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Let’s Address a Common Misunderstanding About Author Websites

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author websites

For nearly five years now, I’ve taught classes on how to build and optimize author websites. Every single class, here’s the most common question I receive:

Is it OK if I publish my book on my website?

This question gets expressed in a multitude of ways, such as:

  • What if I post full chapters of my book on my website (or blog)?
  • If I serialize my book on my website (or blog), is it considered published?
  • How can I charge a subscription fee for work I publish at my website?

My first answer is a very direct one: Sure, posting content you own at your website is OK. But why do it?

  • What do you gain by posting your book, in part or in its entirety, on your website?
  • How will anyone know it’s there?
  • Why will anyone want to read it on your website?

What are you trying to accomplish by putting it on your site and not publishing it through the biggest retailer of ebooks (Amazon)?

This question indicates a misunderstanding of what author websites are meant to accomplish—or at least the majority of them.

An author website is primarily a marketing tool, not a publishing and distribution tool.

The No. 1 reason to build an author website is to create a marketing and publicity hub for everything you do. It tells the story of you and your work. It’s a 24/7 business card that never stops working on your behalf. It offers official information about your books, offers a way for readers to stay in touch (such as through an email newsletter or links to social media), and provides a public face to the media and others who might wish to offer media coverage.

Some authors blog on their website, and in that case, yes, there’s a publishing function involved—but the blog is, at its heart, a marketing tool, part of your author platform and long-term business strategy.

There will always be success stories and inspiring case studies of authors who blogged their way to book deals, or who serialized their work on their own site, and somehow amassed a huge following. One such example is The Martian. But these are such outlying cases that they have no bearing on the fact that author websites aren’t ideal as a publishing and distribution platform for book-length work. They’re best at building your author brand and direct marketing to readers.

A much more effective way to build a readership is to publish and distribute your work where the readers are looking for their next best read—whether that’s Amazon, Wattpad, or some other platform for reading and writing where thousands of people gather. It’s quite difficult for fiction writers to turn their own site into a destination site—not impossible, but not within the existing skill set of most authors.  [Read more…]

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Writing is Hard

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It doesn’t seem that hard at first.  When you’re caught up in the thrill of creating people and telling their story, writing feels like the easiest thing in the world. You just go on doing it until you get to the end.  Then you put that first work in a drawer for a month and look at it again.  It doesn’t look at all like the brilliant story you remember.  In fact, it sucks. But you bear down, start reading about the craft of writing, and join a writer’s group, either online or in person (or … [Read more...]

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I recently started rereading a book I bought many years ago – one volume of an eight volume collected set of The Spectator, a London daily periodical from the early 18th century.  William Addison and Joseph Steele wrote most of the The Spectator’s 2500-word, witty and wise essays on serious topics of social value.  A typical piece warns against the dangers of using “party lying” (i.e. propaganda) to advance a political cause.  Another is an extended meditation on eternity.  Several offer a … [Read more...]

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Note from Jane: This piece first appeared in the January 2014 issue of Scratch, a digital magazine about writing and money. I am delighted to run it here at Writer Unboxed, where it can be publicly discussed and shared. Two commenters on this post were randomly selected to receive a free annual subscription to Scratch, starting with the first issue. They are Felipe Adan Lerma and Marcy McKay. Congratulations! In September 2011, I received an e-mail from Sean Platt, who requested a … [Read more...]

‘Wins’ Without Losses: Agreeable Disagreement

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Five Quite Recent Provocations https://twitter.com/Nunferno/status/337959884169564160 Provocation One: Man Booker Irrational? When the American novelist Lydia Davis was given the £60,000 Man Booker International this week in London, the prize administration rushed to its site to quote one of her short works: "I was recently denied a writing prize because they said I was lazy." "Well not anymore!" chortled the site's folks in what might be the most charming, personable home-page … [Read more...]

Conferences: Songs from the Uproar

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Do you go to conferences? Boy, I do. One of the greatest aspects of conference-going is meeting people you might have known only on the ether, putting a face to the avatar. Here, for example, is author Chuck Wendig, whom I've met several times at conferences. Both of us normally have some traveling to do, to reach a conference. Wendig writes in 25 Things Writers Should Know About Traveling: Travel is good for us. Seeing other places and people and cultures makes us more complete … [Read more...]

Book as Symbol: Perennial as Spring

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Convenience comes at the cost of a grave loss: that of the book as a symbol, as an artifact of learning, poise, wisdom and moral fortitude. While this loss may seem trivial, a simple matter of changing times and customs, the symbols we are losing permeate society and have long been shaping the fortunes of publishing.  François Joseph de Kermadec, Publishing needs to build new symbols for the digital age at O'Reilly Media's Tools of Change What do you think? As we watch the book … [Read more...]

Something Old, Something New

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Like most writers, whether new or established, I have folders—physical and electronic—filled with stories that either never quite got to publication but that your instinct tells you are still worth something; or else were published long ago and whose details might be a bit dated, yet whose core is still strong. These aren't dead stories, not the kind that started off with what seemed like a good idea at the time but expired before they could even be properly born, because they never even got … [Read more...]

Advice for Indie Authors

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As promised last month, I'm back this month with some strategies and advice for anyone considering the indie publishing route.  And a quick update before I begin--I've actually had a great month, sales wise.  (Thank you to any WU readers who bought copies of my books!)  Two of my titles, Susanna and the Spy and Georgiana Darcy's Diary, climbed all the way into the top 1000 titles on Amazon!  And again--as I said last month--I'm just sharing these numbers with everyone to prove that it CAN be … [Read more...]

‘Social’ Media: What isn’t in a name

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    O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power Dost hold Time's fickle glass, his sickle, hour... Sonnet 126       The so-called "social" media, currently our lovely boy of  communication, hold in their darting packets of data, surely, unimaginable power. They collapse distance across continents and seas we once showed on no maps. Ariel, himself, would weep. They erase the time -- days, weeks, months, even years -- we once waited for … [Read more...]

An Interview with Indie Star Barbara Freethy

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from Barbara O'Neal:  I am delighted to have had the chance to interview my friend Barbara Freethy, who has experienced a truly astonishing trajectory as an Indie publisher this year. A traditionally published author for two decades, Barbara started experimenting with indie publishing late last year.  Listen in as she talks about her journey, her tips, and her insights on the digital market. Hi, Barbara.  We here at Writer Unboxed are SO excited about your astonishing success as an indie … [Read more...]

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This blog is about reading rather than writing. In particular, e-reading. I'm not talking about how e-books are outselling paper books, how you can carry a library in your pocket, or how and why you should be getting your work out there into everyone's e-device. This is about how e-readers are transforming the basic experience of reading. Those changes are inevitably going to transform what is getting read, and consequently what will get written. Taking the Content Out of Literary Fashion … [Read more...]

The Fruit of our Lives

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As I write this, it is the last morning of summer.  My yearling kittens are crouched in the garden, watching a squirrel on the fence make his way through the face of a sunflower, methodically plucking out striped seeds with his tiny hands, cracking their shells, devouring the kernels.  There are piles of hulls, here and there, through the garden, where I have tied the flower heads to the fence or a branch or a gate. Light angles at a long angle, illuminating the withering squash, the tired corn. … [Read more...]