I am a new YA author on the brink of issuing my first two eBooks in a new adventure series. I want to start a website, so I consulted the websites of some popular authors in my genre. Unfortunately for me, they are established and have a lot to share. I have two, professionally designed eBook covers to showcase, plus I could supplement with stock photos that might fit my theme to gain interest. But, what else would you creative SD folks recommend a new author to do?
BTW, I tried looking for websites of new authors, but I guess I did not hit the right authors. You may ask “why do I want a website?”. I want to “build my brand” and blog sections of my premier novel to build a following. So, where do I start?
As important as social media is for promotion and so forth these days, a web site is still the irreplaceable anchor for online presence.
Even if you have only a few pages, just basics like bibliography, short bio, contact, where to buy, etc. is useful and not as subject to other’s control like FB, Twitter, etc.
Get yourself a blog on one of the free hosting platforms like Blogspot (e.g. jinx.blogspot.com) then buy yourself a domain name (jinx.com) and set the domain to point to the blog.
Here’s the blog of one author in which he talks about much more than his books.
Here’s another from a writer of short stories about the submission process and getting rejected.
…you fill it out with all the information someone might want to find, such as I outlined above. Nothing is more frustrating than to go to BuyMyStuff!+com and find no contact info, no product info, nothing but some outdated blather. Have a few fixed pages for About, Orders, My Books, Contact etc.
…you keep it either timeless or fresh, so that visitors don’t see (nothing but) outdated blather.
Think about WHY you want a website.
Sell your book?
An online presence and email address to make you look legitimate?
Blog?
Most importantly: will you do this yourself? hire “a guy” to do it for you? hire a professional?
If you hire someone, how much are you willing to spend? The going rate for a professionally-built website is tens of thousands of dollars and the results range from top of the line 2017 design and functionality to piece of crap sites that your neighbor’s teenage son could have done in his web design class as a project. To be honest, there is a lot more of the latter than the former.
Once you decide what functionality you want then you can start talking about design, topology, SEO, etc.
Nonsense. For a deep, complex, from-scratch website done by a team/company and incorporating active pages and databases and ecommerce… maybe.
For your basic five-page anchor for an individual/sole prop/author/artist/craftsman/retail business… $500 is generous. And I mean to the best professional standards, technical and artistic.
That five-pager becomes a personally controlled sea anchor in the ever-shifting tides of Facebook and Twitter and the other fluid forms; one reliable place to put your business and product info and have it propagate smoothing into Google and elsewhere. It can be simple and infrequently tended as long as it’s not out of date, but nothing promotes extra business for even a small brick-and-mortar standards shoppe than a quickly found, accurate website that confirms their location, products, hours etc.
Two separate issues are (1) what software you want/need to create webpages, (2) obtaining a host.
Blogspot might have merit if there’s something very special about its software, but website hosting is very cheap and may give much more control over your content than a “free” host. (Does blogspot allow ‘php’ files, etc.?)
An Internet host package may include free development software. Since a few extra domains may come with the package, the already-low price can be cut in half if you know someone else who wants a website.
Which is a whole different issue. Will the OP be writing it himself then either Notepad++ or Dreamweaver etc. is needed. Or will the OP be using an actual development tool instead?
As a reader & book buyer, I check in occasionally at the website of a few authors that I like. Most often when they send out emails about new books coming out. (They invited people to enter their emails on a list to get news from the author. I imagine that is a big draw for the author.)
They have a schedule of author appearances on the website – I believe they also send out email notices to people in the area around the location where they are appearing (based on the location given when I subscribed to their email list).
They offer links to Amazon & other places to buy their books. And often note that the others are better – the author gets more of the money from sites other than Amazon. They also sell copies of their books, which they will personally sign & mail to you, or as gifts to others. Besides the personal connections with their readers, I expect that the author makes more money from such a sale – they would get the bookstore’s profit, right?
Often the author posts information on upcoming books that they are working on, and even some hints about the plots. Sometimes they even post the opening chapter of the book-in-progress online for readers. And sometimes ask for comments or suggestions on the book.
Sometimes they even do advance sales of their books, especially for authors who do series books, with the same characters from book to book. Previous readers will be willing to pay in advance for a book not yet published. I just sent payment for a book where the print copies won’t be ready until April, and ebooks in February. I imagine these advance sales might be influential to a publishing company. Also might be an incentive to keep the author working on the book – that can often be a problem to writers. And given the economics of writing, the infusion of cash might be important to a writer.
All of this seems to lead to more personal connections with the readers, and thus additional sales of their books.
As a reader, this is what I want of an author’s website:
First and foremost, I want you to make it very, very clear a. which of your books are stand alone vs. in a series, and b. if they’re a series I want you to be explicit about the order of the stories.
[ul]
If there are novellas or short stories in your series’ universe, I want you to include them so it’s obvious which two books they fall between, and if they’re part of an anthology, I want you to add links to buy it too, not just the novels.[/ul] [ul]
If you have written multiple series of books, I want each series to have its own page (though each book could have its own subpage too). [/ul][ul]
If the series is complete, I would like you to indicate that some way (describe the last book as “final” or “the conclusion” etc.) so I know if I’m wasting my time hoping for more. [/ul] [ul]
If it’s the first book in an intended series, I would like you to indicate that too, by prompting me to stay tuned for the sequel coming out in 201_.[/ul]
It’s nice if you include excerpts of the books, but I’m happy with a photo of the cover and a third to half-page summary of your novel.
I would also like you to have a bio page, with a photo, and some entertaining facts about yourself, like your general geographical location, and hobbies. If you can be amusing in your bio, all the better.
Speaking about website, I think that to pay much money for its creation is to throw money down the drain, because nowadays there are a lot of young guys who are ready to do this work for small money. Personally I decided to create a website by myself. It appeared not that difficult as I had thought. I chose one of top wordpress themes on https://www.templatemonster.com/best-selling-wordpress-themes/ and I enjoyed the result. Maybe you can also try to do your website by yourself and save money.
Building a basic website is not hard at all. Almost anyone could have a professionally hosted one up and running in a few hours with little to no previous experience. I have one hosted by Startlogic.com that I am not currently using for anything but I have before and probably will use again when the mood strikes. Large hosting companies like GoDaddy.com and many others throw in so many free tools and templates that you can potentially do just about anything for no additional money including e-commerce, databases, customized e-mail accounts and tons of other things.
Just a basic informational website is easy these days. They generally give you hundreds of templates to choose from and you just pick one and start adding your own info. It is similar to writing a Powerpoint document. The larger hosting companies have free tech support if you get stuck and professional designers on hand if you need more sophisticated design help (for various levels of fees).
Total cost is low depending on what package you get (an simple site would typically be one of the lowest priced packages). You should be able to do something like that for less than $10 a month all inclusive including your own domain.
or Dreamweaver 
etc. is needed. Or will the OP be using an actual development tool instead?