Bad Author Sites

As a DYI'er, I like to view other self-published authors' websites. They're difficult to find, unless an author is so proud of his that he slaps it up in a social media post. There is a Goodreads author group, though, that specifically asks authors to post links to their sites. Weirdly, it hasn't garnered many responses. Do most authors not have one?

I can't claim that my author site has helped my sales, but I believe in presenting a professional image, and having a website I can note in the back matter of my books portrays me as a serious writer. All the sites I've viewed except for one, which was awesome, appear to be afterthoughts. It's as if they were told, or realized they should have a website and simply slapped one together.

Creating a website is ridiculously easy, especially is one uses a hosting service. It's essentially drag and drop, plus adding text, which should be easy for a writer. I used to pay a hosting service, but dropped it for a couple of reasons: I learned that a Blogger site could be converted to a regular website for free, and for some reason the host I used was extremely sluggish when modifying. I would type out a sentence and five minutes later (a slight exaggeration) the sentence would populate my site. Aside from that, I could easily add images and whatever else I wanted. My biggest decision was choosing a template.

So, why are many author sites so ugly and uninviting? I like to scroll to the bottom of these sites to find which company is hosting them. A lot of people swear by WordPress, but I'm less than impressed. Same with GoDaddy. I did try out one of GoDaddy's "free" (until it goes live) templates and it was essentially impossible to work with.

But it's basic design. Have an inviting layout ~ so, not three columns of text. It's not a newsletter. Choose a font size that's readable without a magnifying glass. Font color, too, is important. Don't get too fancy. Don't use grey letters on a black background. You'll only frustrate visitors. 

Put the important stuff upfront. So, if like me you have multiple pages, arrange them logically. The landing page is a "welcome" and a newsletter subscribe box. Next is books ~ always. Then comes my bio, then my "blog", which I'm not real enamored with, and finally reviews. If you only have one published book, make its image your landing page, along with some relevant info about it and maybe a good review or two. I don't provide writing samples, but a lot of authors pen short stories and include them on their sites. Cool for fans, if you have some. That should be one of your pages.

Images ~ People are visual, so while I don't overdo images, I have one on each page (except for my books page, whose images are the books themselves). 

Don't create a cluttered site. I get frustrated and bored quite easily, and if content is splattered all over the page, I click out. 

Live with your site a while. Pull it up occasionally. I'm always finding elements I'm not happy with, so I change them. If your site looks pleasing to you, it'll be pleasing to visitors. 

Your author site is you. Be presentable.