Paged Media
❦Web Design for Authors
November 6, 2006
15. Unreadable colors
“Red text on a black background gives me a migraine. I don’t get far enough to find the excerpts.”
There is a reason why the majority of text people read is black on white. “Check your color scheme” to make sure there’s enough contrast that everyone will be able to read it. Stay away from black or very brightly colored backgrounds. They’re hard on the eyes, and in many cases they print badly.
Posted by admin in 50 Ways Your Website is Not Helping You Sell More Books at 9:48 am • comment
October 30, 2006
14. This book is not yet available
“The book featured on your home page is far more exciting than anything on your backlist. I’m intrigued! And you’ve helpfully provided a link to Amazon. Clickity-click! But… I can’t buy it yet. Amazon says it won’t be released for another three months. Let’s see what other customers purchased instead…”
Make sure that you mention the release date when advertising your upcoming titles. Provide excerpts. Hell, put a countdown to release on the home page!
Posted by admin in 50 Ways Your Website is Not Helping You Sell More Books at 9:42 am • comment
October 23, 2006
13. Booksense Nonsense
“I’m quite certain that your book is not stocked in my local store, so I go to your site to buy it online. You’ve used Booksense for all your links… but the closest store they list is 100 miles away, and none of those listed actually sells online.”
Provide a variety of ways that your readers can get your books. Include Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and perhaps even an out-of-print search service. You want it make sure it is easy for people to buy your books online. As much as we admire their principles, BookSense makes online shopping unnecessarily difficult, especially for readers in rural areas.
Posted by admin in 50 Ways Your Website is Not Helping You Sell More Books at 9:41 am • comment
October 16, 2006
12. Omnibus oops
“I’ve just finished the first three books in your Protagonist series. I want more! The copy I have seems to be a first printing, and there aren’t any further books listed in the front, even though I know there are a dozen books in this series. I go to your website and pluck the next title from your comprehensive, chronological list. I run to the store. It’s in stock! I glance at the first few pages, and …oh, hell. I’ve already read this. It’s an omnibus of the first three books! Now I’m twenty miles from home and I have no idea what the next book in the sequence is.”
If your books are compiled into an omnibus, mark it as such in your bibliography and indicate which books it contains.
Posted by admin in 50 Ways Your Website is Not Helping You Sell More Books at 9:40 am • comment
October 9, 2006
11. Unprofessional appearance
“Your book is an excellent example of gateway science fiction, and I’ve persuaded my mother-in-law, who thinks SF is juvenile, to give it a shot. However, when she goes to your site, she’s confronted with a jumbled assortment of star backgrounds, laser-gun clip art, and photos of your pets. She concludes that she was right; this is not the site of a professional anything.”
You need honest critiques of your website just as you do for your fiction. Ask a few people who don’t live with you to give you their reactions to your new designs.
Posted by admin in 50 Ways Your Website is Not Helping You Sell More Books at 9:34 am • comment
October 2, 2006
10. More stories in series
“I’ve just finished your Quest of the Protagonist series. It was excellent! I see that your bibliography includes many short stories. Are any of them set in the same milieu as Q of the P? I can’t tell.”
If the short stories are related to your series, indicate the connection in your bibliography. Better yet, when you list your series books in order, include the stories in the chronology.
Posted by admin in 50 Ways Your Website is Not Helping You Sell More Books at 9:32 am • comment
September 25, 2006
9. Stories related to series
“I’ve just read your award-winning short story, and I gleaned from the magazine’s intro that it’s set in the world of your Quest of the Protagonist series. I was impressed with the story and I’d like to try the books, but when I go to your site, you have all sixty of your novels listed in order of publication, and I can’t tell which ones are part of the Protagonist series.”
If you’ve written a series, make it clear which book comes first. In addition, consider separating the series books in your bibliography or marking them in some way to distinguish them from your other work.
Posted by admin in 50 Ways Your Website is Not Helping You Sell More Books at 9:27 am • comment
September 18, 2006
8. Unexpected adult content
“I’m checking out your site on my lunch break. The first thing I see on your home page is your latest cover — a mostly nude computer-rendered couple performing an unlikely act. Not safe for work!”
Keep in mind that many people browse the web at work or in public places like libraries and coffee shops. If your writing and/or book covers are explicit, consider keeping the home page discreet and warning visitors that they’ll encounter adult content if they continue. This might also keep you from running afoul of your web host’s policy on adult content; some are very strict.
Posted by admin in 50 Ways Your Website is Not Helping You Sell More Books at 9:26 am • comment
September 11, 2006
7. The tour guide
“‘My pet dog, Rufus, will take you on a guided tour of my website…’ You’re kidding me, right? Right?
Unless you are writing for children, gimmicks like this are condescending to your readers. Treat your readers as though they are intelligent adults. If Rufus doesn’t have anything to do with your books, he doesn’t belong on the site.
Posted by admin in 50 Ways Your Website is Not Helping You Sell More Books at 9:25 am • comment
September 4, 2006
6. Too Many Sites
“I clicked your name on this author’s community site. I thought I’d find out what you’re writing, but there were these convention reports from 1998. Are you still alive?”
If you have several old sites floating around out there on different accounts, corral them! Consolidate and archive all the content onto a single site, if you can, and designate it your main site. Add a link to the main site from all the old ones, or redirect traffic outright if there’s nothing left to see at the old locations.
Posted by admin in 50 Ways Your Website is Not Helping You Sell More Books at 9:24 am • comment
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. ✽
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!) ✽
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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