Author Websites

As the Information Age spews more technology into everyday life, websites become more of a necessity than a want for authors to promote themselves and their work. Many big name authors have their websites developed and managed by their publishers or other companies. Unfortunately, most author don't gets those services. If you're one of the latter and slightly neo-Luddite/technologically challenged like me, making an author website like Jonathan Stroud's, Kim Harrison's or Stephen King's seems daunting.

Luckily, author websites are easy to do and have standard elements. Many companies offer services where you can create your own website with little hassle like Weebly, Wix, Webs or Yola. Often, if you pay some fees, you can get more/better services; if you can't afford to pay, their free services are sufficient to make a professional looking site, and not something that looks like this: the worst author website I've ever seen. The only drawback of using free services is that the companies will usually place a small advertisement on your site, but it's unobtrusive and typically at the bottom of your site's pages.

Buying your site's domain name, though, is an expense that should be taken. Domain names can be purchased for a set amount of time from the company you use to create your site (usually for one, three, five or ten years), and these purchases can be renewed once expired. If you choose not to buy it, your domain name is made an extension of the hosting company's website, for example: johndoe.weebly.com if you use Weebly. This can become confusing if another author, organisation, etc. publishes a site with your domain name that is not subsumed under another company's site, for example: just johndoe.com (someone else's) instead of johndoe.weebly.com (yours). Readers and prospective readers may be led to a site for a freelance plumber instead of yours. If you buy your domain name, no one can use it for the set amount of time that you own it, getting rid of this problem.

However you choose to arrange your site, it should include the following things/pages:

Author Biography

This can be the same one printed on or in your book(s), but can be more informal, incorporating more personal information that may have nothing/little to do with what you write. This could include things like clubs, sports or other organisations in which you are a member, your pets, interests in gardening, etc. Just don't get too personal, use foul language, tell your whole life story or include things that are very unprofessional like where all your birth marks are.

Author Photograph

While this is not an absolute necessity, it is a fact that books which include author photos sell more copies. Why? Because reader like to be able to put a human face to the writer. For the same reason, including an author photo on your website is a good idea.

 If you've published traditionally with a publishing house:



Example of a good author photo.
(Janice Y.K. Lee, author of The Piano Teacher)



You may have gotten the chance to have a professional photo taken for the back cover or inside paratext of your book at your own or the publisher's expense; if so, use that one. If the photo was contracted and paid for by the publisher, you may have to ask permission to use it, but it's unlikely that a publisher would not allow it's use on an author website.



If you've not had this chance or you've self-published:

Having photos professionally taken is a good expense and can be relatively cheap if the photographer will sell you a digital copy. Then, you can upload it the the site with no problems. If not, purchasing one small photo print also does not cost very much and you can then scan it and upload the image to your site.

If you really can't afford to have photos professionally done:

Doing them yourself is an option, but you have to be careful. Bad author photos will hinder your reputation and your book sales; this damage can be permanent depending on how bad the photo is, how many people have seen it, and who has seen it. Keep the following in mind if you choose to take you own author photo or get a friend to do it:



This would make a bad author photo.



1. Make sure you wear appropriate, non-offensive clothing that is clean. Even if you write erotica, it's not a good idea to wear sexually explicit clothing. You're trying to promote your work, not apply for a job at Playboy. Likewise, clothing with offensive language or anti-whatever messages are also a bad idea.



 2. Be aware of the background. Don't photograph yourself in incongruous places, for example: if you write law textbooks, don't have a Teletubbies poster on the wall in the background. Bad locations can really hurt your credibility as a writer.

3. Don't emulate poses from fashion magazines. Unless you are also a model, these poses will make you look ridiculous and add nothing to your authorial identity.

See?

4. Make sure that it's not blurry, and that you don't have closed or red eyes (even if you write horror novels, this last one does not make you look scary or cool; it just looks bad).

5. Be the only person in the photo. Otherwise, how is the reader supposed to know who you are?

If you're leery about putting your photo on the internet:

There are many reasons authors don't want their images available on the web. Maybe because buddy and her/his dog can do anything with it, including stalk them? Or because they publish under multiple names and don't want anyone to know that each name refers to the same author? You can have photos done that cover your face and still look professional. Kim Harrison did this for many years to keep her work under her other name, Dawn Cook, separate from her adult and young adult urban fantasy novels.



Kim Harrison author photo that
appeared on the backs of
The Good, the Bad and the Undead,
For a Few Demons More and
The Outlaw Demon Wails.





Kim Harrison author photo, which
appeared on the back of
A Fistful of Charms.



Bibliography

Having a list of all your published works makes it easy for new readers who like one of your books to find others by you. It also allows long-term readers to see when new books are published. Besides the titles of your books, you should also include their cover images (all of them if there is more than one cover for a given book), the publisher information, date of publication (or projected date if a book isn't available yet), and short synopses (which can be taken from the back covers), and price(s) from different sales channels. Sophie Kelly (aka Darlene Ryan) has a good bibliography on her site.

Events and Announcements



Book signing with Jonathan Stroud.
(St. Louis County Library)

 Any public or virtual events in or at which you will be appearing, including book signings, book launches, readings, awards ceremonies, school visits, interviews, etc. should be listed in this section. Major announcements like award short-listings and achievements, book publications, etc. should also be included. If you have no or few events or announcements, adding community literary events or news about co-authors of your books (or illustrators) can also be added to this section.

Blog

Sometimes author blogs and announcements are incorporated, so that events have their own section. Blogs should be narrowed to professional or literary subjects, but can include personal postings as well. These should not be too personal, for example: while it's okay to mention that you spent Christmas with your parents, reporting a fight with your mother over said holiday is too much. Even if little is going on with your literary or personal life, adding something to an author blog at least once a week shows your readers that you are interested in staying connected with them and in your writing career.

Author Contact Information

This could just include an e-mail address or a way to send physical mail to you through publishing houses or agents.