In Today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* The Bradbury Challenge Report
* On Author Websites
* Of Interest
Quote of the Day
“On your website, don’t be in the way of anything your customers want. Be welcoming: Newsletter popup signups are not welcoming, and white text on red or black backgrounds is not welcoming. Make the information easy to find and fun. Authors are amazingly good at annoying people who are trying to buy their books.” Dean Wesley Smith
The Bradbury Challenge Report
Participating in any challenge is a great way to have fun and grow as a writer.
The requirement is to write at least one short story per week, then let me know the title, word count, and genre per the format below. During the past week, the following writers wrote these new stories:
- Erin Donoho “In the Back Seat of My Sister’s Car” 600 Memoir
- Vanessa V. Kilmer “Pandora’s Playhouse” 3015 Romance
- Christopher Ridge “Pizza Man”1432 horror
- William Ridge “Serving Mr. Bigelow” 1044 Horror
- Dave Taylor “The Dare” 2,437 General
- Glynn Young “The Annual Gala” 3238 General
Congratulations to all of these writers.
On Author Websites
I agree with DWS that an author website is essential. I wish mine wasn’t scattered over three websites:
- HarveyStanbrough.com (the main one, which today is largely static),
- HEStanbrough.com (the Journal website, which owing to my use of Substack for TNDJ, is largely static), and
- StoneThreadPublishing.com (my publisher, which owing to my use of Payhip for sales, is largely static
If I had it to do over again, I’d combine all of that at HarveyStanbrough.com (to promote my brand). Don’t be me. Be smart.
I used to also have intentionally static websites for each of my personas, my major characters, and series (Wes Crowley, Stern Talbot, Blackwell Ops, etc.).
Intentionally static websites serve a particular purpose and they’re a good idea, especially if you write in different genres. They exist solely for readers, contain pertinent information about their topic, and they don’t change (hence, they’re static). You put a static website up, maybe update it once or twice a year, but otherwise you forget about it.
On the other hand, your author website should be ACTIVE, meaning you regularly update content for those who’ve gone out of their way to find you.
So in a perfect world had I done everything right, HarveyStanbrough.com would host TNDJ, writer downloads, etc. under a menu item that reads For Writers. It would also host
- a “new releases” newsletter that would go out to my “reader list” and contain occasional freebies (free short story, etc) for my dedicated readers);
- my books in all genres, whether in series, sagas, or one-offs;
- a prominent newsletter sign-up form (maybe a ribbon running across the top) but NEVER in an annoying popup; and
- everything else that’s currently scattered to the winds.
And in designing my author website, above all else, I would not do ANYTHING to come between the person who’s trying to learn about me or my fiction and the information he’s trying to find.
Why shoot yourself in the foot AND make sure the curious reader will never return? If the reader’s even a tiny bit vindictive, if he happens across your name at Amazon or elsewhere, he might intentionally NOT buy from you because you annoyed him when he visited your website.
When the reader encounters a popup that interrupts his viewing of a website, he has to close the window of the popup before he can continue searching for what he came to find. How insane is that?
The writer is actually holding his own work, bio, etc. hostage. The writer is saying, “Nope. I’ll only let you view this stuff if you sign up for my newsletter.” If you’re doing this, get over yourself.
And if the popup is COERCIVE (It won’t close at all until you sign up for a newsletter), so much the worse. When I encounter one of those, I just close the website and find something else to do.
Okay, enough of all that. You do you.
Just know that I’ll personally think you’re missing a few cards from your deck if you intentionally block readers from finding what they’re looking for with a stupid popup after they went out of their way to find your website.
New topic. Most authors I know are missing a sure bet. If you sell (license) your work through Amazon or any of the other major online venue, and if the venue offers an “author page,” take advantage of it.
Why?
Well, first, I can’t believe you even asked that. But if you did, um
- because Amazon et al receive TONS more traffic than you do on your author website (or I do on all three websites combined);
- it’s free; and
- you can use it to drive more traffic to your author website.
Finally, I also agree with Dean about using white text on a black or red (or any other color) background or on a multi-colored graphic.
White text puts a strain even on people with perfect eyesight, and a much larger strain on a reader whose eyesight isn’t perfect.
Um, by the way, D2D and almost every other place else these days, orange or red clickable links on white backgrounds SUCK. Could you maybe use dark blue or black for links? Please? I literally have to take off my glasses and lean across the desk to see what the link says. And I have a 24″ monitor.
This goes for author websites too. Again, why annoy the hell out of people who are trying to click a link? Why make ANYTHING on your author site difficult to read? If you have a reason, please ‘splain that to me. And just FYI, “‘Cause it looks cool” is NOT a valid reason.
But again, you do what you want. But either way, always remember that visitors to your website have gone out of their way to find you and your work. So I recommend you don’t be stupid. Don’t do things to annoy them or run them off.
Of Interest
In 1969, journalists wrote a deliberately awful sex novel as a hoax, and it hit the Times bestseller list (Many thanks to 1440 Sunday)