Writing Down Words

Websites for Authors

last updated on: 27 June 2012 filed under: Marketing, Relationship with Readers, Tools of the Trade

An author's website is usually the hub of their presence on the web.

Any website will always be a work-in-progress, constantly evolving and never finished. Once they are "good enough" they go live (and often they go live when they are still in need of a bit of work). This is quite reasonable: an author's career never stands still and what an author wants from their website will keep changing, with each change incrementally improving.

Different authors will have different aims and will want to stamp their individual personality on their own website. As with writing a book, there is no empirical measure of the "right" or the "wrong" way with a website. Designing a website is all about making choices—there are no wrong choices, but there are definitely some things an author can do which will not support the author's aims.

The area where author websites fall down is not the content, but the implementation. Many try to be too clever, or get obsessed by looks, or let their designers run wild. This note looks at what authors should do, and also considers some of the practices that should be avoided.

Going Viral

last updated on: 20 May 2012 filed under: Marketing, Relationship with Readers

Viral marketing is one of those poorly defined notions that is often misunderstood.  For the sake of clarity in this article, I am using the term viral marketing to encompass the notion of spreading a message by word-of-mouth (in the many forms that word-of-mouth can take).

Viral marketing is a hugely powerful tool and one that every author should be aware of, if for no other reason that other people (those doing the word-of-mouth thing) are doing your marketing for you.  However, it is marketing, not selling—you still need to do something to ensure that any interest generated from viral marketing is converted into sales.

Your Book Is Rubbish... But That Probably Doesn't Matter

last updated on: 17 May 2012 filed under: Commercial Considerations, Relationship with Readers

Take a look at any sales-based charts—whether the chart is a list of bestselling books, most downloaded music, most viewed television programs, or whatever. Choose one of the charts and review it item by item. My hunch is that you will either “like” it or “dislike” each item, and that the dislikes will significantly outweigh the likes. Not only that, but you will have a certain level of disdain for your dislikes. Indeed you may conclude that these items are simply rubbish.

And, they probably are rubbish.

However, someone out there is buying (or watching) these things otherwise they wouldn’t be in the chart. In the eyes of the beholders of those item, they have purchased (or watched) an item of beauty, and I’m sure they would see your beauty as rubbish.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter whether what you do is any good, what matters is whether people like it and buy it. And as an author, it doesn’t matter whether you have any talent, provided what you create is what your readership base wants to buy.

The Sawtooth Tail and Building Your Readership

last updated on: 17 May 2012 filed under: Marketing, Relationship with Readers

If you are going to be commercially successful as an author—in other words, if you are going to generate sufficient income to support your chosen lifestyle—then you need to sell books. That should not be news...

So what is the best way to sell your current book? Simple... publish a new one.

Now that may sound a bit flippant, so let me elaborate, but before we look at the Sawtooth Tail, let’s look at how we got to where we are.