Is it Time to Update Your Author Website or Set One Up?

How many of you have a website that you set up years and years and years ago and it still looks the same as it did at the beginning? It probably has started to look a little outdated, a bit boring now that you've had it for so many years. Maybe you're not writing in the dame genre, so it doesn't quite match with your message anymore. Or maybe you set your website up so hastily that it was never quite what you wanted in the first place. 

Maybe you don't have an author website yet and are not really sure where to start.

Whether you want to revamp your website or want to set one up but you're not sure where to begin, here are a few hints and tips to help you get started.

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The Challenge

You already know why you want a website, right? Someone told you needed an author platform or you've published a few books and have a blog you write every week ... or fortnight ... month ... when you get the time, I mean, when will a book get written if you keep writing blogposts all the time, right? Anyway, the why is because us author's need a place where our readers can interact with us, get news on what we are writing next or finally get to hear that your book is being published soon, yes!

The challenge is what do you want to include in your website, or new updated version? Will you have a blog? Do you need a space to sell your books? What is your 'brand' - your message? What are your books about?

This is something you need to figure out first. You all should know what a mind map is. It's a great technique to throw out ideas on a subject, no matter how weird and wonderful they may be. Try it out for your website. What do you want to include - don't be shy? If it's a cool cinematic space animation with a ship flying through or a love heart that follows the users cursor around the page, jot it down. So many things are possible these days. The more ideas the better. You can whittle them down later to something more manageable.

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Your Audience

Regardless of whether you end up having people from all stages of life visit your website, you still need to consider your audience. Are you writing for the young adult, the confident twelve year old reader, the millennial who loves a good romance book or is looking for something more mysterious? Researching what your target audience is looking for from a marketing perspective is a great way to ensure your website relates to them personally.

Your Competition

It never hurts to see what other authors writing in the same genre are doing on their websites. Check out some of the more popular authors, even the more mainstream authors. Have a look at how they are using their space. What neat tricks are they using to engage their viewers. Is it a click and drag feature? Little cinematic videos? Maybe they use sound every time you click on something. Write out the pros and cons. Is there something that works on their website they you could incorporate in yours?

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Web Design Trends

This year there are some fun trends happening in web design.

Experimental Navigation is becoming more popular. The traditional fixed navigation menu on the top of the screen is becoming outdated and people are looking for something that is visually unique that exhibits an extension of your design 'brand'. The use of experimental navigation can generate visual interest and be fun for the reader.

One of the more popular trends is scrolling effects - animation which is triggered by as viewers scroll down a page. This can be as simple as a parallax scrolling effect that creates depth or interactive and dynamic which will encourage your readers to continue scrolling. You can use this to create a break in context or maybe even immerse the reader into a 3D experience.

Drag interaction is a great effect designed to mimic actual, physical action and allows your readers to pick up objects, move them around, make things jump, shrink, and grow. This type of gesture interaction is gaining popularity with more websites as the possibilities of what you can do are endless. If you want to create something dynamic, intense or inspiring - check out Falter Inferno's website. It might be the new way we do interactive Book Trailers ;)

Layering colours, images, shapes, typography, animations and other elements is an easy way to add something new to your website and has become increasingly popular in web design. This useful technique can add depth and texture to the design  by using shadows and overlapping various elements to create a three dimensional space.

Kinetic typography has been used in the filming industry for decades. This animation technique is becoming more prevalent in web design due to its immediate attention grabbing ability. This has been used to highlight the importance of a section or text, guide your reader as they scroll through the website and gradually reveal information to their delight.

If you're amazing at digital design or have some really great friends, three dimensional artwork and immersive web sites have been increasing in popularity due to the continued interest in Virtual Reality. From engaging three dimensional branding to completely immersive world design, this trend embodies visual interest and engagement your reader. This would be a readers dream for those who write fantasy. Have a look at  Choo Choo World - it is so much fun!

These are but a few web design trends to consider and most of them can be accomplished using standard website builders like Wix, Wordpress or Squarespace. Otherwise, if it all seems too hard but you still want something with a bit more than your average website, there are many web designers who can look at designing something for you. The more engaging your website is, the more your reader will want to engage with you and your stories.

Check out these author websites that are a bit different.

https://rickriordan.com/

https://jenniferegan.com/

https://www.jamespatterson.com/

https://www.taylortyng.com/

If you're still unsure what to do or how to go about setting one up or updating your existing one to something more engaging, ask your questions in the comments and I may be able to help out or give you some direction. :)

K.A. Hart aka. A.T. Richmond

How Do Genre Butterflies Focus Their Marketing? — Susan J Bruce

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I’m one of several authors in the Christian Writers’ Downunder group who are self-confessed genre butterflies—or genre rebels. I use the latter if I'm in an edgier mood 😎. I’ve written about this before in Confessions of a Genre Butterfly, but I wanted to revisit this subject today as it's relevant to me right now. 

