First and foremost, does it pass the WIBBOW Test? Would I Be Better Off Writing? Probably, but … Nowadays, since we don’t have the PR boost of big publishers we need to do something to catch eyes and send them to our books/short stories/what have you. If you can manage it with just Twit/X or other short-form media, then bravo! Congratulations, and keep on doing that and writing.
The rest of us are … not so blessed. I got to thinking about this because BookBub has started hosting author websites. It seems to be a very hands off (for the author) sort of system, and thus far not as … touchy as WP or as speech-protected as Blogspot.* BookBub offers a number of options, from “author does it all” to templates and presets like WP and some others have. Plus, it is BookBub, which readers know as a source for information and sales deals. Reader eyes are already looking that direction, so you will have less work to catch their attention, perhaps. It costs ten dollars US per month at the moment.
Early reviews are generally positive. It seems easy to use, not quite as awkward as parts of WP can seem to be, and the templates fit some of the latest styles for professional websites. BookBub presents the user with options tailored to what the user says he or she needs or wants.
However, the site is hosted by BookBub. At the moment, that’s not a big deal. As with all outside-hosted sites, the question arises about what happens if the hosting company changes terms, or goes under. How easy is it to take your BB blog and move it to a different platform, or your own server (if you decide to go that far)? How do you back up your website? How secure is it? Right now, BB seems to be very secure and stable. As for the rest, I have no answers.
If you prefer to do it all yourself, then there are options from paying GoDaddy or WIX or local hosting places. If you are familiar with Law Dog’s recent saga, you know that even your local hosting contracts might get changed if the host is bought out (think Darth Vader presenting ToS to Lando Kalrissian. Yeah.) If you sell books through your site, then things like this become critical. If your site is just for PR and keeping in touch with readers while you sell through other outlets, then using a hosting or blog service might be the best way to go.
My story: I had been published (fiction) for two years before I started Cat Rotator’s Quarterly. I had readers, and was known from AtH, MGC, and ThePassiveVoice. My blog is a WP blog, free service, so I’m at their mercy so to speak. I use the blog to post tidbits of stories**, musings and random thoughts, some photos, and assorted stuff. If it got nuked by WP I’d be peeved, but it wouldn’t eliminate my sales platform. (Which reminds me, I need to finish copy-pasting some of the content onto my computer, backing up my backup.)
I’d recommend at least a simple website/blog, sort of a “Hi, this me, these are my books, here’s what’s coming in the future.” Snippets of story, pet photos, nothing too controversial or wild unless that’s part of your author persona (“Michael Z. Williamson, paging Michael Z. Williamson, please pick up the white courtesy phone …”) if you want to be a little more personal. I write about gardening, food, cat photos, history, story bits, story world background bits, and stuff like that. You do you.
But write your stories. First and always, write. Don’t be afraid to drop the blog for a while to write your books and stories. Fans want that more than they do dog photos. Whatever way of blogging or web site you choose to go, writing should come first.
Writers in the Storm has an article about BookBub blogs. Read the comments, please – a BookBub rep answers a number of questions there.
*I’m trying to be tactful. I think Blogspot has gotten less restrictive recently, but don’t hold me to that.
**If you do this, remember to take them down at least 72 hours before your book goes live if you are allowing rentals through KindleUnlimited on Amazon. A week is better, to give the ‘net time to clear itself.
Mad Genius Club 
15 responses to “Websites and Authors: How Much Do You Need One and Who Runs It?”
We routinely meet authors, some with many books, who don’t have websites or even have filled out their Amazon author page.
At a minimum, we recommend a basic website that has your author photo (not the Sunoco parking lot stalker one);
Short, medium, and long bios so if some enterprising local reporter is looking for a story about local writers, the info you want them to know is right there;
A list of ALL your books with cover photo, synopsis, and buy links;
And, if you do events, a schedule of upcoming events so people can find you. More events are making decisions on who gets accepted based on an author’s social media presence. If the big library book festival can chose between two equivalent authors, they’ll chose the one who advertises and boosts everyone’s signal, not the shy, shrinking violet.
And fill out your Amazon Author Page!!!!!
That’s all you need to do. Keep it simple. Update only as needed, like when you’ve got a new book or a new event.
I’m curious about where you meet these authors. Is it at conventions? Online in forums? In my everyday life I never meet authors, although I found a way to change that. I’m also curious about why a website should have an author photo. I have noticed when Word Press sends me statistics on my site, that the About page always gets the most views. I’m assuming that those views are semi-real because my family doesn’t need to look at that page over and over. Such views haven’t translated into purchases yet. My sister says that the blog itself doesn’t have an over-arching idea so she thinks it might be a waste of time. However, I can tell that the discipline of posting has improved my writing very distinctly. I’m going to take that as a win.
Do you have a link to your Amazon page on your “About me”?
I dunno! I’ll have to ask Bill because we most certainly should!
If this is addressed to me as well, I also don’t know… I could just go check… returns … and no, no link. I also have my books listed in a difficult way because, no pictures. I think I have an Amazon page but I don’t actually know where it is… (yeah, yeah, yeah, on Amazon, wise guy.)
My main experience, as a fan, is that I manage to find an author, but then I can’t find how to get the books, or book order, or even what is in which books.
