What should a new author's website provide?

Claudia Gray · Jan 2, 2008

I'm about to begin the (long-overdue) process of putting together copy for my website. I want to get it online during February, so I'll have it available in the four months leading up to Evernight's launch. I already have a very good designer on the case, but obviously she can only do so much before I get her the copy.

I've gone around and looked at my favorite authors' websites and gotten many good hints, but I'm still curious about content. You see, my favorite authors have lots of books out there and can publish multiple synopses, plenty of reviews, FAQs, etc. I can provide only very limited info about the future books in the Evernight series so far, and I don't have any reviews yet! And as very few people have as yet read the book to ask me questions about it, no questions are currently "frequently asked."

A few things are obvious:

Author's Bio
Introduction to the Evernight series
an excerpt (assuming HC okays that)
my blog (which will be moving from LJ fairly soon)

But what else would you guys be interested in seeing? Two things the designer and I have discussed are a quiz ("Are you the 'Evernight type'?" -- which is what the in-crowd likes to ask at Evernight Academy) and downloadable computer wallpapers and icons (again, assuming HC lets us use the art, although that one I feel fairly certain about). Do those sound good to y'all?

What about these possibilities?

* the Evernight "soundtrack," songs I listened to while working on the book (I'd publish the playlist on iTunes and include a link, as well as a track listing)

* essays about some of the topics touched on in the book (classic films, astronomy, etc.)

* links to sites about the same

* a message board

What other elements would you like to see?

Keep in mind that I am a YA author writing a series of vampire novels; although I have plans to write non-vampirey things in the (hopefully near) future, I think all my YA work would have a slightly paranormal bent.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

johnzakour · Jan 2, 2008

I'm pretty boring on mine. I just mostly put up links and blurbs to my books and comics. I figure that's what readers are coming for it they come to my site.

Birol · Jan 2, 2008

In lieu of the FAQ, you might consider having someone you trust interview you, then post the Q&A on your site.

geardrops · Jan 2, 2008

I'll say that what drew me to Neil Gaiman's blog long ago, which I read religiously now, was his talking about how it was getting American Gods published, and the whirlwind publicity tour he was on.

Not sure if it's your cuppa, or if it's what works. Just saying that, as a reader, it's what I liked.

kuwisdelu · Jan 2, 2008

I think your ideas are pretty good. I especially like the soundtrack and links to pertinent essays ideas. If I went to my favorite authors' site, I'd enjoy seeing what they are currently listening to and/or what they listened to when writing a certain novel. It'd also be cool to look at essays about topics in the novel that interest me, or see what the author looked at as for sources.

katiemac · Jan 2, 2008

Since you're a YA author, I'd push for something as interactive as possible. I don't know what your limits are, but anything you could do with games, maybe puzzles, quizzes like you mentioned (which character are you most like?), might be a good way to go. You may want to consider having different sections for your readers, fellow authors, and maybe parents or teachers, depending on type of book. Consider developing banners, buttons, AIM icons, Facebook or MySpace decorations that fans can download from your site.

JKR's website is unbelievably interactive, filled with tons of Easter eggs about the books, but probably very high in cost.

katiemac · Jan 2, 2008

I'd also recommend spending some time surfing the web for teens' sites and blogs -- check out fansites for books, movies, actors. You'll get a better idea of what they might want, and what formats they like to see it in, and what, if fansites crop up for your book, can those fansites offer your readers. What can you do differently?

kuwisdelu · Jan 2, 2008

If it's YA, a quiz like "Which character are you?" would be great.

BlackViolet13 · Jan 3, 2008

Dear Author just posted a wonderful article about author websites, and a lot of the comments have great information as well. I'm bookmarking that post

Will Lavender · Jan 3, 2008

I think you've got a lot of cool ideas, Claudia.

Mine is going to be very simple, but when we were putting it together, my designer went to a message board and asked what people liked in author sites. SIMPLICITY was at the top of the list. No Flash, no intros, just info on the page.

When I was discussing this issue with my publisher, they said that the three things you need on a site are:

1. An image of the book. (Duh.)
2. Info about the author.
3. A place to register an e-mail address, so that a mailing list can be created for newsletters and such.

That was it.

Also, re: the quiz:

We were going to put a quiz up, but as I took a quick look around at author sites, I found that not many people were signing up for these things. I can't tell you the number of times I saw an author say, "Since no one entered the quiz, I'm just going to give my prize away..."

So we ditched our quiz, and we're now just going to ask people to enter an e-mail address to comment on the blog. We'll see how that works.

