to the website is password-protected, so it can only be read by anyone given the password. Would this make a difference?

Its questions like these that have held me back from starting my own website.

Jimk said:

An answer to this question would be very helpful, as I am new to novel writing, being only at the outline stage of writing.

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This most generally applies to the short story market, although the same would apply if you posted a complete novel, or significant portions of it.

Editors don't want second hand goods. Why should they pay you for a story that's already freely available to all? Once you post short stories in any publicly viewable area, an editor will consider them published. Some writers don't mind this; I know of one who writes novels, and posts his shorts as tasters, just for fun. Others will only post on their website once the stories have been sold elsewhere. Another option is the creative commons license, where you grant certain rights to readers, ie they may post your stories elsewhere as long as not for profit, intact and credited to you. The poet Rebecca del Rio has done this with a selection of her poems, available for general distribution as an e-book on www.rebeccadelrio.net.

As far as novels are concerned, dozens if not hundreds of authors, published and unpublished, post sample chapters. This will not upset agents or publishers; if you're unpublished, it shows a pro-active stance in building readership and gaining interest. If you're published, it's just another way of marketing your book.

I've also realised that material can be loaded onto a website in a format that can't be copied/pasted, as I have come across some pdf files like that. Is this an alternative to protecting original unpublished writing?

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No. If you post work on a website (or, for that matter, print it, photocopy it, scrawl it on the back of an envelope) it can be copied. Stopping people cutting and pasting will slow them down for about 20 seconds, as will PDF. And if someone wants to plagiarise you, they will, even if they have to retype it word for word. That is, however, a very rare occurrence.

A related question is what if the writing is in draft form that is later revised? Does the revised version that is then not put on the website count as "original"?

A grey area with shorts, but in all honesty, would you want to promote yourself with second best? Only put work on your site if you're proud of it. If it's unfinished, keep it to yourself.

One more question: if access to the website is password-protected, so it can only be read by anyone given the password. Would this make a difference?

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Totally, otherwise nobody would ever join an online critique group. If it's password protected, it's not available for general viewing. It is, essentially, unpublished.

Its questions like these that have held me back from starting my own website.

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So, when are you going to start?

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I have a few questions, if I may, about websites....

I used to have a Freewebs site for my PA book. It had quite a few hits on it, but I took it down because it was so overly PA-oriented, and there was no way to salvage it from that.

Reading this thread makes me wonder, though: should I put up a site again, and if so, what should it contain? Should the PA book be there, and should I maybe start a blog there, also? (What is a blog, anyway?)

Finally, should the site be a free site or a paid-for one? Also, does anyone have suggestions as to a good hosting company that has an easy approach to setting it up?


I look forward to reading your answers, and I thank you all in advance for them.

Dawno said:

Would you please expand on that thought? If there's nothing else to it, then it's not really very helpful, but I'm thinking (optimist that I am) you must have had a good reason to have said it - would you mind sharing?

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If you Google how many people currently have Internet access, the numbers range between 800 million and a billion. About 1/3 of these are folks who speak English, but that isn't even a factor anymore because translation software is becoming more and more common.

People surf the web for information, for communication, for recreation, and for commerce.

An author website lets you cater to all of the above, cheaply, 24 hours a day.

For professional writers, a website is an effective tool to help establish a brand. It allows for correspondence with fans, important information about appearances and releases, freebies that keep people entertained and coming back, and sales opportunities.

For newbie writers, it shows that they are taking their profession seriously, by investing time and money in their future. It can be a showcase for their writing, a way to garner a fanbase prior to publication, and on occassion has been helplful in landing an agent or a book deal. If your website gets a lot of hits or downloads (thousands a week), that's important to mention in your query letter. Publishers are looking for new authors with platforms, and a large Internet presence is helpful.

The best web pages, the ones that keep people coming back, are more than just ads. They focus on what they have to offer, rather than what they have to sell.

You'll need three things to get started:

1. A domain name, which you can buy at domain name registrars like namesdirect.com, godaddy.com, and allwhois.com.
2. A domain host. Many of the above also offer hosting services. Some ISPs also have free hosting, and authorsguild.com has a good deal for pros.
3. A web design program like Frontpage or Dreamweaver, or a web designer.

Good websites are easy to navigate, pleasant to view, and consistent on different browsers and at different screen resolutions. But the most important aspect of any site is content.

