You might have guessed that I think a website is critical for authors, but few of you will remember how ugly this site originally looked. Before I had a logo designed and de-cluttered the side bar, I used a free WordPress theme that wasn’t at all optimized.
We all have to start somewhere but we also need to improve. So I am pleased to introduce this guest post by James Chartrand from Men With Pens, one of the top copywriting and web design sites.
It’s no surprise that authors tend to be a little old-fashioned when it comes to technology.
Many still write out their books by hand. Some swear by typewriters or nib pens. And when they need a reference, they’ll reach for a heavy dictionary or thesaurus instead of heading to the Internet for the same information.
Many authors are equally old-fashioned when it comes to their website.
Most don’t have websites at all. Others haven’t changed their websites since the dawn of time. Some hacked together a basic website that’s barely functional.
There are well-known writers. Authors of excellent books, whose websites just don’t reflect the level of skill, professionalism, and credibility they clearly possess. Their websites hurt them despite their renown and reputation.
Imagine what a bad website would do to you.
When Your Work Outshines Your Website
There are hundreds of examples, but here’s one: Anne Bishop is a well-known fantasy writer who won the Crawford Award for her first work. She’s the author of fifteen books, the most popular being her Black Jewels trilogy. She’s a very successful author.
But her website looks like it was built in 2003.
Ursula K. LeGuin is an astoundingly prolific writer with enormous breadth. She’s best known for her science fiction and fantasy, but she’s sought after for her essays and non-fiction as well. She has five Hugo and six Nebula awards, and she holds the record for Locus awards with nineteen to her name. She is an accomplished public speaker and has been interviewed countless times.
And her website looks like this.
The intention of pointing out these websites isn’t to imply that these authors’ accomplishments are in any way diminished by their lack of a well-designed website. In books, words really do speak for themselves.
That said, there’s a reason the old adage has us judging books by their covers.
What Good Website Design Does For Your Book
These days, every publisher drills this into the heads of authors: the appearance of the book matters greatly in how well it’s sold.
The most exceptional book in the world won’t be read if no one picks it up. And what gets people to pick up a book? As a general rule, the cover is a good bet.
Authors have understood this for some time. Many have gone to bat for their cover art design because what the publisher believes will sell isn’t consistent with the author’s brand, with how they want the book to be seen by the public eye.
Design is important.
But for some reason, many authors stop believing their website design is equally important. It’s as if the website was somehow removed from the books.
It isn’t. Your website can be the most powerful selling tool you have.
Stephen King has a powerful-looking site. It’s clearly a basic modified template, but it’s a good template. It fits his image. It showcases his work. It features modern-day design without any blue links in Times New Roman.
Is it the most brilliantly designed site in the world? No, but it fits him. And it helps sell him as an author just as surely as his book jackets do.
Beyond Branding
Let’s say you have a beautifully designed home page. Your website looks as gorgeous as the cover art of your book. That’s a grand beginning, but good website design goes beyond simple aesthetic – which is where we get beyond branding and into marketing.
A website that reflects your brand helps your readers believe in who you are.
A website that lays out information about you in a way that’s easy to understand? That helps readers show up for you.
When your website features upcoming events or helps readers talk with other fans in a forum, or when your website offers easy links to stores where your books can be purchased, that makes it much easier for readers to engage with you.
If you have a blog, you can communicate with fans directly. The same goes for a newsletter. You can build a huge fan base, like Patrick Rothfuss, by connecting with your readers.
You’re reminding readers that you exist by showing up in their inbox every day.
All this makes it much more likely that readers will be there for you when you ask them to show support for your new book.
There are a thousand ways to leverage a good website, and sadly, most authors don’t make use of them. Some consciously choose not to have a website at all, and that’s an acceptable choice.
But if you’re going to have a website, it should be a good one.
It should look like you. It should look like your books. It should look credible and reflect your talent. And it should make it easy for readers to find you, engage with you, and show their support for your work.
