When you write a book you plan it out in detail before you start, you understand the characters, the plot lines, the location and you will probably do a lot of research before you start.
A good website is no different, the characters are your audience, who are you targeting? What does your ideal reader look like ? what other authors will they read? what TV & Films shows do they watch? where do they read? why do they read ? Where do they go? What do they do? Understanding your audience is key to making the site one that will engage. Also consider who else will be on the site other than your readers. Agents, Publishers, Booksellers, the Press and Media, those wanting engage you for speaking events and book signings. Ensuring the website answers all these needs in a clear and easy to use way is critical.
As for the plot lines? What you want your visitor to do when they get to your site, purchase a book ? sign up to an email newsletter ? follow you on social media ? How do you make these as easy as possible for the visitor, obvious and engaging?
The location… where are you going to place your site where people will see it ? Will you be found on Google, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram where do your readers hang out online?
Get all this thinking right, planning it out in as much detail as you can is the foundation for a successful project and only then are you ready to start your website. So what will you need for the site ?
A Stunning Design
Your website should have no less attention than your book covers, it should carry forward your brand as an author and reflect your personality and the tone and style of your work, whilst not fighting against the cover art of the books which need to be showcased.
Working Well on Mobiles and Tablets
The design should cater well for the over 50% of visitors that will be accessing your website from a tablet or mobile device. This is more critical than ever and will only become more so.
Content is Key
It should be clear and simple to navigate and provide the visitors the information they want as well as highlight areas of further interest and might perhaps provide additional research that will give the visitor a reason to return time and again.
Showcasing your Books
It goes without saying that showcasing the books should be front and centre to an authors website, but what information should you provide ? Make sure you pick a website platform that gives you a structured and well-ordered way of presenting books. Specifically and encoding the pages in the way search engines understand for books specifically, allowing for cover art, book precis, press reviews, reader reviews, social media sharing links and most importantly links to the key places to buy your book online, or perhaps to order directly from the website.
Video
Consider some video on your site, a great example might be a Q & A session with you, or an interview about the book, your writing process, inspirations and challenges.
So you have a great website ready to launch, you need to give it an audience so how do you engage with social media and online advertising to make it happen? We’ll cover this in another article
And finally..
How do you measure and review your website success? Like most good books require a good editor to read and review the book, to refine the story and pacing to identify the plot holes.
You should revisit your website on a regular basis to review how well it is performing, look at the visitors, where they are coming from, what they are searching for. Which pages are visited the most often? what pages are driving people to take action? Review all this and make tweaks and changes to continually improve.
If you feel doing this will get in the way of writing your next book, which is what you really want to do, then give Trevor Spink at AuthorSite.co.uk a call to talk about how we can make this happen for you.
