Tag Archives: website

Do you need a separate blog and book website?

30 Tuesday Jul 2013

Posted by in How to, Self-Publishing, Website

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Greetings all!

A close friend of mine is in the process of publishing her novel. She asked me whether or not she should create a separate book website similar to mine, to go with her author/personal blog. It’s a great question that I wanted to share with you, my loyal readers.

Pros of Going with a Book Blog and Website

1.) If you ever plan to write about a different series/world/genre, it helps to differentiate. For example, lets say I suddenly decided to write about paranormal fantasy. Most people reading this blog wouldn’t be extremely interested. But I could continue to update my book website with small tidbits and bonus features. Alternatively, I could create a book website just for my new series, and keep this current blog focused on alternate history and steampunk (A much better idea).

2.) Flexibility – different sites offer different capabilities. Some require a lot of money to really stretch the boundaries, or a personal web designer. I also like having a separate site because I can send people to the Wix site via mobile or through my business cards. It looks professional and is topic specific – focusing on the novel, not on self-publishing as a whole.

3.) Fan Support – A book website with a forum can allow fans to discuss and present their ideas on that site, and allow you to monitor your readers’ ideas and input, without having to sift through different areas.

Cons of Going with a Book Blog and Website

website is down

1.) Time – You have to make and upkeep two separate sites. My Wix site is still waiting to be updated with Roma Aeronautica’s information. That’s on the agenda for this weekend.

2.) Money – You have to pay to host two websites. Or alternatively, deal with annoying free ads and such. It depends on your own choices too. brasslegionnaire.com is a lot more professional sounding than wix.brasslegionnaire.com after all.

3.) Separation of readers – This is a possibility if you have multiple blogs. You can separate your readership and reduce traffic to each site individually. That being said, you can also allow specific segments of your readership to ignore parts that they don’t care about, and focus more on what they enjoy and like!

So looking back, what would I recommend?

Well, personally, seeing as how I already have two sites and plan on building the world of the Steam Empire Chronicles to include ten different stories, I think a separate site for them is great! Especially when I plan on creating an additional series or world.

Would I recommend two sites to a beginner? Absolutely not. If you want to blog, then you should focus on creating a blog and building that audience faithfully and consistently. Small steps are easier to take, rather than big leaps.

What do you think? One or two sites? More?

New Website up and running for Copper Centurion

11 Sunday Nov 2012

Posted by in Self-Publishing, Website

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Go ahead! You know you want to indulge yourself with some more Roman-y-Steampunky-goodness! It’s okay! I feel the same way! Click HERE now!

 

Yes, it’s okay to feel excitement. I do too.

Using Wix to make your book Website

21 Saturday Apr 2012

Posted by in Illustrations, Self-Publishing, Teasers/Trailers, Website

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Hi everyone,

Background:

So as a reader, I’m a big fan of separating your author blog from your book website. Since I’m planning a series, I put together a website for my series over at brasslegionnaire.com so that people who were interested in the book could check it out. I envision this site growing as each book gets its own ‘branch’ so to speak from the main page. I used Wix to design and host my website

When you first go to the site, you start at a pretty empty page, where you can click on one of two pictures or on the enter button. All the options take you to the same place. As I publish more books, I’ll be able to expand the options and add pages to purchase the book.

Why Wix?

Well, to be honest I stumbled across them and started using their website for fun. It’s very intuitive and simple to use. You don’t have to know about HTML code or anything like that. It’s more like Powerpoint, where you drag pictures around the page and you can upload things to post as well. Although I consider myself a relatively technology capable person, I didn’t want to waste my limited funds hiring someone to make my page, when I had a site like this that I could play with enough to make it myself!

You do have to spend some money to register your site for your own domain name and to eliminate their ads, but you also get some nice vouchers for facebook and google ads that you can use to offset some of the cost (What you spend here, you won’t have to spend there)

Would I recommend Wix?

Yes, I would recommend them based on their simple, easy to use site and the way most people can figure out how to do it if you have a basic knowledge of Powerpoint or Word. They have helpful videos to show you how to set up your site and format things. They offer enough different price packages to give you options for most budgets.That being said, if you’ve got a friend or relative who is really handy with HTML code, it might be better for them to do it for you. But being a finicky person myself, I liked the control I had over every step of the process.