If you want a website design business who understands writing, what it’s like to be an author, and how to leverage the online world to help your book succeed, you’re in very good hands. Owned by popular writer and online business expert James Chartrand, Men with Pens will show you the way. Get in touch with James today.
Top Image: Flickr Creative Commons Thorinside
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Some good insights here, i’ve tried to create my blog so it looks nice and is easy to navigate, but it’s always so hard to tell if you’ve got it right until you start getting some comments and get further down the line. I think you’ve hit it on the head Joanna when you say we all have to start somewhere but need to always improve. This is the kind of mantra we need in everything i feel.
First impressions are huge, but websites need to be more than that. They literally become your web home so needs to be as close to perfect as possible. No pressure or anything
Matt (Turndog Millionaire)
Exactly right Matt – this mantra is true in writing as a general principle. If you don’t start, you’ll never improve & at some point we want some input as to how to improve things as well.
I feel that all blogs are actually experiments in progress. It’s still considered a new medium, people are still figuring out what works and what doesn’t, trends change all the time…
You have to do the best you can with a great look to attract people to become readers, and then you have to continually observe and tweak your blog to get the best results possible.
And it can be fun, too – I love seeing what tiny little changes can do!
very true, i suppose something like a website can never be perfect so with small changes, additions, and the like, well you’ll forever be able to make improvements.
It’s very good overall because you can always fix things and make an even bigger impact
Matt (Turndog Millionaire)
Great post and some excellent points! I’m looking at it from a slightly different angle, as a publisher rather than an author. However the advice still fits
Giglets is still a very young company and often we’re so busy turning out our illustrated ebooks that we direct all of our energies into making each new book brilliant and we try to reflect our brand in that.
I then toddle over to add the new cover to our website and sometimes think that the website (although it’s not ancient) doesn’t fit our brand as well as it could. Perhaps it’s about time we took a fresh look at that and made it a more comfy fit?
Thanks for the wake-up call
I’ll pop over to the ‘men with pens’ website to pick up some tips. That website is looking brilliant (although rather masculine 
)
Hi Jacqui, funny you should say that as James is actually a woman – her story is here for those unfamiliar with her situation.
http://www.copyblogger.com/james-chartrand-underpants/
I’m fascinated by gender differences in books and writing – I have had a lot of comments about how masculine my novels are & am considering using a pen name myself… I’m going to interview James in February and this is something I will ask her about. It may well be an important thing for a thriller writer & many already do it – I’m thinking CJ Lyons, PD James, JT Ellison etc – I could be JF Penn
Back to website design, there are definitely gender specific looks to websites – darker colors being masculine in some way – it’s a fascinating subject!
Hehehe I know, I was trying to be funny. I think I should stick to children’s books
JF Penn could be good, but you’re already well known as Joanna. I’ll look forward to the interview with James 
I’m well known as Joanna here, but not in the fiction world. I haven’t made more than a ripple there so changing my name now would be better than to wait. Something I am mulling over anyway! I’ll get the domain name just in case!
True true; always be prepared
and, if I remember rightly, James initially worked with both a male and a female name. In the end she went with the one that brought the best results. (Apologies if I’m remembering wrong)
You’ve pointed out something very cool, Jacqui – that Men with Pens has a masculine look. Which is great, because it means our brand shines through clearly… and of course, a brand image is built to attract a particular audience.
In our case, MwP is designed to attract male entrepreneurs – you know, those driven guys racing around chasing money and business. So of course, something pale and pretty would send them running the other direction.
(That said, it’s time to freshen up the site and I have new design ideas in the works.)
I built a blog – an author blog – a few days ago – tweaked it today and loved it – now I feel gutted I can’t run out and hire these guys. Ho hum – I simply have to make do until I make the big-bucks! Could be waiting a while – *cough* for that though.
Great informative article and those examples were – Ouch! Someone get them a designer super fast! Even a blogger blog would be better than those dinosaurs. No offence to the authors however .
