As an author website designer, it's no surprise that I believe authors greatly benefit from having a website. After years of helping authors improve websites that weren't serving them, or building first-time sites for new authors, I’ve seen that authors without websites face a much harder time establishing their brand. Those with poorly functioning sites are often left frustrated, unsure of what went wrong. I Read more...
One of the questions I ask my author website design clients when we first get started on their project is what they think their website's keywords should be. This helps me understand not only how they think about themselves, but also their understanding of SEO, how they think about their book(s), and how we might structure their website content for content marketing. Understandably, few Read more...
As an author website designer, my knee-jerk reaction is, of course, an enthusiastic yes! But as someone who really likes to understand the why of things, I also regularly ask myself why that's true. Where is the value for the author? How can I make sure the work that I do is contributing to that value? When I think about it and distill it Read more...
This article is designed to help you better understand what the options are when looking to hire an author website designer. There are lots of great choices out there now, so how do you best evaluate them to figure out who to hire? When you are looking for author website design services, it's important to understand that you might be looking for a handful Read more...
Next week I'll start work on an author website for a poet, so I've been reflecting on what sets a poet website design apart from other author website designs. I've been lucky enough to work with some great poets on their author websites, including Sophie Cabot Black and Lee Woodman. And as much as any author website's goal is to create an immersive and experiential Read more...
I've been an author website designer for over 15 years, and in that time I've learned many things about creating websites specifically for authors. In the beginning, I most often worked with the digital marketing departments of traditional publishers who were not in a position to be creating author websites themselves. They either didn't have the talent in-house, and/or weren't planning headcount for it because Read more...
The last few months, and especially the last few weeks, before the release of your book are hectic. Reader copies have gone out and you're starting to hear back. PR is being scheduled. Your publisher (whether it's you or someone else) has lots of tasks to finalize. Not to mention that your anxiety levels will naturally rise a bit because it's a big deal to release Read more...
It's possible, as an author, that you're a relatively private person. After all, for many writers, one of the things that appeals to them about writing is that they can do it alone, without distraction, regularly. It's an activity preferred by someone who is at least a little bit of an introvert. As an author website designer, I have conversations with my clients regularly about Read more...
Whether you're working with a traditional publisher, or not, establishing a mailing list on your author website is a must. Increasingly, your next book submission might not even be considered unless you can show a demonstrated audience via a social media following and/or mailing list. This is a rough truth if email marketing isn't your strength (who thinks of this stuff when they write a Read more...
I've been an author website designer for many years, so I've worked with clients who have started their website projects at all stages related to the release of their book(s). I've created author websites with a 1+ year lead time, most commonly with a 3-6 month lead time, some at the last minute (if my schedule allows), and even some for authors who realize after Read more...
