Should Authors have a Website?

For many years I have not bothered about having a website relying instead upon blogs to communicate with readers, authors and social media friends and contacts. However, increasingly I see sound advice suggesting a website really is a must for most authors. Nevertheless, my lack of resources have held me back as it appeared the finances required for a good quality website were considerable. I am about to publish a further two books, with work on others having commenced, and consequently consider it is time I opted for a more professional presence, if possible. I have therefore re-examined the potential for creating a site at minimal cost.  Many of you will probably already know some, if not all, of what I am about to share nevertheless, there may be new ‘starting out’ authors who will find the information helpful. I very much believe indie authors really should try and help each other.
My research has revealed there are a few companies who offer the facility to create reasonably attractive websites for free. Many also have the option for ‘premium’ sites, which offer greater functionality, at a sensibly realistic fee. Having said that, I must point out many professional, experienced advisors recommend a preference for self-hosted sites with a paid host provider who will look after a lot of the functionality and detail for you. However, these do come at a cost. One estimate suggested this could be anything from $2,000 to $6,000 plus a year. Certainly outside my budget. Off course these sites do provide all singing-all dancing capabilities. However, you really would have to have a high number of visits, and purchases, to recover your outlay. The other advantage to a self-hosted site is it belongs to you whereas the free and premium ones remain the property of the provider e.g. Wordpress, Blogger (Google) etc. However, with the premium services you may have your own domain name that omits the mandatory .wordpress.com/.blogspot.com etc. required by the free options e.g. one of my blogs is currently ‘trbooks7.blogspot.com’ with a premium site this could be ‘trbooks7.com’, which makes it a little more personal and probably easier for when someone wants to search for it.
Another drawback for me, at this stage anyway, is beside the cost you, with a self-hosted site, are completely responsible for maintenance and recovery should it go down. Added to which, you probably need some knowledge of coding, html at the least. Of course this may be learnt but it appears to be quite a steep learning curve.
You may now ask ‘But what about my blog? I still want to communicate with my readers on a regular basis.’ Of course you do. There are two aspects to this.
First, some authors really do not like blogging. They prefer to simply have a website that gives details about themselves and their books. Some of you will no doubt suggest that not to blog is missing out on publicity/marketing potential. That is as it maybe but we must allow for people to be themselves and to act as they wish. And it must be acknowledged some authors find just having a website is sufficient.Second, we must not mistake a website to be the replacement for a blog. It is not, or at least should not be. A website is primarily a ‘static’ page where readers may find details about you and your books. Of course you should refresh it at times but in essence it should not be changing on a regular basis. However, as far as I can see, most websites provide the option for an attached blog page similar to the ‘About’, ‘Books’, pages etc. you no doubt have on your existing blog. Consequently, readers are able to find everything relating to you in one place including your daily/weekly posts. Certainly makes it easier for them and for you, from the maintenance point of view.

In this post I started out with the intention of discussing what an author website should have on/in it. Did I say I am seriously considering establishing my own website to replace my existing blogsites? To that end I have been reading up on what is required, or at least what content is suggested and wished to share with you what I have discovered so far. Well to carry on with that now would make this post far too long so I will hold back and share some of what I have discovered with you in next week’s post.
I hope you have found the above information helpful in making your own decisions about whether to create a website (for those of you who do not already have one).