Newbie Author 101: Links and Landing Pages and Websites
In anticipation of my book's release in February, there sure are a lot of small, but time consuming details that need to be done beforehand. My goal is to make it easy for people to find my various corners on the web. Since I'm the one who designed and maintains my website (using Web Plus software - under $100 and easy) and my blog, all these little tasks are up to me. I've been eagle-eying authors whose web presences I like as a reader, asking myself, "How'd he/she do that?" Here are a few things I've discovered.
1. Buy links. Although I haven't posted my cover(s) yet, I did add a Coming Soon blank cover to my website along with buy links to all the major online booksellers. The handy-dandy little script I used came from author Courtney Milan who is a whiz at coding, widgets, websites, and blogs. If you're another author or a blogger who wants to add "buy this book" links, check it out. All you need is the ISBN and it generates the HTML code for you. Thanks, Courtney!
2. Simple graphics. I had planned to use book images that looked like an actual book (once I figured out how to do that), but after reading this post at Smexybooks about author websites, I decided to go with just a plain rectangular cover shape. Fancy graphics are difficult for bloggers to grab and post. Simple is better. Yay, it's easier for me too!
3. Author pages. I created author pages on Amazon (it takes a few days for it to be active, so I'll add the link when I have it) and Goodreads and will be doing the same thing with Barnes and Noble, Borders, and Shelfari. These are simple to do, but again, it does take time to walk through the steps. As readers, we all have our favorite places where we buy our books, get information about books, and hang out online. But as an author, I need to make sure my book info is in many places and easy to find.
4. Facebook Landing Page. On Facebook, in addition to my personal profile, I created an author page. I'd have preferred to just have a profile page for now (how can you "like" someone's books if they're not even available to read yet?), but I've got a weird Facebook glitch that says page not found (unless we're already friends) if I try to link to my profile. It's a known bug, but so far, there's no solution other than to create an author page and link to that. Here's a fantastic blog that explains how to create FBML Facebook pages. I walked through her steps, read people's comments, and ended up with a decent "landing page" using my website/blog banner. As soon as I have cover art, I'll post that as well.
5. Automatic blog feeds. On Facebook and Goodreads, I automatically linked this blog. All new posts here automatically show up there. I don't like all automatic stuff (for instance, I don't link my Facebook and Twitter updates), but I thought the blog feed was cool.
I'm not done with everything yet, but I'm hoping that by doing this well in advance of my books coming out, it'll be easier for readers to find the information they want. Plus, I'm always changing my mind and this gives me plenty of time to do that.
And in case you want to check out some website features that give me website envy, look here, here, and here. Yes, more work to do, including figuring out how to make my pages load faster.
1. Buy links. Although I haven't posted my cover(s) yet, I did add a Coming Soon blank cover to my website along with buy links to all the major online booksellers. The handy-dandy little script I used came from author Courtney Milan who is a whiz at coding, widgets, websites, and blogs. If you're another author or a blogger who wants to add "buy this book" links, check it out. All you need is the ISBN and it generates the HTML code for you. Thanks, Courtney!
2. Simple graphics. I had planned to use book images that looked like an actual book (once I figured out how to do that), but after reading this post at Smexybooks about author websites, I decided to go with just a plain rectangular cover shape. Fancy graphics are difficult for bloggers to grab and post. Simple is better. Yay, it's easier for me too!
3. Author pages. I created author pages on Amazon (it takes a few days for it to be active, so I'll add the link when I have it) and Goodreads and will be doing the same thing with Barnes and Noble, Borders, and Shelfari. These are simple to do, but again, it does take time to walk through the steps. As readers, we all have our favorite places where we buy our books, get information about books, and hang out online. But as an author, I need to make sure my book info is in many places and easy to find.
4. Facebook Landing Page. On Facebook, in addition to my personal profile, I created an author page. I'd have preferred to just have a profile page for now (how can you "like" someone's books if they're not even available to read yet?), but I've got a weird Facebook glitch that says page not found (unless we're already friends) if I try to link to my profile. It's a known bug, but so far, there's no solution other than to create an author page and link to that. Here's a fantastic blog that explains how to create FBML Facebook pages. I walked through her steps, read people's comments, and ended up with a decent "landing page" using my website/blog banner. As soon as I have cover art, I'll post that as well.
5. Automatic blog feeds. On Facebook and Goodreads, I automatically linked this blog. All new posts here automatically show up there. I don't like all automatic stuff (for instance, I don't link my Facebook and Twitter updates), but I thought the blog feed was cool.
I'm not done with everything yet, but I'm hoping that by doing this well in advance of my books coming out, it'll be easier for readers to find the information they want. Plus, I'm always changing my mind and this gives me plenty of time to do that.
And in case you want to check out some website features that give me website envy, look here, here, and here. Yes, more work to do, including figuring out how to make my pages load faster.
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