This is especially bad on Amazon, since there may be a half dozen different folks that it thinks are the same writer!
It looks like the author’s page access for Amazon is… reasonably enough… https://author.amazon.com/
We’ve done events since 2014 although now that Bill and I are both 65, we’re cutting back. Book festivals, library events, mystery conventions, book fairs, New Author Education Night at our local indie bookstore, and craft shows. They ranged from tiny like Love is in the Air in February at the Ashecombe Nursery which cost us nothing but our time to Malice Domestic which takes three and half days and cost a bundle before we sold a single book.
As we’ve grown, our setup gets bigger and bigger. Tablecloths, table-runners, catalogs discussing all 34 titles, banners, signs, swag, our coordinating uniforms so people recognize us from event to event, stacks of books and the display units to show them off, and all in our brand colors. We aren’t shy when we tell people we’re indie authors. I hand out our catalogs to total strangers when they ask what I do.
This visibility invites questions.
The biggest one is “will you publish my book,” followed by “I have a great idea for a book and if you write it, we’ll split the profits,” followed by “what book sells the most?” Shockingly, the people who ask the last question admit that they don’t read but they’re sure they can write a bestseller because their ideas are so good. Many of these new writers don’t know even the most basic things, such as you really should run spellcheck.
I’ve learned a set of answers, starting with “Are you familiar with Writers’ Digest magazine, available free at your local library. Read a years’ worth of issues and you’ll learn plenty of basic vocabulary about the business AND things like query letters and how trad pub works.
The reason for the author photo is because potential readers like to know a real person wrote that book. The photo can ALSO be used by an enterprising reporter to illustrate a news story. If, however, you write werewolf reverse harem bondage porn, you may wish to have a stylized author avatar along with a pen name to keep potential idiots at bay.
Your website probably won’t sell books even though you’re providing buy links. What it will do, in conjunction with your Amazon Author Page, is make sure an interested reader knows about ALL your books, how they relate to each other, what the newest one is, and are you doing an event anywhere in the area that the interested reader might wish to attend.
Your website provides validation; that you really are an author, and you’re really serious about writing. A website is ALSO another signal to the IRS that yes, you are a real writer and thus legally allowed to take those home office deductions.
I hope this helps!
That was amazing actually. And a bit overwhelming. But what I got out of it most strongly is that it takes a lot of time. So if I did two tiny events this year, that’s actually a good start.
It takes a lot of time. As we get older, we just don’t have the energy to do events. Our canopy broke a leg at the end of last summer and that made the decision to quit doing outdoor shows very easy.
It’s a LOT of work to spend 8 hours plus set up and breakdown on asphalt in July, chatting up total strangers.
I think it’s still worth doing events, especially if you’ve got the energy and right books because you meet people who become fans, who remember you from the vast armies of writers, and you never know. We’ve gotten speaking engagements because we were at an event. The 40 Elephants craft show led directly to a paid speaking engagement plus a free dinner at an Eastern PA writers’ group.
As we pull back on events other than library ones, we want to put the same amount of time into better online advertising. The return should be at least as good and it won’t involve sitting under a canopy in the rain for 8 hours.
Doing years of events was still totally worth it. We learned a lot about presentation, on the spot elevator pitches, salesmanship, and a thousand other things you don’t learn when you stay home.
Re. potential idiots. This is a BIG problem for Romance writers, even people who write quiet, sweet romances. Jodie Thomas is a local romance writer, and she has to have a person to block and divert “enthusiastic” fans (mostly male).
I use an avatar because of a stalker, and because of having a different professional persona at Day Job and at academic conferences.
Oh, yeah. I’ve heard about those fools.
This is where keeping your pen-name secret is critical and the more pornographic your writing, the more critical it becomes. I’m SHOCKED that some writers I know, who write what I’d consider hardcore, are kind of open about it.
don’t put things on your page that you aren’t going to maintain.
If you list what upcoming events you are going to be at, update that list as the dates pass, you don’t want to have it listing dates from years ago.
and make sure you have the credentials for the site in the info that goes with your will, along with instructions on what to do with it after you are gone (I think you should keep the site up, but update status and make sure there are no future plans listed)
you want to make it easy for someone who discovers you to find your other work.
I also think that having a mailing list that is ONLY used for notifications of new releases or appearances. Having a different option if you want to share ‘slice of life’ type stuff as well is a good idea, that’s a different type of marketing, and some people won’t want the trickle of emails about the problems you have with your cats, but will VERY much want to know when a short story appears in some anthology, while others will really want to know all about your daily struggles.
A suggestion–have the “appearances” in reverse order, so people can find you by looking for places you’ve been.
That this also makes it so you only have to remember to update it when you start planning on going to a place is a bonus.
Some of y’all understand that I’m working on my own comics. I’m trying to plan the concept of , eventually, an integrated web site that reflects what is going on in the comics… but i need money to do that… sigh…
I’ve been experimenting with “Friday Fragments” where I post stuff I’ve cut out from/or rephrased in the the WIP, or world-building texts from older projects. Seems to get fairly positive reactions. Monday is sometimes “Music Monday” where I usually drop Suno AI pieces, or occasionally human-made music that crosses my radar. And sometimes Monday is “Midjourney Monday” where I drop off Midjourney generated images that I use to help visualize settings for my novels.