Naming Your Website – Adventures on the Interwebs

Choose well grasshopper. The name you choose for your website has far reaching implications for your author platform.

Before rushing out to buy a domain and splash up a site it is important to pause and consider your future as a writer.  Do you write in a particular genre or do you write in multiple genres? Do you want to write under your real name or a pen name? Do you write in a single age group or in multiple age groups?

Many authors enjoy writing different kinds of books and they may decide to write different types of books under different names. Consider Robin Hobb as an example.  Robin Hobb is a pseudonym for Megan Lindholm,  and Megan chose to adopt a pseudonym when she realized she was venturing into a different sub-genre than what she’d been writing as Megan Lindholm (you can see more about this here: http://www.meganlindholm.com/faq/).  She has different websites for each ‘author’ and maintains separate brands though she makes it clear they are the same person.

What you want to write and how you want to market your work will dictate how you name your site.  Joanna Penn chose a company name (The Creative Penn) rather than her own name, and she houses both her fiction and non-fiction under one site (www.thecreativepenn.com).

I am and independently published writer, I write fiction and nonfiction, and I write YA as well as fiction for adults. I chose to write all of my books under the same name, K. Ferrin, and to have one platform for all of them.  The name I chose for my website reflects my author name.

There are pros and cons to every approach and the key is to find the one that works best for you. I wanted to maintain only one blog and keep all my social media work under a single name, but this may not work for you and the work you do. There are many excellent resources exploring branding for writers and it might be worth your time to do some reading before settling on a name.

Here are some links to get you started. For more simply Google “branding for writers” and you’ll find plenty of reading material.

The Book Designer (http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2014/07/6-branding-tips-for-writers-and-authors/)

The Creative Penn (http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2012/03/20/branding-author-platform/)

Now, to throw a wrench into the gears. As you likely know website names (domains) are all unique and once someone has slapped their name on it you can’t use it. You may decide you want to use your name as your domain name only to discover someone else already owns it.  Don’t panic! You are an author. You create for a living. Come up with a few options that might work for you.

Some authors add a hyphen to their name. So instead of they go with . Others chose to add ‘author’ to the domain, or , both of which work fine. Others go with a nickname or a shortened name.  Karen Mahoney writes YA urban fantasy, publishes under Karen Mahoney, yet her website is www.kazmahoney.com. You can also chose a domain with a .net (or any other) instead – though be careful of this.  It can create real problems for your branding efforts.

Next week we’ll cover how to select and register your domain with a registrar and a hosting company. For earlier posts in this series see:

The Importance of a Website for Your Author Platform

Why You Need a Self Hosted Website