PS: I now have an author blog as well as WordsinSync: http://shahwharton.blogspot.com/ X
Hi Shah, I think it’s incremental – this is my 3rd design and the content still backs up. Most people wait until they have more income before they invest in a re-design, so you’ll get there! There’s lots of great info on Men With Pens anyway.
The costs can be quite low to get a nice author blog going. And blogs are important as they rank higher in search engines than static sites. You create fresh content and get cross-links started.
While I’ve done some ‘hard coding’ before .. my latest is using more templated blogging systems, elements listed below. Keep in mind this is free as in “$0″ cost (well, I do use $8/year URLs and a home pc server is like leaving a small lightbulb on 24/7). Yes the system will take some skills, but there are recipes a few quick search engine queries can tease out (I’ve even contributed to such recipes in parts of the Wordpress Codex).
It would be informative to learn from ‘James what the author blog examples she lists below cost (yes, they are nice). My experience is several hundred to thousands are typical.
How to blog for free:
-Used desktop computer “pc” (Less than 5yrs old perfect while 7-10yrs will work. free if you have one to rescue in your garage or know a friend upgrading; ebay or craigslist if not).
-Linux server operating system (Ubuntu.com Server. Some use CentOS.org or straight Debian.org). After setup, you won’t need a monitor or mouse/keyboard.
-Web server software (easy install from ubuntu but involves “AMP” in the “LAMP”: Apache, MySQL, and PHP; all free)
-Wordpress (wordpress.org for software and free templates)
There are lot of templates out there that are free or nominal in cost and plugins to handle a lot of common tasks. As long as you do some minor tweaks you can really make a nice site. Keys are a well designed image banner and modifying the colors. Keep the side-bar strips discrete, as your blog content is why people return. Think corner convenience store neon price banners splattered across the windows compared with the high end grocery across town. Or good book cover design principles.
For content creation I run Linux on my actual desktop computer and do graphics editing and book trailers with similarly free tools (maybe Joanna, you’d like a guest post some time?)
Here are some example sites of mine:
http://jgordonsmith.com (scroll down for a book trailer example)
http://velocitymotive.com (engineering consulting)
http://greenhorninvestor.com (investing discussion site)
.
Heh, sorry about that…
Many people are in the same boat and say, “I don’t have the money right now… I’ll have to wait until I do.” And I totally get that. I’ve been there.
But I’ve also learned it’s a huge mistake and a mindset that holds people back from making money.
Because if you aren’t making money now with what you have, how will you ever earn the money you need to get a web design that DOES make you money? It’s a catch-22, and it’s one I see VERY frequently in the writer arenas, unfortunately.
The good news about great web designs is that their job IS to make you money. There’s an initial cost, yes, but finding a way to put that money together means you’re actually buying an investment that will pay for itself very quickly – and go on to continue bringing you money for a long, long time.
(That sounded like a pitch. It wasn’t intended as such. Just an explanation!)
I think this is true in many entrepreneurial examples of businesses on the web – but perhaps not so true with fiction.
I’m keen for you to prove me wrong James – have you personally done any fiction sites we can look at that can make this kind of money online?
I actually can. We’ve recently worked with an author who realized that without a good website, his readers would never buy his book, publishers would never look twice, and agents wouldn’t have much to talk about.
So he worked with us and was very pleased with his new look:
http://austinbriggs.com/
I know he’s a busy man and other obligations have been taking up his time recently, so he hasn’t been able to update his site as of late… but that’s another story for another post
Here’s another website that has great potential for money through fiction writing. It’s a personal project I’d started last year, but it never got off the ground – Damn Fine Words ended up being my main focus and where I invested all my time!
Happy to show it off, though:
http://www.jameschartrand.com/
The main point was to have fun and write fiction, but you’ll notice several income stream ideas already in place down the sidebar. Book recommendations and reviews for affiliate income, a section pointing to the Damn Fine Words writing course… there’s all sorts of potential for this site to be a fun fiction hobby that earns money.