How do I market two books—one coming soon and the other next year—when the audience for each of those books is different? Can this ever work?

I’ve been revamping my website as I prepare to release my debut young adult (YA) novel, Running Scared, in the next few weeks. [Bear with me if you head over there and get the 'coming soon' page. I'm having trouble with a couple of settings—it should be sorted soon so check back later.]

I wrote the first draft of Running Scared several years ago as part of my creative writing Masters degree. It’s had lots of nibbles from publishers over the years but hasn’t quite sold. I like this book and I’m proud of it. It’s a good story and deserves to be out there. In 2018, it won the Omega Writers Caleb award for an unpublished manuscript, but for the last year it’s been languishing—hidden from the world—on my computer’s hard drive. I've now decided to embrace indie publishing and send Running Scared out into the world.

There is no problem in publishing a book like this. The difficulty is marketing it when my work in progress (WIP), Dead Again, is a very different book.

Running Scared is contemporary YA, deals with social issues, and contains suspense, first love, and lots of domestic drama. While the romance is sweet, and the story imbibes a significant amount of hope, the circumstances have an edge. It's a story of courage and overcoming that will keep you on the edge of your seat rather than make you feel cosy and warm on a rainy Sunday afternoon.  

In contrast, my current WIP, Dead Again, is a lazy Sunday afternoon read. It’s a light-hearted amateur-sleuth mystery with a romantic subplot, for grownups. The characters change and overcome, but offbeat humour is mixed with the mystery and more poignant character moments. 

The above isn’t the final cover for Dead Again. It's a concept I created to help me write the book. But it should give you the general vibe. Since putting it together, I've added a cat to the story so she'll need to somewhere on my final cover 🐈. I'm only about a fifth of the way through the draft but I'm enjoying the challenge. 

With a mystery, you need to create the backstory of the murder, then weave it through the narrative in a way that brings the assailant to justice by the end of the book. You must give enough clues to give the reader a chance to work out whodunit, while hiding the identity of the murderer. Can I do this? I’ll give it a good go. If it doesn’t work, I’ll turn it into a romantic suspense 😁. Flexibility is one of the benefits of indie publishing! The point is, right now I feel like writing on the lighter end of the literary scale. 

I think this is partly because of Covid—and because I spent much of last year doing some intense non-fiction ghostwriting. Right now, I’m up for fun-filled murder and mayhem! I will write YA again—I have a couple of ideas simmering—but for now I’m craving the escapism of my amateur-sleuth mystery series. 

But. And it’s a big BUT. How do we market ourselves as authors, create an author brand, when our first and second books are for different audiences and have a different tone? 

The purest wisdom is to not mix different genres and age groups under one author's name. An eclectic range of books can create confusion among readers on distribution platforms like Amazon. Amazon remembers what books we like to read and suggests others we might like in the ‘also bought’ section of their website. In today’s digital world, authors and publishers must fight for every bit of visibility they can get. We need the right book being shown to the right reader! 

And then there's the mailing list and the website. My site has a mystery and suspense focus which can cover both novels, but how do I create a mailing list that attracts both sorts of readers? Should I create separate newsletters?

I have some non-fiction book ideas too. How do I handle that?

It’s tricky, isn’t it? 

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Would it be better to create a new pen name and another website? 

The problem is that each new site means more work, not just in building the site but in maintaining it and using it as a hub for marketing and social media. I’m not keeping up with social media as it is. And I do other things—animal art and author services such as editing and proofreading. I really should have a separate site for those too, but there is no way I could manage four sites.

There is no perfect solution to my problem—other than not publishing Running Scared—and waiting until Dead Again comes out next year. But I think this novel deserves its time in the light and if it inspires just one teenager to have hope when they're in a dark place, it will be worth it. And I do want to write more YA—just not right now. 

My decision? 

• I’m  going to publish Running Scared as Susan J Bruce and start building my mailing list with some freebies focused on that book. 

• Once that’s sorted, I’ll add another segment to my mailing list and offer a short story sampler that isn’t just YA focused. People can click on one or the other (maybe both?). I'll also send this out to my existing list.

• At this stage I’m also going to publish the mystery series under Susan J Bruce. I’ve seen authors successfully combine all sorts of books and services on one site, so it’s possible. Scottish author, Wendy H Jones, is a Christian who writes for the mainstream. Wendy has adult non-fiction, YA, crime, humour, and children’s books all on the one site, under the one name. She tells her readers she’s ‘got them covered from the cradle to the grave’. As I wrote this article I came across three different blogs that said the main consumers of YA books are adult women. So maybe Wendy’s onto something. Get the mother to buy her daughter the YA book (the mother will read it first of course) and at the same time she can pick up an amateur-sleuth mystery for herself. If Wendy can do this, why can’t I? It’s worth a try 😀.

