How important are author sites?

Yes, it's very essential to promote your book BEFORE it's published. It creates a hype for the book's arrival on shelves. On an agent blog that I read a couple of days ago and was also discussed on the writing novels thread, key to marketing a book is to have a website for that book/author months before it goes on sale.

Here's a pretty good answer.

http://pubrants.blogspot.com/2008/01/new-rules-for-promotion.html

I wouldn't say essential. Many successful authors have no website at all, and I don't know how much the book buying market is driven by authors websites (c.f. those of publishers and distributors.) I would say like many things a good one helps, a bad one hurts.

As a reader I don't care to see any promo until the book is available for sale. If I can't buy it, why tell me about it? I am not really into sitting around gossiping in breathless anticipation about a novel.

Yeah, you should see if you can at least get your domain, lest you find out it belongs to a Capital Management company.

Straka said:

I'd imagine they are good marketing once your are published, but are there any advantages to building one before you have anything published?

Click to expand...

I didn't have one when my novel first came out but I realize now that I should have. It's fairly costly to get a decent site up and running unless you've got the necessary skills - which I don't.
I'm not sure there's much of an advantage before you sell your novel but once you have a contract in hand it would be wise to have a website up and running. Websites are great marketing tools once you have something to market.
Linnea

My book's not out yet, but I have found having a site so helpful. I get e mail from book store owners who have seen the ARCs or librarians who've heard about the book. I never know who is going to pop up and it is so much fun to have a way to connect with potential readers. I would definitely reserve your domain name and I didn't have to spend a ton of money on my site. Actually, I haven't spent a dime yet because I haven't received the bill.

In today's world, an author without a website is like a restaurant with a nonpublished phone number. If you're already a big name, you can do it. If you're new, you need all the connections you can get.

As an example, my web site had put me in front of over 50,000 people before Look Me in the Eye went on sale. Now, five months down the road, the sites serve 25,000+ people a month

So I'd say they are worth having

Essential. My agent asked me to get one going before she sent out submissions. I'm glad I did. It also helped me articulate a developing part of my business, which is to conduct "boot camps." All of my new clients (I found out later) checked out my website to see where I was speaking and to see my tone.

The most essential part, which I plan to add soon, is an automated email/sign up system. I'm doing this manually now at my events but imagine how many people visit my site that I never capture. My in-person gigs have added 100 new "friends" in the last month...I really need to capture these "friends" online and send them the same bulletin I send my paper contacts. People are waiting for the book so for now I send them tidbits of information, news stories, my opinions, etc. I'll let you know how this all works out.

Bottom line - I can't imagine being an author without a website...not an online brochure, but a real marketing tool.

This topic is discussed about once a month, maybe more often, so there are a whole bunch of threads already started about this topic. Try doing a search.