Support for Indie Authors discussion

My book is finally edited, and I am ready to launch an author website. I think that I will probably include blog posts as well, so it needs to have the option of duel functionality in addition to the usual tabs. For those of you who have already launched a site, can you share your experience? Did you hire a designer? What services/providers for hosting would you recommend? Are there any pitfalls to avoid? How do you entice visitors? Has it helped with book sales?

I am not very techno-savvy, so this seems overwhelming, although I have been told that WordPress makes it relatively easy for an amateur. Of course, I don't want it to look like it was a do-it-yourself project. It is a big decision since it will represent my public profile.

Your candid advice is appreciated! Thanks!

I use WordPress and do all the work myself. Of course, I'm not too stressed about whether or not it looks amaz-balls off the charts awesome. I have nothing but blog, and read other blogs, to build my platform, and it grew fast.
Wordpress is simple and easy to use, but in all actuality, I would probably use a different service if I were to redo the whole shebang.

Your site should tastefully reflect your genre in the cleanest sense of the word - avoid "themed" motifs or kitschy elements.

Make sure all of your usual suspects are there - Home, About, Bio, Books, Media, Blog, Contact

Make sure you find some way to capture email addresses to build your contact list. There are several ways to do this, depending on how pushy you are!

Hi Paula. I wasted a lot of money building an expensive website when I first started. A rookie mistake. I would have better been served by spending my money on a great book cover and a great editor, and advertising. My budget was blown and the money never materialized from my first novel of an unknown indie author. I blew a wad of cash on GoDaddy and have regretted it ever since.

One.com is a great way to get a website launched without tearing you up from the start. You will need to get someone who has done this kind of thing before to help you with the tools. My advice is to build your Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts first, so when you build your site you can add the links to it. Look at other author's websites and see what looks good to the eye, what has the right balance of info, and decide how you want to do it. My advice after building a lot of websites to stay away from overly hot colors, neons and super-sharp color contasts. They annoy the visitor.

IMHO the best two things a newbie author can get is a great, not good editor, and a great, not good bookcover. Spend your money wisely, and observe your reviews and criticisms closely. Fix what you can that the reviewers point out, and get on with book number two. Book number two sells book number one.

I wish someone had told me all the stuff I'm telling you now when I fist got started.

Morris wrote: "Hi Paula. I wasted a lot of money building an expensive website when I first started. A rookie mistake. I would have better been served by spending my money on a great book cover and a great editor..."


Thanks! Unfortunately, many lessons are hard-won by making mistakes. Of course, I am trying to avoid that.

Sometimes it's like trying to tell your kids to avoid making the same mistakes you made. Pain is the best teacher, but it doesn't have to be. You asked and I think you will use it to your benefit. Best of success to you!

Morris wrote: "Sometimes it's like trying to tell your kids to avoid making the same mistakes you made. Pain is the best teacher, but it doesn't have to be."

great feedback, Morris!

yes, i too question the value of a website/blog, etc, before the other social media sites. basically, your website is sitting out there all by its lonely self, whereas twitter, facebook, tumblr, instagram have millions of users to market to.

great question, Paula!

anyways, if you do want to start up your own website, here are some of my thoughts.

i've been wondering whether to keep up my wordpress sites or not. one is personal and just for fun, the other one which i barely got going is more for business. i do like tinkering w/it. & having my own domain is--i will admit--kind of a vanity thing. on the other hand, maintenance and setting up is somewhat of a hassle--esp. as of late, b/c wordpress plugins are prime targets for hackers. so patching happens maybe once a month. if you're on a wordpress provider (aka SaaS) like wordpress.com then they'll do it for you.

i'd make sure that you select a mobile (aka "responsive") theme and make sure that it looks good on a mobile device.

lastly--i don't know exactly how to do this since i haven't even gotten my first novel's book cover yet!--you want to drive readers to the point of sale, whether that be amazon, itunes, or smashwords. don't ever let your blog/content or whatever get in the way of that. maybe make sure you have some nice thumbnails and a 2- or 3- sentence hook to get readers to click that thumbnail and buy your book.