(And maybe one day, I’ll have time to enjoy it! HA!)
Brilliant! Thanks James – great to see some fiction examples, and also lovely to see more about your own creative writing. I’d like to see that novel come to life and we have a supportive community here if you decide to pursue it!
Another interesting article, Joanna, thanks! I’ve read similar posts in the past, from you and others such as Joel and the like, and I’m reading them and thinking great points, I must tidy up my website to make it more inviting (once I’ve got my novel out of course!), but there’s always a lingering niggle at the back of my head. I read loads, watch many films and eat out far more often than my waistline would prefer, but I’ve never visited an authors website, or an actor/director’s, or even the restaurants. If I did and saw the out-dated examples that you listed, I’d be slightly disappointed but it wouldn’t stop me from enjoying those products still, or watching out for their next work/menu. I can’t decide whether I’m old out-fashioned and in the modern day minority, or whether I’m a typical consumer. I’d be interested to hear what you and others think…
Hi Colin,
There are 2 different situations that I see:
a) you know the author’s name, you’ve bought them before, you find their book in the bookstore – so basically you don’t go to their site – this works for all brand name authors, impulse buys etc
b) new authors (such as myself) have to find an audience so we need to put ourselves out there through marketing. Every time I tweet something, someone will come here to have a look. I am developing my name as a brand so you will decide you like me and want to try my books – so it’s kind of the reverse process – but for me, it’s the only way I can get your attention (which I have) because of my site. You may then see that I have 2 novels out – Pentecost and Prophecy – and decide to give them a go because you know me.
See what I mean??
I hope that makes sense.
Thanks, Joanna
Good answer, I see what you mean
As you say, it’s the newcomer who needs it; those with the momentum behind them are already easily found. Btw, for me, you got my attention with your tweets. The RTs and the advice pages you post have been and are consistently extremely helpful. So a big thank you 
And all the best for Prophecy!
Joanna said it best. I’m sitting here nodding away.
Great article, Joanna. A visually appealing (and hopefully de-cluttered) website isn’t hard to implement or–for those who hate the hands on approach–terribly expensive either. The design of a writer’s website should come to mind when wanting to put one’s best foot forward–so to speak.
I agree, Tonya – for hardcore serious bootstrappers, there are several low-cost options to at least get a foot in the door of looking good for readers.
Great post as usual James.
“If you’re going to have a website…” — I think as both you and Joanna have said (either directly or indirectly), having a website is no longer an option for the serious author. This is especially true of anyone going the self-published route. The beginning author has to build readership, and the modern author has to do marketing and PR. As far as I’m concerned in this day and age, that starts with a website.
When I was reading your post, I remembered that scene in Bull Durham when Kevin Costner is trying to get Tim Robbins to focus and get serious. Things came to a head over Robbins’ flip flops.
“Your shower shoes have fungus on them. You’ll never make it to the bigs with fungus on your shower shoes. Think classy, you’ll be classy. If you win 20 in the show, you can let the fungus grow back and the press’ll think you’re colourful. Until you win 20 in the show, however, it means you are a slob.”
Takeaway message for authors: until you get to the bestseller list, you’ll be judged on your website before you’ll be judged on your book, so get rid of the fungus.
~Graham
I can’t stop laughing – shower shoes with fungus?! Brilliant!
This is true but weirdly, I have been listening to the Steve Jobs biography on Audible. He spent the first years of Apple wearing no shoes, showering once a week and smelling bad on a fruitarian diet. The guy was a crazy genius – but I don’t know how he got away with that!
Well pointed and excellent point, Joanna. At this age of technology, a website now serves not merely a medium for online presence but a way to attract more readers and followers. I do find ways on how to get me into that zone since I would be left behind and lost in the crowd if I don’t let myself and my book stand out. Might be costly, no doubt, but it is surely effective.