Book Update

The book’s illustrations are now complete! I’ve sent the book and all the other odds and ends back to my format/illustration team and they are hard at work putting it all together for the final event. I’m very excited for you to have the opportunity to read the novel I’ve spent so long in making. It’s been an intense experience these past couple of months. I’ve set a personal goal to publish Brass Legionnaire by mid-May.

If you’re on Facebook or Twitter, follow me to get more updates and sneak peeks!

Ciao!

10 Things to do Before Publishing Your Novel (Besides Editing)

15 Thursday Mar 2012

Posted by in Advertising, Self-Publishing

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Hello all!

So it’s been about 4 weeks now since I sent Brass Legionnaire off to the editor. I’ll admit freely, once it was out of my hands, I sort of… blanked. I was truly faced with a ‘now what’ type of situation. So for the last couple weeks I’ve been trying to tie up other loose ends that I figured I might as well get done now. So in my free time (My day job and graduate school keep me fairly busy, so that’s rare right now!) I put together a list of a few things that you can do while waiting for the book to come back.

1. Get some nice cover art (Mine was handled by the great people over at Streetlight Graphics, but you can also check out 99 designs or deviantart and post a job offer on either one.) Alternatively, if you’re a great artist or have a deft hand on photoshop, hunt down what you like and tweak it in the best ways. Great way to do it on the cheap if you need to.

2. Set up a personal author blog or website (Like this one) or perhaps even a website just for your book or series. However, don’t jump the gun too early. I have my entire website ready to go on Wix – a flash driven site that is really quick and simple to use – but I haven’t gone live yet because I feel a bit silly doing it without a product to show! Since I can’t do ‘preorders’ I’m simply holding off until the book goes live, then I’ll probably buy one of the smaller packages just so that I can get my domain name (and not have to worry about having other stuff in my URL), but I’ll save my money until then!

3. Set up a business/promotion plan – How will you promote your book? What will you do? Will you advertise? if so, where? Who is your specific target audience? What is best for them? Text ads, picture ads? You’re going to have to do some hard thinking on this one. Don’t limit yourself just to facebook or google. There are a variety of other sites out there that host ads, so find one that is more likely to be frequented by the people you are targeting!

4. Create a free audiobook sample of your first chapter. A lot of people offer a ‘free sample’ of their book to entice readers in. Even if you don’t plan on doing a full audiobook, a sample chapter (read by you, or someone you know whose voice is better!) can draw in a whole host of new people. Make it free on iTunes, put it up on YouTube. The more exposure, the more likely you are to rope someone in who is actually interested! Personally, I’d want to make it a full audiobook eventually, but in the meantime, it’s another cool way to build some hits.

5. In connection to that, create a book ‘trailer’ all you really need is some basic knowledge of iMovie or another video editing program and some effects and definitely your cover art. Alternatively, you can pay someone to make a (probably better) product, but it will cost you. For example, a basic book teaser at Circle of Seven productions will set you back a cool $800. But if you’ve got the money to spend…

6. Make some business cards/bookmarks. One of the most basic things to do is make a nice business card with your name, email address (not your phone number!) website, and title (you are a soon-to-be-Author!) along with a picture of your cover art. Don’t have cover art yet? Set it up except for that one part. Then it’s a simple copy and paste situation. You’ll probably want to use photoshop for this, but you can pay someone to do it. Personally, I like the control (And also screaming at my computer when photoshop goes wacky!) Then, it’s a quick upload to vistaprint or Zazzle. Be even fancier, add a QR code to the back and direct it to your website! Integration baby!

7. Set a reminder to copyright your book when it is done editing. No really, you need to remember to do this! Click here to find out more. You can also pre-register your book if it is in the process of editing to get a bit of a head start on the copyright process – Another chunk of money you need to shell out, but you don’t want people stealing your hard work now, do you? I’ll be honest though, I’m not sure if the pre-registration is a good deal. Readers?

8. Make sure you’ve got an account on Goodreads, Amazon, Smashwords, and anywhere else you plan on selling your book.

9. Make sure you’ve got a well-written synopsis for your various book pages and a good blurb or two for your front page or inside cover.

10. Write your bio, your acknowledgements, then sit back and wait!

Anything I forget? Please let me know! (Due credit where credit is due 🙂 )