Making Connections discussion
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Author Platform Question
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It's not hard to set up everything yourself - I did it from my Blogger blog which became my author website, and there are gadgets/widgets that connect to my social media in the layout. It does take a bit of patience, but this is totally doable on your own :)
Zee wrote: "It's not hard to set up everything yourself - I did it from my Blogger blog which became my author website, and there are gadgets/widgets that connect to my social media in the layout. It does take..."Ok, Thanks Zee.
Start with a free Wordpress blog. It can be all static pages if you want, so it's just a website, or you can have the blog page there for regular updates.The blog page can be the front/landing page, or you can have a static front page.
If you're starting out, you probably should not be dropping lots of money on designers - you don't even know what you want.
Some things are easy, others hard. Wordpress has so many free templates that you won't need to invest for a long time.
None of my business, if you have money to burn, but maintaining a website is an ongoing cost - you have to be selling a lot of books to make it pay. I've read so many comments from people whose designers have moved on and left them a mess...
Mine are liebjabberings.wordpress for my blog, and prideschildren.wordpress for the books (that one is very basic yet). I got my name and my book's name domains, and I will figure out at some point in the future how I want them to look, but one was set up by one of those guys who will do it for free to get you started, and I can't maintain it, so it's just sitting there right now.
I don't know how DIY you are, so don't necessarily listen to me, but I've been blogging for 4 years, reading the self-publishing blogs for 5, and just published last Oct., ebook and print. It's just work - nothing mysterious - and plenty of advice online.
Alicia wrote: "Start with a free Wordpress blog. It can be all static pages if you want, so it's just a website, or you can have the blog page there for regular updates.The blog page can be the front/landing pa..."
Hey Alicia,
Thanks for responding to my questions! Do you think not making a small investment early on could hurt an author if someone sees a DIYish site?
I have some questions for you. I am curious to know how important you see your author platform to be. When I say platform, I mean Website, Twitter, FB and Goodreads. (Let's focus on those for simplicity's sake since those seem to be the big 4 for authors.
How much should I be willing to invest for someone to help you set up your site with a beautiful author brand,, connect social media, create system for handing interactions, etc. $200, $500, $1000?
Does having an author website feel important and necessary to selling your book? At what point do you think it's time to create an author site? What platform would you be most likely to use-Blogger, Wordpress, Weebly, Wix, or Squarespace?
Is this something I should just try to do myself or should I seek help for hacking these things and get them set up so I can just interact with readers?
I look forward to ANY and ALL feedback on these things.