Bingo, Judith. I think writers put so much time and effort into their novels and books that it’s a damned shame when they neglect what comes after the book’s written.
I am amazed to see how dated Anne Bishop and Ursula K. LeGuin’s websites are! Even Stephen King’s site is a bit surprising to me. It is definitely clean and somewhat branded to his style, but it lacks a “wow” factor that I would expect.
As the publicist for an author, I always have to remind myself that visitors to PaulSpite.com may not be seeing what I’m seeing. The navigation is probably not as intuitive to them as it is to me – the person who laid out the nav in the first place.
This guest post is an encouragement to me to reach out to our fan base and see what improvements I can make to Paul’s website. Thank you!
Thanks Brittany – I don’t think big brand name authors need to have great sites as they get readers in other ways – it’s the little guys (like me!) who need to sort out their sites.
Just imagine what big-name authors could do if they *DID* have awesome sites! That’d be stupendous!
The cause and effect would be fantastic, too – imagine if all big authors suddenly made stunning sites and fan interaction a priority. Just think of what would change for everyone else: fans, publishers, other writers…
You have a great book – how to stand out as a great author and make sales? A great website would be “the” thing to do to make it. And interaction with fans shooting up? Everyone would start having discussions with their own fave authors!
Would be very cool indeed.
Very thought-provoking Joanna, thanks. I’m gradually getting my website together at the moment (maxed out my budget with the hosting and domain name, absolutely nothing left to pay someone else to do it for me!) and it’s the best fun I’ve had in ages, trying to get it to reflect my personality without it looking scatter-brained. I love it when I go on an author’s site and can get a feel for who they are; nothing more depressing than an impersonal site put together from a template with no thought for the author’s personality.
Exactly – it’s a creative project in itself!
Looks like you’re headed in the right direction, Karen: A site that reflects YOU! Have fun with the experience, take it slow and enjoy yourself!
Beautiful websites are a plus, but what is important for writers, in my opinion, is readability and ease of use. Something I learned while working in internet marketing is that the most beautiful looking websites don’t always convert the best. The best converting websites were the ones that were the most functional and easy to understand. When designing your site, always keep in mind what you want people to DO when they arrive on your site.
Agreed, Doug. Pretty is as pretty does, but simple, clean and neat wins every time.
And I’m glad you pointed out that last bit: A website’s job is to point people where you want them to go. Guide them and tell them what to do next!
Love the post Joanna. Perfect timing seeing as though I recently queried a few website designers for quotes. I looked into Mens With Pens but refuse to pay five grand for a website. Thanks again for the post.
Website design prices vary greatly, from $30 to $300,000, so you have plenty of choice of what to pay. (Sorry you missed our recent sale where we slashed prices halfway!)
A caution, though: Don’t shop by price. Shop by quality. Online, you definitely get what you pay for and making dollars your priority over good work, high standards and top service means you’ll probably not have a great experience at all (and possibly get screwed).
Worse, you might end up working with someone who only has the skills to make something pretty… but not to get results.
Best of luck with it!
The authors’ websites you cite are indeed astonishingly bad! Even for already-established authors, having good websites would interplay well with their publishers’ marketing efforts. High-profile authors don’t feel a need to market through the Internet, but those who have yet to make their marks in the publishing arena need solid Internet presences. Thanks for the insights!
Many high-profile authors may not feel the same need, but they definitely should. It’s like ignoring half the audience as you’re making a speech at your own fashion show!
Joanna, I started following you on FB and then subscribing to your website and you’ve become my favorite site for writers. Thank you for providing useful, interesting information.
Have you seen Piers Anthony’s site? http://www.hipiers.com/ *shudder. Perhaps we should be more forgiving though. Both Anthony and LeGuin are in their twilight years after a long and successful career, I’m sure marketing isn’t high on their priority list. When you reach a certain age, you’re almost ALLOWED to wear your slippers outside the house, if you get my meaning!
