Enter my contest for two "Blood Ties: Season One" DVDs and two Tanya Huff novels!
Okay, let me kvetch for a moment. I was trying to post info about upcoming releases and I cannot for the life of me understand 1) why the authors don't have websites, and 2) why the ones who have websites don' t have any info about books that are being released next month. Also, no, I don't want to listen to a bunch of thunder and see flash graphics before entering your website. If I want to see a storm, I'll watch the Weather Channel. I don't want to wait a long time for your flash graphics to load just so I can click enter.
If I can't find an author online, you know fans can't find the author either.
Example of how to do it right: I google "Anya Bast," and the first result is her website. On her home page, she has the cover, summary, and how to order her new book, Witch Fury. A click takes me to a longer description and another click takes me to an excerpt: "Sarafina might’ve been named for the angels, but she’d always known one day she’d end up in hell. Her mother had told that a hundred times while she’d been growing up. She just never figured it would be while she was still breathing. But here she was—broke, dumped, and grief-stricken. It couldn’t get any worse."
Another click on a header tab takes me to a contest for an autographed copy of Witch Fury.
Good example II: I google "Vicki Pettersson." Okay, I misspell it and get taken to a website for a member of the Bangles, but I like the Bangles, so I don't mind. Walk like an Egyptian, baby. I try again and her website is the first result. Her cover art and summary of her upcoming novel, City of Souls, is on the home page:"Joanna Archer, Agent of Light, has survived a violent initiation into the paranormal world lurking behind the seedy seams of Las Vegas. She's found a home, friends, and even t he chance for a new life and love."
Yes, I will be rethinking my website in terms of these user-friendly examples. What do you like and/or dislike in an author blog?
Fang-Tastic has a guest blog by Norm Applegate about his new novel, Blood Bar. "The premise for Blood Bar, was what would happen if you found out you were turning into a vampire. Where else to be initiated but a bar."
Chris at I Heart Vampires has info and a link to a new Israeli vampire series. "It’s called 'Split' and it’s about a 15-year-old girl who’s half-vampire, half-human. One of her classmates reveals her true identity and, you know, complications ensue."
Dottie at MyBlog2.0 has lots of links to contests, so if you're looking for summer reads make sure to visit.
The delightful Alan Tudyk, who was all piratical in "Dodgeball" and all psycho in "Dollhouse," talks about working with Joss Whedon. "I would love to play Buffy. I’ve always felt that Sarah Michelle Gellar did a great job, but there was stuff she missed. " (Blast)
Would you go to a "Twilight" theme park? "In the Twilight series, like with the Harry Potter series, the locales are quite visually dynamic. Ranging anywhere from Forks, Washington to Volterra, Italy, with fictional locations such as Isle Esme, Edward and Bella's meadow, Edward and Bella's cottage, and the Cullen Mansion, there are quite a few places that a Twilight fan would really like to step foot in." (Examiner)
GRATUITOUS VIDEO OF THE DAY
There are some dreams that all humans share, no matter what era or culture: the dream of flying, the dream of dying... They say something about our very essence as a species. And the most beloved of these shared dreams is that someday it will rain men. Video from Tolkripoedon.
Jenz1011 shares the dream!
The dream is ancient and eternal. From Suburbania.
DreamyViper dreams of men in cravats raining down.
12 comments:
Raining Men never gets old!! Going to a Twilight park would be interesting.
A flash flood of 300 men is always welcomed! Do my eyes deceive me or is that Michael Weatherly - I loved Dark Angel!
I'm not a theme park kinda person, so no - a Twilight theme park wouldn't catch my interest. And I hear ya about the author websites! Sometimes I find a really interesting author and want to read the back list or add upcoming releases to my TBR list and the info is no where to be found.
Shell, the Weather Girls put so much great humor and energy into the song that it cheers me up every time I hear it.
Cybercliper, there were so many guys in those videos I lost track. I was happy to see Alan Tudyk as one of the first, though.
Re: author websites, one of the problems is that designing a site is a real skill, and most authors can't (and really don't want to) create our own sites. We rely on others and we're constantly changing our minds. It gets expensive. But even a blog is useful to readers.
Tanya doesn't seem to have a site anymore, but she does have a Livejorunal. It is @ http://andpuff.livejournal.com/
Hope that helps! Off to watch raining men...
