Author Websites...

[Ursa major]

Do people really buy books - in large numbers, that is - from people who don't keep (if that's the right word) cats?


What a strange world we live in....

 

[Stephen Palmer]

I'm also with 123.reg, have been for ages - highly recommended, and cheap.

 

[Boneman]

Thanks for the replies, everyone.


Perhaps I should get my website ready and not upload it until I'm ready to ship my novel off to agents, and then if an agent likes my work enough to go to the website link I include with the submission, they'll see the one I *just* uploaded. But, tbh, I can't see an agent rejecting a manuscript they like because the author doesn't have a site.

Despite having my own website, I'd probably say this is the best option, for you, currently. Working on a website is a lot of fun, and very creative, but not having one won't get you rejected. Having it ready is the next best thing.

 

[Montero]

T

I've thought about having a page of writing advice and writing-book recommendations on my site, which might be useful to some people, but I wouldn't want to look egocentric; after all, if I didn't have a novel published, who would want to listen to what I have to say, writing-wise?

Well, there is a blog that was recommended on SFF a while back, which had writing advice from someone not yet published (unless I've mis-remembered that). Mostly quoting from books on writing.

I'm finding this thread interesting, thanks as I have the same question - as in what on earth can you write about before you are published that is relevant to getting published. Put much of a book on the internet and it counts as publishing and paying publishers then don't want it.
Blogging about hey, whoo I wrote 3,000 words today on my manuscript, just me and the computer alone in the room (the cat was sleeping in the bedroom). Well, um.
I could establish a presence with a blog about my cat, my life etc - but will that sell space opera?

I started a thread awhile back, a poll on the reading part of sff and asked about who doesn't go to author blogs or websites, who thinks they are a sometimes useful extra and who thinks they are essential and it was a minority that said essential.

My main use for author websites is to find out when their next book is coming out. I do occasionally read more, but I am much more interested in their books than in the author. Going to conventions I found that meeting the author as a person was only a guide for whether I'd like what they'd wrote less than half the time. There were several authors who were cracking panellists but I didn't like their writing. There were several whose writing I liked, but were timid panellists and there were a couple whose books I liked and were interesting panellists too.

 

[Brian G Turner]

I was told at Derby, I think it was, in a panel, that it's important for aspiring writers to show to publishers they were more than capable of promoting themselves and their own website was the best step forward

I think basically if you have a website with traffic, then what you have a proven audience. And that will appeal to any marketing dept, because it means you can provide instant exposure to your work.

I know working on a website or blog is hard work, but on a basic level it's just a play to share your thoughts.

Every time you watch a sff film, every time you read a sff book, write a review to your blog. Everytime you think you found a useful writing tip, or a breakthrough in understanding about writing fiction, blog about it. Any events you're aware of and considering going to? Write about them on your blog.

These are simple ways in which you can develop a basic audience. You're probably not going to become an internet superstar, but if you can demonstrate you already have a significant audience, that can only be to the good.

 

[iansales]

I'm currently running half a dozen blogs, plus an online shop. There's my personal blog, iansales.com, plus one specifically about books on space exploration. I'm also running SF Mistressworks, a blog for my small press, Whippleshield Books, and a blog to promote Rocket Science. I try to post to at least one of them once or twice a week, though some may not have new posts for several weeks... I'm also on Facebook and Twitter, LibraryThing and Good Reads.

On the one hand, all this has given a (small) platform, which has probably helped when it came to selling copies of Rocket Science and Adrift on the Sea of Rains. But the books themselves are the best advert for my writing, and they're also prompting to people to visit my blog(s).

You certainly need an online presence these days. There's no ignoring that. It's also good to engage with your readers. Approachable writers get more bandwidth than unapproachable ones.

But all this is common sense anyway

 

[Erin99]

Hey! I love cats! No dissing cats in my thread!

And thanks. Apparently I *had* forgotten which site charges loads for renewal fees. Well, LCN.com are the cheapest domain name provider, so I'll go with them. And I know for sure that they stay cheap. Oh, but I'd have to remember not to set the site as auto-renew, because I *would* notice the small amount being taken from my account every year or two.


So here's my thoughts on various points:

Hex's argument almost swayed me, in that if you have a short story published people may want to check you out online. However, even if someone *did* do that, if you have no novel published they will leave your site again... And I'd be a fool to think they would return regularly for updates about my life or writing tips or anything. Most would be there to see what other writing is available, not there to read about how I'm longing for a cat () and that I just ate a great take out.

I can't see my site having a huge amount of traffic, if I'm realistic, so I would have no proven audience to impress publishers with - which means maybe it wouldn't be worth it yet. I shall just keep designing the site when I'm not up to writing, and then one day I can upload it before I send my work out to agents.