Good luck to you.

larocca · Jan 3, 2008

All your ideas are great, Claudia. The truth, of course, is that nobody has any idea what to put on a website or we'd all do it and that'd be the end of that. But you're including everything you can reasonably think of about who you are and what you write, and lots of interactive "stickies" that the gurus say will keep people coming back

Your site has unique content that people won't find anywhere else on the net, so that's cool. Heck, if people want the same recycled jokes they get spammed with every day, they can just come to my site.

Post the URL over here when it's up and running.

gerrydodge · Jan 3, 2008

I think birol has a great idea with the interview thing, especially if the interview is pertinent to why you were inspired to write YA, what caused you to cross the gulf from reader to writer, how the writing process works for you...etc.

Claudia Gray · Jan 3, 2008

Great link, BlackViolet! I shall bookmark it also.

Hey, what do you guys think of character bios? Cheesy or fun?

Claudia Gray · Jan 3, 2008

Will Lavender said:
Also, re: the quiz:

We were going to put a quiz up, but as I took a quick look around at author sites, I found that not many people were signing up for these things. I can't tell you the number of times I saw an author say, "Since no one entered the quiz, I'm just going to give my prize away..."

So we ditched our quiz, and we're now just going to ask people to enter an e-mail address to comment on the blog. We'll see how that works.

Good luck to you.

The idea was that the quiz wouldn't be for any contests -- those would be very simple -- but that it would be something like "Are you the Evernight type?" with multiple-choice questions, or "What character are you like?" And then, after completing the quiz, the viewer would get the result and a downloadable graphic she could put on her LJ or blog or whatever. (Which would also be free advertising, if even a couple of kids did it.)

Momento Mori · Jan 3, 2008

ClaudiaGray:
I can provide only very limited info about the future books in the Evernight series so far, and I don't have any reviews yet!

You could still have something up showing the planned schedule of publication (even if it's only a publication year) together with something showing when translations will be available (i.e. Evernight comes out in German form in [2009] and Russian in [2010]). I've noticed that a lot of YA readers in Europe and Russia buy English versions and then want to read their native language translations. Plus you can have links up to Amazon or Barnes and Noble or whoever so people can reserve copies as and when publication approaches.

ClaudiaGray:
And as very few people have as yet read the book to ask me questions about it, no questions are currently "frequently asked."

I've seen some YA authors who've tried to anticipate likely questions before the books come out, usually along the lines of "How did you get the idea for [Bob Vampire]? Is he supposed to be a hottie?" and then expand it as they get fanmail.

ClaudiaGray:
a message board

I like the idea of a message board, but you might want to consider the parameters for participation because as your series becomes popular, you're bound to have people wanting to put fanfic up there, which can create legal headaches. JKR does a question poll I think, where people can vote on questions they want her to answer - you could do a variation on that so there's interaction going on.

Book tour information would be a good thing to include as well, or links to other promotional thingies that you or HC have got goin' on.

MM

kimmer · Jan 3, 2008

All good ideas...I've only run into one problem on my blog that I would imagine you might too: "nasty" posts that are spam, not real posts. And, of course your young readers will crave interactivity AND control. Polls are boring but maybe you could ask people to send you questions or send you answers to your question and then you report back with what folks had to say. That way you can quote people, it's interactive, and you don't "expose" yourself to spam.

You are very smart to build this ahead of time. I've had my site for six months and I'm in my third revision. My book comes out in July.

Another idea for this age group is to build a "membership area" where you can have chats or reveal insider secrets, have contests, etc.

Good Luck!

P.S. Have you considered selling "extras" on your site? a companion sticker book? podcasts with mock interviews with main characters? If you are a new author, and have a following, people will want your stuff and not all of it has to be free.

geardrops · Jan 4, 2008

kimmer said:
All good ideas...I've only run into one problem on my blog that I would imagine you might too: "nasty" posts that are spam, not real posts.

I've used Wordpress and Blogger. Of these two, Wordpress is extremely good at blocking unwanted comments. Just set it up so that comments require approval, and have the approval requests sent to your inbox. If you have something like gmail with the associated gtalk client, or Thunderbird, or MSOutlook, you'll get automatic notifications, and can respond almost instantly.

Blogger doesn't catch spam so well. Both are free, and IMHO Wordpress has much nicer layouts available. (The downside is the lack of external widget support, but it's a small price to pay.)

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geardrops

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kuwisdelu

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katiemac

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kuwisdelu

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BlackViolet13

Will Lavender

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larocca

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Claudia Gray

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Momento Mori

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kimmer

geardrops

Good thing I like my day job