however, you motivated me to do some price-checking.

godaddy.com = $15/yr for a domain thru wordpress.com. + $8/yr for privacy
wordpress.com = w/a your-name.wordpress.com URL

$18/yr for a domain + $8/yr for privacy, but $13/yr for your own domain from another party (for example, godaddy.com)

but if you go for the premium for $8.25/mo = $102/yr, then it includes your own domain.

https://wordpress.com/pricing/

another thought is patreon.com. they provide a blogging-type website for writers (and other artists). they take 5% cut and you pay for transaction fees (credit cards, paypal, and so on). you ask patrons for a monthly donation or a donation per work (typically short stories but it could be chapters of a novel). some SF&F magazines and authors (kameron hurley) are getting onto Patreon. i'm going to give that a go.

Until you have revenue coming in from your books, the recommendation is to go with a blog (wordpress etc). These are free and can be set up to look like a professional website.

For websites, I use Wix. They have a host of apps: carousel galleries, blog, newsletters, sign up to newsletter feature, book trailers, music video options etc, and it is very easy to navigate. Even if you go with one of their standard templates, you can adjust to what you need.

Some kind of platform: website, blog etc is worthwhile. I get reviewers contact me via there, readers too. So remember to also include a reviewer's contact page (vital!).

I use Weebly.com. The site looks good and it doesn't cost a cent. You can buy your own domain, but if money is tight I'd go with the free site until you become experienced with all aspects of writing, and know where and how you want to go with it. The best way to get an idea of how a writer's website should look is to visit a few, and style yours after the ones you like best.

I used 1and1, bought the very basic hosting package and set up wordpress myself. Very cheap and I like the results:

http://arcturian-spacefleet.com/

Thanks for all of the responses. Have any of you used Bluehost? They seem to be recommended from various sources. But I am learning that the internet can be both a blessing and a curse when it comes to dispensing advice, which is often contradictory. Of course, I understand it is like walking into a grocery store and trying to figure out what brand of green beans to buy: everybody has their favorite. Unfortunately, you don't know what you have until you open the can!

Paula wrote: "Thanks for all of the responses. Have any of you used Bluehost? They seem to be recommended from various sources. But I am learning that the internet can be both a blessing and a curse when it come..."

are you thinking of doing their wordpress SaaS offering for $12.49/1st mo and then $24.99/mo thereafter?

why not just do the wordpress.com for free. sorry, in my previous post, i neglected to make clear that your-name.wordpress.com URL is free; it's just if you want your own domain w/o the "wordpress" that costs.

so paulalastname.wordpress.com would be for free

paulalastname.com would cost.

see the pricing page:

https://wordpress.com/pricing/

One thing I will advise: unless you don't mind paying more that what is advertised, don't go for wix.com. The graphics and interface are cute and easy to use, but when it comes to price...

Alex G wrote: "Paula wrote: "Thanks for all of the responses. Have any of you used Bluehost? They seem to be recommended from various sources. But I am learning that the internet can be both a blessing and a curs..."


Well, yes, WordPress offers a free set up, but to build a website, you need a hosting service. (It is like putting gas in your car, right?) And I would rather have my own domain name than use the WordPress extension.

Paula wrote: "WordPress offers a free set up, but to build a website, you need a hosting service. (It is like putting gas in your car, right?) And I would rather have my own domain name than use the WordPress extension."

wordpress.com is a hosting site as well.

it is $18/yr for your own domain name.

I use a free wordpress site, and generate over 1500 views a month. Just because it's free doesn't mean it's bad, though admittedly if I paid for it I would probably rank better in search rankings.

Riley wrote: "I use a free wordpress site, and generate over 1500 views a month. Just because it's free doesn't mean it's bad, though admittedly if I paid for it I would probably rank better in search rankings."

WordPress.....So I just buy my domain name with them, use their free service and set it up with the theme templates they supply? Is it really that easy? (and cheap?)