Although... Brian's points about sharing tips or movies and things sounds good, too. I don't watch TV, however, and I the last time I went to the cinema was on my birthday, so I'm afraid I wouldn't have much to say other than about books and writing and any other little interesting thing I can find to mention. Perhaps I could have a blog-type thing that's not called a "blog", in which I can write stuff occasionally as and when I see fit... hmmm.....

Oh! But that means having the site uploaded asap... Oh!!! I dunno any more!!!


Ian: do you have time to sleep?! You're as much of a powerhouse as Brandon Sanderson.

 

[Jennifer Cthulus]

I would be a terrible blogger, too, since I can't guarantee I can be well enough to post interesting things regularly (and I certainly couldn't talk about me and my life, because I don't get outside that much!).

At the time of my writing this, you have 2,463 posts here on SFF. Surely some of those could have been blog posts. A blog post can be anything (well, ideally it won't just be, "Check out this hilarious YouTube video," but, hey, professional writers get away with it all the time). Quick blurbs reviewing books you've read and films you've seen. Writing ideas and questions. (Open-ended questions are especially good for helping to establish a following.) Thoughts on the news. Pictures of your pets. Things writers do that annoy you. Anything, really.

As others have noted, a blog serves the purpose of getting your name out there, helping to establish your following, demonstrating to agents and publishers that you are capable of self-promotion, allowing agents and publishers to see that you are capable of building a following, and providing you with Googleability, among other benefits. It doesn't cost much (£23 to get started is about right) and you can find predesigned templates that you can use for free at wordpress.org.

The second-best time to start a blog is yesterday. The very best time to start a blog is two years prior to yesterday. If you'd had a blog up for the past two years and were updating it somewhat regularly, you would be all over Google right now, which would very likely have the potential to impress potential agents and publishers as regards your marketability.

You're 100% right about Facebook being of questionable benefit, but a blog is one of the most powerful marketing tools that you can come by, and you can do it for very little money, and you can do it by just doing what you're already doing here on SFF. One post a week would be fine. You could do even fewer if you wanted (just as long as you keep updating). Mine (spaceoperetta dot com) gets maybe two updates a month. Just remember that the more often you update it, the more interested Google will become. (But I've got blogs that I haven't updated in a year that still do fine -- the most important factor seems to be simply having been online for a while, which is why you want to start a blog as early as you can.)

But do make sure that it is a blog, with Wordpress backend, and not a static site that looks like it was built in the mid-to-late 1990s. A disturbingly large number of SF writers have sites that function in a SF manner themselves by making me feel like I've stepped into a time machine. (Not naming any names, just commenting on something that's had me puzzled for some time now.)

But, yeah, start a blog. Start a blog as quickly and inexpensively as you can. Looks like you've already found good prices, but I could also point out that Network Solutions is offering .com domain names for US$2.95 right now, and WebHostingBuzz gives you a crazy amount of storage and bandwidth for US$50/year (although, as you noted, even those prices can be undercut if you shop around some).

 

[iansales]

Ian: do you have time to sleep?! You're as much of a powerhouse as Brandon Sanderson.

Hardly. There's no way I could manage to write six breezeblock-sized novels a year...

 

[Erin99]

LOL! I wish, JC! My post count here is MENTAL, and would be even worse if it added on Games and Lounge posts! I've been here since early 07. Back then I was in a very different place than I am now, and I needed this place - for friendship and laughs and to keep me from a dark place. I absolutely hammered myself by staying here too long and posting when I was in a fair amount of pain and mental exhaustion (I have an illness) - but I couldn't keep away. Then I went to a clinic where an occupational therapist said I really shouldn't do activities for longer than 15 minutes twice a day... and do nothing but rest for the rest of the time. Which killed my writing.

I moved city and no longer see her, but I've sussed out a way to cope. I work with lots of breaks, but I DO allow myself to write (and sometimes I'm still a little naughty when I write and my body needs to rest). But I don't come here often any more, because this place really IS a time sink - and it would be so easy to fall back into chatting here with my friends. I only make the odd post, sometimes with months in between. Even now I'm loving being back here and reading everyone's posts, but by now I should be offline and resting...

Anyway, I have no pets... I'd love them, but I couldn't afford one and I am allergic to fur. And there's no room in this tiny flat for a fish tank, even... and I LOVE fish! But I'd be wary of posting too many open-ended blog posts because I'd be wanting to reply to comments, if I got any, and I really shouldn't add more work for myself (I hate that I'm limited. Right now, from writing this, I've got an intense head pain, neck pain, and eye pain... and yet, I could still keep writing through it all just because I enjoy chatting to everyone here. Sorry, TMI, probably).

But don't worry, anyway, my site is as far away from outdated. It (I hope) looks very personal and cosy.

