Book Trailers (tm) & Author Web Sites discussion
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Shawn,I've just browsed your website thoroughly and, no offense, but I'm afraid my statement regarding professionally-designed Flash websites still stand, yours being a typical example of what I don't like to see in author websites and why most of them are ineffective.
First, the intro. The chancery font makes the text difficult to read, if anything, to the point that I had to resist skipping it; that's another example of fancy getting in the way. Then the whole website is cramped into a small viewport, even smaller and painfully so for the excerpt, which by the way I found quite short; I say authors shouldn't hesitate to provide three whole chapters if not more. Everything is buried into sections, even the buy link which I had to seek; shouldn't it at least be at the end of the excerpt, if not visible from every page, including the front? Also, I believe it's lacking a sales pitch, for nowhere does it convince me that your book is any different from any other fantasy novel currently on the shelves. That's not a statement about the book, of course, but about the website.
See where I'm getting at? Too much glitter, not enough content, which is too much buried. It's a good-looking demo but, at least as far as I'm concerned, totally ineffective at selling the book.
Respectfully yours,
Muriel
Well, like all things - opinions are subjective and I respectful and completely disagree with your entire assessment since this site was designed for KIDS not adults.
I don't know what experience you have with kids or website design, but it is my husband's profession - including animation and Hollywood experience. Many of his professional colleagues have commented favorably on the site - which, btw, kids LOVE. In fact, when visiting a local school, a group of sixth graders began assigning characters to each other and role play just from looking at the site - none had read the book yet.
The emphasis of 'glitter' as you call it, buttons, artwork, etc., drives kids toward the characters and interactive map. They don't read info or an experts like adults, they click, look at quick Flash movies and want interaction. We take advantage of this with our videos, flyers and bookmarks.
You are looking at the site from an adult perspective - which would be designed differently.
However, for the addition of book 2 - we will be eliminating the opening Flash movie and going directly to the first page with revamping to emphasis book 1 & 2 - along with certain graphic rearranging. Many aspects will remain for the kids.
I don't know what experience you have with kids or website design, but it is my husband's profession - including animation and Hollywood experience. Many of his professional colleagues have commented favorably on the site - which, btw, kids LOVE. In fact, when visiting a local school, a group of sixth graders began assigning characters to each other and role play just from looking at the site - none had read the book yet.
The emphasis of 'glitter' as you call it, buttons, artwork, etc., drives kids toward the characters and interactive map. They don't read info or an experts like adults, they click, look at quick Flash movies and want interaction. We take advantage of this with our videos, flyers and bookmarks.
You are looking at the site from an adult perspective - which would be designed differently.
However, for the addition of book 2 - we will be eliminating the opening Flash movie and going directly to the first page with revamping to emphasis book 1 & 2 - along with certain graphic rearranging. Many aspects will remain for the kids.
Shawn wrote: "Well, like all things - opinions are subjective and I respectful and completely disagree with your entire assessment since this site was designed for KIDS not adults. I don't know what experience..."
I only partially agree with that assessment. There are two issues I find with kid-oriented author websites:
=>Kids don't dig them out;
=>Kids don't have credit cards.
More successful would be to market them to parents, wouldn't you agree? hence the sales pitch suggestion. Even stuff like Baby Einstein, which targets, well, babies, makes its sales pitch to parents first and foremost:
http://www.babyeinstein.com/parentsgu...
http://www.babyeinstein.com/home/
As for my experience with kids and website design: I've raised two wonderful daughters, adults now, and I used to be a professional website designer myself for a few years. Both taught me that glitter indeed matters... as long as it doesn't obnubilate the contents.
I agree the Flash intro needs to go. May I suggest putting more contents on the front page? That it is clipped vertically is perhaps my next greatest criticism, since it seems to be the main cause of the burying. What is already at the top could remain there, but most of the rest could just follow with internal links further down the page. With the scroll wheel now ubiquitous, it has become more tedious to click than to just scroll down. My two cents.
Respectfully yours,
Muriel
I see what you're saying, but I don't agree with targeting parents. The site is for 12 year old and up, not little kids. This is the demographic that drives YA sales by word of mouth and is heavy into comic book graphics and videos.
My husband has spent over 20 years dealing with animation, storyboard and graphic design including Disney, Filmation and others, so we are familiar with the target audience. The key is catching their imagination - hence the bend toward graphic novel type characters. BTW these were drawn by our adult daughter who is following in her dad's footsteps.
It may sound counter-productive to the 'sale pitch', but the object of this website is for kids to explore the Kingdom of Allon and the different characters. Whether they buy from me or Amazon or a bookstore doesn't matter. Generating the interest is key and we're trying to do that by gearing it toward their taste, not pound with sale pitches. I include the Shoppe page along with an expert for those kids who show their parents, but parents aren't the emphasis.
I understand what you're talking about with the scrolling, but personally, I don't like it. I want to see everything on the page at once and if you can't capture my interest on the screen, I'm not scrolling, just like you won't click. So, this is a matter of personal choice and preference. We did use it for the excerpt, but maintain the screen integrity.
As I said, we're going to start redesigning the first page along with adding new characters and things related to book 2 this month. We have discussed putting links to Amazon purchase pages with each book on the front page.