True, true… good point, that.
Makes me wonder about their agents and publishers, though. Because no matter who the person is, this is still a book-selling business and there are dollars involved.
I mean, if you have someone fond and dear who’s innocently walking around wearing something garishly embarrassing, wouldn’t you take the person aside and say, “Piers, darling, we really need to get some pants on you. I know you don’t have a problem at all with this, but it’s for other people, honey.”
Hey James and Joanna
Great tips and really interesting discussion. I ‘m coming at this from a publisher’s perspective, and I think there’s an opportunity here that’s open to the ‘little guys’ that trad publishers don’t have – which is to be both tailored to an individual brand (the author, the writing, the whole package) and responsive to that author’s day-to-day promotional or personal activities.
Traditional publishers often struggle to personalise because of the scale and expense of maintaining web presence across a big list. That’s where an author who has a great website can differentiate themselves.
On a slight side note: of course, lots of trad publishers make up for a clunky website by doing microblogging/tweeting or whatever but, for me, the personal tone of a tweet you know is coming from a publicist is no way as interesting as a tweet from an author, or a website with a strong personal voice, like Joanna’s site.
I’m glad you think I have a strong voice here Katy. Sometimes I read other people’s blogs and think I’m not as strong as they are. But then I’m British and reserved
Hi Joanna,
I think this is a very important issue. I know I need to get my website upgraded as soon as my 2nd book comes out.
I want to redesign mine [eventually]. The ones I like best are interactive / animated – where when you move the cursor over different parts of the front page they move. However, I suspect they affect load time.
Hi Maddy, that’s funny because I hate the animated ones. JK Rowling’s site springs to mind – all movement, no substance! Those ones are very expensive too and not easy to maintain. I don’t think they work well with search engines either. But we all like different things
Good morning
I like to share when I find a website or blog that catches my interest or has valuable information, so the first thing I tend to look for is “Tweet me”, or “Follow me on Facebook” buttons.
Anne Bishop’s blog isn’t bad. It’s clean and straight to the point, but there are no share buttons, no follow me, and no place to leave any comments, so it would be a site that I would not bookmark or return to. As for Stephen King’s (I’m a big fan) And today is the first time I have been to his page! But I doubt very seriously that he designed it himself. Yes he probably has input, but…
Since most of us are not web page or blog designers, our’s tend to be works in progress, adding and taking away items as we go along, hoping we convey what our personalities are like. But just like our pages are works in progress, we, as people, are too.
Great post today. Guess I should see how my blogs are coming along
Have an awesome day!
Karen
George R. R. Martin’s website is awful too: http://www.georgerrmartin.com/
I get that writers aren’t necessarily good at web design, but I’m surprised at all these sf/f writers with crappy sites. Don’t they know that there are LEGIONS of fanboys and fangirls who would kill for the chance to design their sites?
Heh… no, actually, I don’t think so.
Anne Bishop and I actually had a little back and forth about her site. I contacted her, complimented her cover art and fiction and offered to bring that brilliance together in a beautiful site for her.
Her reply could be summarized as follows:
“No thank you. I like my site as it is.”
That said, I completely get that in many cases, generational differences and priorities come into play. A hot Gen Y guy DEFINITELY sees the potential of the web. Whereas someone in their 50s or 60s might be thinking, “Life’s so nice…” and really not interested in all this brou-haha called THE INTERNET.
Which is cool. One day, I want to be like that too
Good advice here, I am amazed at how many cluttered and hard to navigate sf/f author sites I see. That being said, Jacqueline Carey’s site is my go to as an example, to me anyway, of clean, easily navigable, and reflecting her as an author. I’m trying to design my site now through google free site and im trying to keep simplicity and clean design in mind. But it’s hard, it may end up looking amateur and silly, but I guess we all have to learn somewhere.
Thanks for this wonderful post! It has been very useful. I wish that you’ll carry on sharing your wisdom with us.
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