Karen GoatKeeper's Blog - Posts Tagged "planning-a-website"

My presentation on starting a website is just over a week away. I have an outline. I have a written version. I have a list of possible pictures to put a powerpoint together.
I know the people in my writers group. They are a great bunch. I know the number one question: Why should I go to all the trouble of making a website?
It's easy to list things to do to start a website: put together your plans on what the site will look like; visit sites of other authors to get ideas; home, book, bio and contact pages are a must; and keep it simple with lots of graphics.
Then you get a domain, a web host, build your site and you are on the web!
Easy to type. Easy to say. Easy to read. Lots of work. And there are those regular updates.
Which brings us back to the original question: Why should I have a website?
There is the standard response: it is expected of authors to have a website.
There is the marketing response: you need to get your books noticed and a website is a good way to do it.
Why not Facebook? Amazon author page? Smashword author page? Goodreads author page?
Most serious authors end up with all those author pages and then some. How do you coordinate all of them? How do you direct people to the ones most relevant to them?
A website.
Why have a website? It is your home base to which all the other bits and pieces connect and interact.