• When I get time (ha!), I’m going to create a separate portfolio site for my art and possibly another for author services, but I’m going to keep life as simple as I can and run most things from the hub of my main author site. This may change in the future depending on how my creative business evolves, but it feels like the best way to keep myself sane for now.

This may not be the perfect solution and the marketing purists will groan, but it's the best I can do for now. I'm still early in my writing career and my book writing direction could change a couple of times before I find my groove. It would be different if I had ten books out and they were all different genres. That's fine if your writing is a hobby but not if you want it to be a key focus within your creative business.

What about you? Are you a rebel genre butterfly? If so how do you market your books? How do you bring focus to your website and mailing lists? What solutions have you found? Please let me know in the comments below. And feel free to leave a link to your website so everyone can see your awesome genius at work 😃.

Susan J Bruce, aka Sue Jeffrey, spent her childhood reading, drawing, and collecting stray animals. Now she’s grown up, she does the same kinds of things. Susan worked for many years as a veterinarian, and now writes stories filled with mystery, suspense, heart and hope. Susan also loves to paint animals. Susan won the ‘Short’ section of the inaugural Stories of Life writing competition and won the 'Unpublished Manuscript' section of the 2018 Caleb prize. Susan is the editor of'If They Could Talk: Bible Stories Told By the Animals' (Morning Star Publishing) and her stories and poems have appeared in multiple anthologies. Her e-book, 'Ruthless The Killer: A Short Story' is available on Amazon.com. You can check out some of Susan’s art work on her website https://www.susanjbruce.com.

The Number Line of Faith

I was having some great conversations with people about the gospel on our short-term mission trip to New Zealand.  We gathered each night so that the team leader could record the daily statistics to send back to the mission organisation and I would eagerly tell about my experiences.  The only problem was that my efforts didn’t seem to count.  Unless I’d gone through an entire Christian tract with someone or led them in a prayer to receive Christ, there wasn’t a box to tick on the tally sheets.  I felt like a bit of a failure in my evangelistic attempts until I remembered something I had heard about the number line of faith. 

Think of someone’s spiritual journey as a number line that goes from -10 through zero to +10.  At -10 the person is far from God and not receptive to hearing about him.  As the person moves closer to zero, they’re more open to spiritual things.  Zero is the point at which they become a Christian. As they read the Bible, pray, and learn more about God, they grow in their Christian walk and move further along the number line of faith.  That gave me a new perspective.  I wasn’t a failure if someone didn’t become a Christian when I shared with them.  I could still help them in their journey.  It also reminded me that God is the one who does the converting.  He’s already working in someone’s life long before I talk to them.  I may come across them when they’re -7, -1, or +4; but I can join God in His work.  Others may have different roles in that work, but it’s not up to us to compare ourselves to them.  We’re all part of a team just as Paul and Apollos were part of a team (see 1 Cor. 3:3-9).

So what does this have to do with writing?  I recently read an article that looked at the debate about whether Christian novelists should stick with Christian publishers or try for the mainstream market.  In that article and elsewhere, there has also been discussion about what should or should not be included in a ‘Christian’ novel.  There are arguments on both sides and it’s not my aim to canvas them here.  As I’ve been reflecting on this, however, I wonder if the number line of faith could be a helpful tool in thinking about the markets for which we write.

Which segment of that number line do you see as your main audience?  Are you called to help new Christians learn about what it means to be a follower of Christ?   Do you want to challenge mature Christians to move from complacency to action, or help them work through deeper issues of life that don’t have pat answers?  Maybe you feel led to reach those who are seeking, but have not yet committed to one faith over another.  Your writing might help them consider the claims of Christ and move them towards accepting Him as their Saviour.  Other writers may be more concerned about those who are currently far from God and the aim is to bring them to the point where they will at least consider spiritual issues. 

Each audience requires a different kind of writing.  Someone at -9 will be turned off by scripture references in the first few pages of a novel, whereas someone at -2 might be quite happy to read about characters who pray when they’re in difficult situations.  Rather than debating whether we should aim for Christian or mainstream publishers, we should seek God about the direction to take, hone our mission statements, and then aim for the appropriate market.

Of course the reality is not as neat as the examples I’ve given.  The same book can have a number of layers that touch people at different stages of their spiritual journeys.  The same author may also write different books that are pitched at various types of readers.  However, thinking and praying about the audience we hope to reach can help us to be more focused and effective in our writing. 

Which side of the number line best gels with your mission statement?

 

Nola Passmore is a freelance writer who has had more than 80 short pieces published in various magazines, journals, and anthologies (including true stories, devotions, poetry and short fiction). She has a passion for writing about what God has done in her life and encouraging others to do the same. (Some call it "nagging", but she calls it "encouragement").