Naturally, you'll need info about you and your writing. But to make your site sticky (as in, people stick around for a while), there are many other things you can add:

• Offer free stuff. Stories, excerpts, writing tips, downloads, games, etc. Update these often, to keep people coming back.
• Hold a contest.
• Host a message board.
• Start a blog.
• Add content on a weekly basis. Even if it's just a new tip or a new appearance. Change is what brings people back.
• Sell stuff.
• Have a links page, and reciprocate with peers.
• Don't link to Amazon or BN.com. Indie bookstores hate that, and many will hold it against you. I’d suggest linking to www.booksense.com instead.
• Offer press materials on your site. A downloadable press release, pic, bio, background, etc.
• Have a newsletter folks can sign up for.
• List reviews and blurbs.

Once you have a site, make yourself a presence on the internet. Join newsgroups, chat rooms, other author's message boards. Join writing organizations (SFWA, ITW, HWA, MWA, RWA, etc). Add your website to your email signature.

DON'T pay for advertising. How often do you click on banners? Neither does anyone else. Pay-per-click search engines and web-rings are a waste of time in my opinion.

Pass out business cards with your website on it to everyone. I include cards in all mail I send out (letters, bills, payments). I pass them out to people I meet. I have my URL on every piece of promo material I hand out (flyers, event announcements, etc).

I suggest doing the site yourself, if you can. It's much cheaper, and easier to tweak and update. There are also many free site trackers available, to tell you who is surfing your site, where they came from, where they live, etc.

I'm a nobody, and I get about a thousand unique hits a week on www.JAKonrath.com. Many are from outside the USA. Through my website, I get about ten people a week who sign up for my newsletter. I had hundreds of entries in my last contest.

Internet traffic, much like a writing career, builds exponentially. The longer you last, the more you sell. First a few people will link to you. Then a few more. Then the next thing you know, you visit www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/ and you've got 5000 websites linking to you, sending you traffic. Free, 24 hour traffic.

Should you post your unpublished stories? I do. Don't worry about first rights. I've later sold many things that I once had for free on my website---just make sure you take down the piece before you start submitting it. It's unlikely an editor buying one of your stories or articles will care that it appeared on your website, and even if they did care, it's unlikely they'll ever know about it unless you tell them, and why would you?

Something appearing in print that you are paid for is a much different animal than something appearing for free on your homepage for a brief amount of time. Many other folks disagree with me, which is fine. I welcome the debate. But don't let the holier-than-thous stop you from showcasing your work online by making you fear you'll never be able to sell it later.

If you want to be a writer, treat yourself like a writer. Writers need to have business cards, fax machines, and websites. You can get them when you make your first sale, or you can get them earlier, in preparation for that first sale.

Thousands of hits is irrelevant - visitors (and more pressingly, unique visitors) are the important metric for reading your page's popularity.

Richard said:

Thousands of hits is irrelevant - visitors (and more pressingly, unique visitors) are the important metric for reading your page's popularity.

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Unique hits = unique visitors. I'm not talking about pageloads, or people who come back multiple times---the numbers are much higher in those cases.

Unique hits = unique visitors

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No, you're confusing two things. Hits are totted up for every piece of your site that gets accessed. Using them as a metric is like rating your popularity by counting footprints instead of keeping track of numbers at the gate. Almost any web statistics programs will show you both, but hits are utterly irrelevant these days. Visits caters for individual visitors, with the program also listing the number of uniques (based on IP address), and those are the important numbers.

On that note:

If you Google science fiction bookstores your number one hit is my webpage. You'll find a list of science fiction bookstores, and also an (I hope tasteful) arrangement of many of my book covers, with links to buying them.

If you wander around my site you'll find first chapters from darned-near every one of my novels, plus reviews, public-domain fiction, and other good stuff. There is a message board.

In the same way, if you Google on learn writing my thread here is on the first screen shown: right now it's #3, you'll often find it as #1. All my posts have links to a workshop I help teach (folks who want to learn writing may want that) and that workshop's page has links to my books.

The way to get visitors is to provide value.

Richard said:

Hits are totted up for every piece of your site that gets accessed. Using them as a metric is like rating your popularity by counting footprints instead of keeping track of numbers at the gate.

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Traffic is traffic. It's all good.

Richard said:

No, you're confusing two things. Hits are totted up for every piece of your site that gets accessed. Using them as a metric is like rating your popularity by counting footprints instead of keeping track of numbers at the gate. Almost any web statistics programs will show you both, but hits are utterly irrelevant these days. Visits caters for individual visitors, with the program also listing the number of uniques (based on IP address), and those are the important numbers.

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I get what you're saying.

I'll rephrase. My website averages a thousand unique visitors a week.