Thanks, DragonKat! I know, I hunted for her site for some time and found the LiveJournal. Tanya gets exempted from the "should have a website" rant because she's Tanya.
I'm with you on the website issue. Perhaps authors who are making gobs of money don't feel the need to promote on a website...but I know that it's a rare thing to find authors who are making gobs of money. I love visiting the sites of the authors I'm reading and seeing the behind-the-scenes info.
More importantly--thank you for the men in cravats video! My theory is that even the homeliest of men look alluring when dressed in 19th-century attire. Show me an attractive man in a cravat and I'm on the swooning couch. ;-)
I hate when authors don't have websites either. It's so hard to keep track of things or find information about their books if they don't! And yes, keep them updated. It's only funny going on an author's site and they have nothing about an upcoming book...I mean, why is that? Other places have more info than they do!
So yes, that's my two cents. :)
-Lauren
OK, cause I can't resist the author website question (it merges personal passion with professional life) I'll come out of lurk mode. :-)
A separate page for each book. With a book description. An excerpt for the book (if possible.)
If it's not possible to have separate pages for each book, then "anchors" for each book, with corresponding links at the top of the page (JR Ward's BDB series page is a good example of this.)
Information about upcoming books, with dates (if the dates are known) for those of us who like to plan ahead.
Keep it updated (I know this is hard, due to rl, but there's nothing more frustrating than finding an author's page, ready to link to their forthcoming book, to find that the featured book on their "coming soon" page is from 2 years ago.)
If there's more than one series, please list them on separate pages, or make it real clear they are different.
A list of books, in series order.
Fancy is cool, but not for sites. I totally hear you about the flash "splash" page that takes forever to load. Also, a lot of times sites will use javascript, resulting in a challenge when you want to link to a page. (Romance author Rachel Gibson has one of these. Looks good, but blogger unfriendly.)
If you send me to a book page, give me a way to get back to where I was. (Loretta Chase has the craziest pages that leave you stranded. lol)
Some fave author sites: Kelley Armstrong,Ann Aguirre, Ilona Andrews, Jim Butcher
Now that I've blathered on about this, I just remembered The Book Binge did an excellent post about this a couple months back.
http://thebookbinge.com/2009/03/readers-guide-to-author-websites.html
OK, I'm getting off my soapbox, now. :-P
Renee, thanks for all your terrific advice. I'm going to try to follow your ideas when I next do my website redesign.
Sometimes we lack the technical skills (raising hand) to update info, or we don't have the info yet from publishers. The needs of a first-time author will change if she succeeds in publishing multiple series.
What's your professional site, for those who are interested in a new website?
Next week my contest will be on favorite websites.
I understand the author frustration. Sometimes when I see a great book at Amazon and want more information by checking the author's site...I don't find anything. If they can't get a website, they could always get a blog though. It would be a lot easier to view the author's work that way and it's a lot cheaper.
~ Popin
Hi Marta,
I stumbled upon this while blog-trolling this morning, and it was nice to see that my site made your "do" list. Thank you.
However, I can't take any real credit. I provide content, and my web designer does the rest. I give her credit for all the good stuff -- anything that doesn't work is probably my fault. {wry g}
In any case, I had a few hits and misses before I stumbled upon this designer, which is probably the case for many authors. I had no idea how much to pay someone, what was reasonable in terms of expense and expectation, and so on. Another little nifty learning curve on the road to publication, right? {rolling eyes}
Anyway, if you like my site I'm happy to give you more info on my designer, Dawn at austindesignworks.com -- I can't recommend her highly enough. She also does Jeaniene Frost's site (that's who turned me on to her) and Colleen Gleason. There are others, and each site is designed to match an individual author's tone,feel, and audience. She's also professional, prompt, a good communicator, a stickler for detail, and she can _spell_. Oh, and _extremely_ reasonable, with packages that include 12 yearly updates, and so on. I just throw her whatever comes along, she deals with it, and I'm free to, yanno, write.
Feel free to write if you want more info.
Best luck!
Vicki
Hi, Vicki, thanks for stopping by! Yes, I e-know Dawn from Austin Design because she also helped out when I had a Q&A with Colleen Gleason. Dawn does good work!
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