Author Websites?

Fiction writers don't need websites in advance. If you want one, there's no harm -- they can be great fun if you're the sort of person who enjoys that kind of thing. But no agent will reject a brilliant manuscript just because the writer doesn't have a website. Similarly, no agent will take on a crappy manuscript just because the writer has a slick website.

So it's entirely up to you whether you want to mess around with a website now. It's not all that relevant to the query process one way or the other.

Most of the publishers I've subbed to say specifically that if you're on submission, you should have a web presence already--because they WILL google you.

So, if an acquiring editor googles my real name, what they will see is a lot of stuff about my photography business. I'm very visible on the web. Great, they can get an idea of who I am and how I work, etc.

That says nothing about my branding as a writer.

They google Vanessa North, and even though I'm not published, www.vanessanorth.com is in the first page of results. It provides links to my blog, to my twitter, etc, everything a cohesive presence and part of my web branding. my twitter, blog, website, etc. all have the same color scheme and background. I have two, and only two, publicity headshots for my branding as an author.

If someone googles me as the author, they will see a single, cohesive image, they'll know that while I am a goofy and irreverent person on twitter--and I realize they will read my tweets--I am serious about my brand and about the image I present as Vanessa North.

You want to control your web presence. You WILL be googled. By the time your first submission hits an editor's desk, you want to know exactly what they will see when they google you.

V,
You may want to change the color of your font on your blog site. The gray is nearly impossible to read against your background. Lisa and I want to follow your blog and hopethat you will follow ours We also write fantasy romance. http://www.lisaforest.blogspot.com

shiler said:

V,
You may want to change the color of your font on your blog site. The gray is nearly impossible to read against your background. Lisa and I want to follow your blog and hopethat you will follow ours We also write fantasy romance. http://www.lisaforest.blogspot.com

Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll follow you! Are the white boxes behind the text not showing up?

All signs these days points towards people with an existing platform being favourably looked at. If you have a site, and Blog, and have some followers then it will paint you in a good light i feel.

If i was an agent i'd see you as someone who is easier to sell than someone with no site, no followers etc

From what i hear, authors, even published ones have to sell themselves these days. The sooner you start the better. Just my opinion of course

Matt (Turndog Millionaire)

VanessaNorth said:

Thanks, I'll follow you! Are the white boxes behind the text not showing up?

Click to expand...

The text in the about section in the sidebar of your blog is hard to read. Try changing the font--easy solution.

Turndog-Millionaire said:

All signs these days points towards people with an existing platform being favourably looked at. If you have a site, and Blog, and have some followers then it will paint you in a good light i feel.

If i was an agent i'd see you as someone who is easier to sell than someone with no site, no followers etc

From what i hear, authors, even published ones have to sell themselves these days. The sooner you start the better. Just my opinion of course

Matt (Turndog Millionaire)

Click to expand...

I kind of agree, but it also seems like a web-presence would be more important to a small press, right? Although you still have to market yourself, it seems like (I have no personal experience, just a "seems like") the Big Six and other large houses will do a good amount of the marketing themselves, so a web-presence isn't as vital. Also, since I'm associating agents with selling to big houses, there's a pretty large gap in between sale and release for the big houses, so there's plenty of time to build a web-presence.

I think a web-presence definitely has an affect with small presses, but I agree with Terie in that I don't think it matters either way to an agent. There really is a lot of time to build it up.

It doesn't matter how professional your website is, or how cleanly-branded your online presence; if your book isn't good enough you'll not get signed.

Similarly, if your book is bloody brilliant then agents and publishers won't care if you've not got a website. They'll just want to sign your book.

If you're not a natural blogger (and many people aren't) then a lacklustre blog will do you more harm than good. You're better off without one if you don't have the time, inclination or talent to produce a good one.

If you're unpublished then a website describing you as an author looks plain silly. Especially if you try to sell your books on it. That's embarrassing.

And as the original poster says that her first novel isn't yet complete, then she has nothing to submit yet, and nothing to try to sell. She needs to put all her efforts into finishing that first novel and revising it as well as she can, and then to concentrate on learning about how publishing works, before she worries about her web presence. Far too much emphasis is placed on platform and not enough on the quality of writing. All the platform in the world isn't going to help you get published if you've written a bad book, or just half of a good one.

What you might want to try is something like Twitter. It's quick to set up, and will give you a feel for the whole networking thing without needing to write lengthy blog posts or create content for a website.

There's also a lot of useful stuff there for unpublished authors, as people tweet writing links, agents answer industry questions sometimes and so on.

I can't speak for anyone else, but my experience is, fiction should sell itself if you're unpublished. I didn't have a website before my book was accepted, but created one shortly thereafter, the goal being promotion. If you're interested... www.kenpelham.com

Nonfiction is probably different. Publishers of nonfiction want a "platformed" author, one with a face in the subject he or she is writing about, so a polished website can only help with getting a publisher's interest.