Why do you need an author website?
A website gives you validity, it gives you an online presence. You would not find traditionally published authors without one so give your career the professionalism it deserves. I would highly recommend having a website before you have even released.
View your website as your online business card. The internet is the first place your audience will turn to to find out more about you. This is also the same for reputable publishers. See this as a window into their world to reveal exactly how amazing you are.
Creating a website and managing the website when done correctly can play a vital role in marketing your books. Remember one of my rules, they are buying from you as a person this is a great way to showcase what you are about unfiltered by social media.
What should I include on my website?
As an absolute minimum your website should have the following pages:
About the author page
Include your author bio along with any social media channels that they can follow you on. You can introduce them to your world and your brand. Why do you write? What type of books can they expect from you? Where are you from? What inspired you to follow your writing dreams?
About the book page
If you haven’t already released your book yet, this is the best place to start your promotions, give them the blurb, introduce them to your characters, share teasers, promotional videos, and include pre order links. If it's a book you have already released you can pretty much do the same but include purchase links to retailers or even an option for them to purchase direct, from yourself, maybe signed paperbacks available through your website.
A blog
There are a number of things you can blog about on your own website remember this is the only place that is completely unfiltered where you have 100% control over the content, you can talk about whatever you chose but if you are looking for some inspiration check out my blog post here “Blogging strategies for authors”
A contact page
Ensure you have a way in which your readers can contact you. This can be done by including a contact form on your website or even having a page detailing how they can email you. This is another good place to include links to all your social media platforms.
Homepage
You always require a homepage when building a website so that there is a main page that can change depending on which promotion you want to be using at any given time. You can use it to promote up and coming releases, or signings that you might be attending for example. You can also have on your homepage a lead magnet for readers to sign up to your mailing list. You can read more about how to do this here “How to Create an author lead magnet”.
Having a website is a great way to connect with your readers on a much more personal level.
Workshop
As part of The Creative Writing Corner which is an author membership we run workshops, I have recently created one looking at the following things;
Why you need an author website
Blogging for authors - How it helps
How to start blogging - Ideas to start you off
Google Keywords and Ranking
Driving traffic to your website
Wix Shop Management
You can find the link here, however you will be required to be a member to have access to all the available content. Should you wish to purchase this separately for a one off fee of £27 you can do so here.
Take a look at some stunning examples of websites from some self published authors.
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