Paged Media

Because authors deserve professional websites.

March 26, 2007

33. Shifting landscape

33. “Whoa. A second ago I was looking at this starscape, and now I’m on a notebook-looking page. Am I still on the same site?”

Playing with different designs is fun, but a professional site should look consistent throughout all the pages.

That’s not to say each page look exactly the same. For example, we admire Cory Doctorow’s site, which uses a consistent layout with varying color schemes that match each of his book covers. Some authors take it too far, though, by changing the layout to such an extent that each book appears to have its own distinct site. Readers need to know that they haven’t accidentally wandered into some unknown web destination, and they’re still on the right site. Keep the look consistent, with subtle shifts in color or images to distinguish parts of the site devoted to different books.

Posted in 50 Ways Your Website is Not Helping You Sell More Books at 10:51 am

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