Paula wrote: "WordPress.....So I just buy my domain name with them, use their free service and set it up with the theme templates they supply? Is it really that easy? (and cheap?)"

yes. isn't the SaaS (software as a service) world great. (i didn't understand it that well last year either & i work in hi-tech!)

just give try it and see how easy it is w/their free service first.

As mentioned, WordPress appears to be a decent option. We built our own because we have our own internet hosting service.

As for the question of does an author website help sell books, our experience is: no, not so much. Once you have readers, a website can be useful to connect with them, but overall, a website is a weak tool to sell books.

The cost of a website is not in money, it's in time. If you blog, how often are you going to blog? What about? A website that is updated infrequently does not send a positive message. But even if your website becomes heavily trafficked, will that help? Hard to say. I know established authors whose websites get 20,000 to 30,000 visitors per day, and whose blog posts attract hundreds of comments, yet their sites appear to have only a small effect on their sales. The visitors seem to be coming by for other purposes.

If you would enjoy having a site, by all means put one up. But if you feel it would become a chore, don't feel you have to. Don't feel you have to be on social media either -- again, if you enjoy it, do it. But it is not necessary and is most often counterproductive for new authors.

As has been said many times, what really matters is your next book. In our judgement, anything that distracts from that is counterproductive.

I've got two websites, one is my main author site and the other is for my series. For my main site I use JustHost with Weebly page builder and for my series' site I use wordpress. Of the two I found that wordpress is much better (and a lot cheaper!) so I'm moving my main site over to wordpress too once the renewal comes up!

I used Wordpress to do my website. I'm not good at technology either and I set up the whole thing with no problems. I also have a blog on my site. I do it for myself and post whatever I want. If people find it amusing, all the better. I 100% agree with Owen that if you feel like it will be a chore and you don't update it frequently, then it's best not to bother at all. Good luck!

Grace wrote: "I used Wordpress to do my website. I'm not good at technology either and I set up the whole thing with no problems. I also have a blog on my site. I do it for myself and post whatever I want. If pe..."

Thanks! Good advice. I do think I could have a bit of fun with a blog, which is my primary motivation, but there also seems to be a need for an online presence to connect with readers and attract new ones. I have logged onto Wordpress four times in the past week, but never got past the "pick your domain name" page for fear of not knowing how to proceed. It is much like jumping out of an airplane when you have packed your own parachute. Becoming a writer is not for the intrepid.

Just a comment about websites. I had two websites for several years. This year, I just lost them both, I either didn't get or didn't see the email that was sent advising me that they needed to be renewed. Having missed it by 30 days, I found I would need to pay a fee of 169.00 for each one to renew them. Unless I did, I would have to wait 60 days before they would be released, Meanwhile, they would be available to anyone who wanted to buy them. And someone did. So I cannot use my name or my DBA name .com, So I decided to start blogs (can't use the names there either since the blogspot is a .com. I wonder how many of you know this happens. It was a surprise to me!

I bought a book about WordPress, read it, and set up my own website -- knowing absolutely nothing! I was updating my site daily, but I haven't put up anything new for four months. I feel bad, but I'm just not getting it done. Can it really hurt me? Nobody reads my blog unless I'm reviewing a specific film they want to read about, so no one's coming and getting bored when there's nothing new.

I used to have a wordpress site and go daddy hosting, but I've switched all of my stuff over to Tumblr and I would never go back. I use it for my own author site and for a free comic strip I publish and have never had any problems. I used to be a website developer, so I've tried a lot of different systems and Tumblr is the most user friendly one I've used that's easy to set up with the least amount of issues. It has the added bonus of being a social media system that allows people to follow you and like and comment on your posts. It's 100% free with no ads and you can get your own domain name to point at it. You can sign up here www.tumblr.com

I agree with the other commenters who say to be active on social media. A website is nice, but the interaction and reach of social media as a marketing tool is important. Just be sure to actually interact with other people (rather than simply posting/Tweeting without any other engagement).