I'll keep you posted on when the site is revamped. And I have enjoyed the discussion despite the rough, misunderstanding start. :)
My husband has spent over 20 years dealing with animation, storyboard and graphic design including Disney, Filmation and others, so we are familiar with the target audience. The key is catching their imagination - hence the bend toward graphic novel type characters. BTW these were drawn by our adult daughter who is following in her dad's footsteps.
It may sound counter-productive to the 'sale pitch', but the object of this website is for kids to explore the Kingdom of Allon and the different characters. Whether they buy from me or Amazon or a bookstore doesn't matter. Generating the interest is key and we're trying to do that by gearing it toward their taste, not pound with sale pitches. I include the Shoppe page along with an expert for those kids who show their parents, but parents aren't the emphasis.
I understand what you're talking about with the scrolling, but personally, I don't like it. I want to see everything on the page at once and if you can't capture my interest on the screen, I'm not scrolling, just like you won't click. So, this is a matter of personal choice and preference. We did use it for the excerpt, but maintain the screen integrity.
As I said, we're going to start redesigning the first page along with adding new characters and things related to book 2 this month. We have discussed putting links to Amazon purchase pages with each book on the front page.
I'll keep you posted on when the site is revamped. And I have enjoyed the discussion despite the rough, misunderstanding start. :)
'Obnubilate' - would you believe, despite my massive vocabulary, and more than half a century of life, that's the first time I've come across that word.Thanks, Muriel!
As to the rest, yes, I also design, host and manage websites. There may well be a difference in the way children and YAs interact with them than adults, but since it's mainly adults that pay me to do it, I'll carry on doing what they want and pay for - clear, information heavy, no embedded sound, and no intro followed by 'click to enter' - and yes, the page contents visible on one screen except where absolutely impossible.
Dee wrote: "Give us your input as to what is important to you in an author's web site.How much information do you want to know about the book?
Do you want to read preview chapters?
Do you want to be ..."
I like to see some of what the author has written -- it tells a lot. If they have written a book, I would like to see a couple of chapters. The Amazon Inside the Book works well for this. The fReado free software is also nice.I also like to know a little bit about the author. For me, are they a Christian, what kind of testimony do they have?
I also like a website that is pretty -- that doesn't have a lot of clutter, that I can easily navigate, and that has pretty pictures.
Blogs are also nice.
Well, Muriel, I said I'd tell you when my website is revamped - it's done. I did include a couple of your suggestions - only in an unobtrusive way - in making a short statement about myself and adding a review blurb about ALLON. The rest was already preplanned to make things more visible but maintain the look and feel.
http://www.allonbooks.com
No author or website can please everyone, but I'm pleased with the result. Unfortunately, "insert major GULP sound effect" as the rest of the series is released may have to "scroll" the page, she says kicking and screaming. But don't get your hopes up, Muriel, I'll be looking for other ways to keep a single page view. :)
http://www.allonbooks.com
No author or website can please everyone, but I'm pleased with the result. Unfortunately, "insert major GULP sound effect" as the rest of the series is released may have to "scroll" the page, she says kicking and screaming. But don't get your hopes up, Muriel, I'll be looking for other ways to keep a single page view. :)
Shawn,I prefer the new interface indeed. If anything, it looks less cluttered than the old one. A couple small things though:
=>When I first saw the map, my first reflex was to scan it for clickable parts, and I was a bit disappointed it hadn't any; it feels a bit pointless that way.
=>The volume of the Youtube video interview is a bit low. I had to adjust the volume at no less than two locations to make it audible, and after that every other clip sounded too loud, if you know what I mean: yours is way lower than average.
Which map? The intro page is just that - nothing more. The interactive map reached from the home page does have clickable parts.
As for the volume, I can't control that on YouTube. They compress it and alter it to their format. We adjusted recording levels to remain consistent between narration and music.
As for the volume, I can't control that on YouTube. They compress it and alter it to their format. We adjusted recording levels to remain consistent between narration and music.
Shawn wrote: "Which map? The intro page is just that - nothing more. The interactive map reached from the home page does have clickable parts.I mean the intro map. Never mind, it's very minor an issue.
As for the volume, I can't control that on YouTube. They compress it and alter it to their format. We adjusted recording levels to remain consistent between narration and music."
Volume has to be adjusted on the source file in the editor, prior to uploading. The rule of thumb is to amplify the volume until its peaks reach about 90% of the maximum.
Yea, I know. We recorded everything at my husband's work in their recording suite, my narration, syncing it and adjusting levels to the music prior to uploading on YouTube.
We saved it in 3 different formats Flash, MOV and QuickTime for different systems. Unfortunately, all that work got lost in translation. :(
We saved it in 3 different formats Flash, MOV and QuickTime for different systems. Unfortunately, all that work got lost in translation. :(
Gina wrote: "That's a thought... statistics. Have you all got counters on your pages so you can track which pages are getting the attention? I use Stat Counter."
Sadly, Stat counters can work against you if someone is looking for a minimum of hits (which mean nothing, ultimately). It's also too easy to fake a count, and those who know don't trust them.
http://www.allonbooks.com