This post is part of our series, 50 Ways Your Website is Not
Helping You Sell More Books

18. Buying used books makes me evil

“I’ve heard your name, but I’m not familiar with your books. A friend has recommended that I check out your work. The first thing I read on your home page is your latest blog entry–a screed against readers who are stealing from you by purchasing used copies of books, buying ARCs on eBay, loaning your books to friends, checking them out from the library, or reading them via services for the blind.”

If you are going to bash readers, do it in handwriting and then burn the paper. Don’t do it publicly. You never know when a book borrower will go out and buy your entire backlist. The blind reader might recommend your book to a dozen of her sighted friends. The eBay buyer might write a glowing review on his wildly popular blog.

We suspect that unless you’re a NYT bestseller, obscurity is a bigger problem for you than rampant book swapping. However, even if you disagree, it’s probably a bad idea to make sweeping accusations toward your readers on your website. Offending your customers is never a good business plan.

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Elsewhere

News on author websites, blogging, and book promotion

GoDaddy, the domain registrar we often use, has a $1.99 special right now. The trick to registering with GoDaddy is to ignore all the extra junk they try to sell you after you start the checkout process. Look for links or buttons that say “No, thanks” or “Continue with checkout.” Caveat: if you don’t have a PO Box and you don’t want your address and phone number becoming public, you might want to add private registration. ✽

Overwhelmed by online social networks? Unclutter! ✽

Evite Alternatives (via Kat Richardson) ✽

Agent Colleen Lindsay is running a great series on book promotion on her blog. ✽

While we were on vacation last week, agent Nathan Bransford wrote a couple of great posts on author websites and how authors’ blogs influence book sales. There’s some great info in the comments, although there’s also some misinformation about technical issues. (Feel free to ask us about those!) ✽

In the early 21st century, which comes first: the book or the blog? ✽

What makes a good blog? ✽

Text Prefs — a U.K. design firm is conducting a survey on how people like to read onscreen text. Tell them how you like it! They’ve promised to publish the findings so we can all do better at designing things people read. ✽

How to work with a designer and a publicist. ✽

100 Personal Branding Tactics Using Social Media — great overview of how to use the various social media sites to promote yourself. Password management is key here, since you could be signing up for a dozen services or more. Make a spreadsheet! (via our colleague, Jeremy Tolbert) ✽

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