Thanks for the links, too. I will check out the .com domain provider - sounds cheap! But I do wonder if the price will go up madly at some point... I'll have to think about it all carefully.

 

[Jennifer Cthulus]

I will check out the .com domain provider - sounds cheap! But I do wonder if the price will go up madly at some point... I'll have to think about it all carefully.

You can always move to a different registrar if that happens. A few years ago, register dot com was offering free .com domain names for small businesses. I registered about 30-40 of them, and moved the two or three that made money to a cheaper registrar after the free year and just let all the rest drop.

Godaddy (great for domain registrations, lousy for hosting) can always sell you (or allow you to renew) domains for less than £5 if you hunt around for discount codes. That's who I normally use. They have .info domains for something like £1 if your budget is really tight.

Your post that I'm replying to could be three blog posts with just a tiny bit of tweaking (one about SFF providing you with some solace, one about moving to a new city and your mixed feelings about your online pastimes, and one about how you like fish). Blog comments are super easy to deal with because most of them are very short. Just approve the ones that aren't spam and maybe write a quick line or two in response to the ones that are interesting.

No offence intended towards your occupational therapist, but their recommendation reminds me of the doctor who convinced Sergei Prokofiev to quit writing music and playing chess (two things that he did better than just about anyone else alive at the time). He kind of wasted away and died after he wasn't allowed to do the two things that mattered most to him any more. And medical science since has made it seem very doubtful that either of these activities would have exacerbated his health problems. So it was like a lose-lose situation for everybody.

EDIT: Wow; cheap domain registrations to Prokofiev's death in four short paragraphs. How's that for a thematic shift?

 

[Montero]

But do make sure that it is a blog, with Wordpress backend, and not a static site that looks like it was built in the mid-to-late 1990s. A disturbingly large number of SF writers have sites that function in a SF manner themselves by making me feel like I've stepped into a time machine. (Not naming any names, just commenting on something that's had me puzzled for some time now.)
.

Could you perhaps expand on this? I'm not really clear what you mean by "a SF manner" or a "static site" and what you think is wrong with that, and what you think people should be doing.

By the way, I started on writing web pages pre-broad band and learnt how to make very "tight" web pages that didn't take forever to download. So text and small images with the option of larger images if people wanted them. Also worked on accessibility issues - as in having meta data about pictures, so that any blind person accessing the web via a speaking device would have all the info available to them.

I recently saw a comment elsewhere on SFF about a webpage with a lot of flash player taking forever to download onto someone's handheld device.

So in your expansion of what you mean, could you also possibly say what you are viewing a website with?

Basically I am slowly speccing out a web page and blog, and am currently spending time on the concept stage - so pre-design really. Getting my head around what the target audience expects, what I can currently do, what I might need to learn, what I have time to maintain and so on, so feedback that would help me with that would be much appreciated.

@Leisha
If I were you and you do go the blog route then I'd have a little bit on it about your health problems and how you have to carefully target your time. You could either
a) Disable comments but offer email
b) Have comments

But in both cases explain you cannot, with deep regrets, reply individually. That you will try to answer points made in a following blog or in a FAQ. And that you value feedback.

 

[iansales]

If you go to wordpress.com, you can create a blog for yourself for nothing. There are also a variety of free templates to choose from. If you wish, you can also purchase a domain - I buy mine through 123-reg - and then get wordpress to use it for your blog. This is what I do at http://iansales.com/

As for content, just write about what interests you. In my case, that's sf, writing, films, music, retro-futurism... well, pretty much anything that takes my fancy. You can also use it to promote your writing, either my providing links to books and reviews, or posting about news, reviews, etc.

 

[Montero]

OK, webpages and blogging. A few specific points and questions as to content. My main reason for assigning time to blogging or a webpage would be to promote myself as a writer and hopefully, one day, promote my published books. Its not that I don't want to blog, but I have far more things I want to do than I have time for, so I do have to prioritise.

So I do need to make it multi-purpose. I'd write about things that interest me, so that I'd enjoy the writing the webpage and the blog in itself, but I suspect I'd have to cherry pick carefully. For example:

I could review books I am currently reading. Now what I read and would want to review does tend to have underlying things in common - a touch of humour, well written secondary characters - people you want to meet again. I hope I am writing like that.

Pitfalls I can see in reviewing books

1. What I am reading is across all genres, but I am writing space opera at present. So would a review of anything not space opera, e.g. my currently-being-read-book Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch impress a potential agent or publisher or interest a potential reader in my book? I was under the impression that marketing tends to be a bit more specific.

2. I do post reviews on Amazon and Good Reads from time to time. Amazon holds the copyright on any reviews posted there. So I could finish up writing reviews of the same book in three different ways. (Which could be a bit tedious.)

3. What if an agent/publisher is interested enough in the sample to go looking at how I promote myself, see my reviews and say "goodness me, none of that is relevant or current" (since I also like re-reading authors such as Barbara Hambly for example who is not writing fantasy any more). This is based on agents' web sites in particular where you are asked to list what up-to-the minute authors you are reading with any submission.


Also

I could blog about re-enactment I've done in the past, books on history - I hope I've made some useful contributions on threads about background material for fantasy here on SFF. But though I am may come back to writing fantasy after the space opera, depending on if it sells.(I need an icon showing crossed fingers or a horseshoe ) at present all that is not really relevant, and might put off agent/publisher as I would look like one of those multi-genre writers that are hard to market.

I'd happily blog/web page about some of the world building and thinking behind things in the space opera - but not before it is published.

So any comments on the above?

Would anyone who reads space opera find world building discussion on a webpage or a blog on a space opera interesting?

Would anyone reading fantasy find historical information and stories about re-enacting interesting?

 

[Anne Lyle]

Pitfalls I can see in reviewing books

1. What I am reading is across all genres, but I am writing space opera at present. So would a review of anything not space opera, e.g. my currently-being-read-book Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch impress a potential agent or publisher or interest a potential reader in my book? I was under the impression that marketing tends to be a bit more specific.

I don't think book reviews are going to interest an agent or publisher unless you can build a massive following. Book reviews get almost no comments on my blog - I'm not sure why.

2. I do post reviews on Amazon and Good Reads from time to time. Amazon holds the copyright on any reviews posted there. So I could finish up writing reviews of the same book in three different ways. (Which could be a bit tedious.)

That's not quite correct.

"When you submit a review to Amazon.com, you grant us non-exclusive, perpetual license to post the content on Amazon.com. You retain the right to post and use your material on other sites and in other formats."

(Source - article linked to from this blog post about Amazon. The original article isn't very accurate in interpreting Amazon's response - the situation is more accurately described in the comments on the blog post.)

However if someone else wants to use your review, they can't just lift it from Amazon without your permission.

3. What if an agent/publisher is interested enough in the sample to go looking at how I promote myself, see my reviews and say "goodness me, none of that is relevant or current" (since I also like re-reading authors such as Barbara Hambly for example who is not writing fantasy any more). This is based on agents' web sites in particular where you are asked to list what up-to-the minute authors you are reading with any submission.

I guess you have to review a mix of books, new and old

I could blog about re-enactment I've done in the past, books on history - I hope I've made some useful contributions on threads about background material for fantasy here on SFF. But though I am may come back to writing fantasy after the space opera, depending on if it sells.(I need an icon showing crossed fingers or a horseshoe ) at present all that is not really relevant, and might put off agent/publisher as I would look like one of those multi-genre writers that are hard to market.

It certainly might muddy your "brand" - if you don't have time for much blogging, maybe you should hold off on the non-relevant stuff?

Would anyone who reads space opera find world building discussion on a webpage or a blog on a space opera interesting?

Probably - I know that Juliette Wade's worldbuilding posts are popular.

Would anyone reading fantasy find historical information and stories about re-enacting interesting?

Probably - I get a fair amount of interest in my historical research trips and posts about general historical topics.

 

[iansales]

Too much pure promotion of your book will turn off visitors. Show you're a rounded person. I review books occasionally on my blog and I do get comments on some of the reviews. I also write about writing and writing sf. And a lot of other subjects.

Agents don't care about the relevancy of your blog content. They care about your story. Having an internet presence may be pretty much de rigeur these days, but no agent will turn down a prospective client because their blog covers a variety of topics or because they don't even have a blog.

There are self-pubbed authors out there who spam constantly and their entire online presence is relentless self-promotion. Everybody hates them. Don't be one. Just be... interesting.

 

[Montero]

Rounded I can do. (Blog on the difficulty of diets coming on ).

Thanks Ian, thanks Ann, pins down things a bit. Not having to have a targeted specific focus makes it a whole lot easier - and more varied for me.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Btw, another pointer is to try instead to provide something useful to the sff community, rather than try and raise your personal profile.

That's how chrons came about - it was originally a forum to support my own writing. However, as a trickle of regular members came in, I realised making it a more general sff forum would give it wider appeal. A major server crash where I nearly lost everything was the last prompt to spin it off as it's own site, to help ensure a degree of redundancy in protecting my online assets.

If I were starting again now, I'd look at doing a massive book reference site, writing resources site (link to publishers, agents, online writing guides) or else an online magazine.

 

[Anne Lyle]

It's a great site, Brian - but maybe not what a writer should be doing instead of writing

 

[Brian G Turner]

Absolutely, but was necessary for a while. Hence why I'm up at a silly hour. No doubt that's why you're still up, too.