You are a writer. You may not have published a long-form work, but you write and revise, you submit, you pitch. Maybe you are seeking a literary agent. Maybe you plan to self publish. Or maybe you just write and rewrite. You work toward publication. Inevitably, marketing comes up, and the need for an online presence. You imagine you’ll create one at some point. But when is the best time?
This article is about my own author website experience and perspective supplemented with professional advice from publishing industry expert Jane Friedman and graphic designer, Mira T. Lee.
I write mostly fiction. I have two novels in the revision process. And I’ve had three author websites. I can’t remember how long ago I created my first site using WordPress. It was more than a decade ago and contained a blog about the first novel I was writing. It allowed me to introduce myself to the world as a writer committed to my craft and to share what I was working on. But life got busy, and I stopped writing the blog posts, although I continued to work on the novel. When I’d completed that manuscript with multiple revisions and input from beta readers, I began to attend writers conferences and to pitch agents. I did not want to share my abandoned blog, so I retired the old site and put up a new one.
I created my second author website using Squarespace. It looked better than the first. I featured information on the novel, my bio, and a list of awards and publication history (short pieces). Again, it served the important function of showing my commitment to a writing career and, this time, my progress. I’m not a designer, have little talent in web design, and as I prowled author websites hunting ideas for my own site, I began to envy the sleek and graphically chic author sites out there. I thought of hiring a web designer, but didn’t know how to start and worried that the cost of using a professional might be prohibitively expensive. So I decided to get by, for the time being, with my home-grown creation.
A year or two passed. My book group was meeting on Zoom with the author of Everything Here is Beautiful. (I highly recommend this moving read about two sisters, complex relationships, and mental illness by Mira T. Lee.) Toward the end of our book group discussion, I learned that Mira worked as a graphic designer and specialized in author websites. Curious, I took a look at her Author Website Gallery and was blown away by the sites she had created that were awesome to look at, reflected personality, and projected atmosphere.
I ended up hiring Mira to create a new site for me. She was easy to work with and afterwards set me up with instructions, so that I could update copy and make some modifications on my own. And I found her pricing quite reasonable. She helped me migrate my Squarespace site back to WordPress. Since I didn’t have a published book to display on my cover page, we discussed several other options. We decided on a photo my daughter and I staged to illustrate some lines from a poem I had written about being mixed race. Since the creation of the site, I have added and revised copy and inserted video clips. The video clips were difficult and didn’t quite match the look of the site. I contacted Mira, and she corrected the installation so that the videos looked like they belonged. If you want to see how this turned out, you can see my website here.
What really prompted me to move forward, at that time, on a professionally crafted website was that as I started fulfilling requests for my manuscript, I wanted the literary agents I met with (all at writing conferences but that’s a discussion for another article later this year) to see me as a buttoned-up, savvy writing professional.
ADVICE FROM MIRA T. LEE ON AUTHOR WEBSITES:
“Regarding author/writer websites, I think it’s super important to have an online presence that you’re entirely in control of yourself, and that presents the most important aspects about you and your work. Social media posts are transient, it’s not the same thing at all. Plus when a website is done really well, its design can instantly convey a vibe/aesthetic that actually feels like ‘you,’ – again, in a way that social media cannot. My job as a designer is to make your website feel like you, so your visitors will sense who you are immediately.”
WHY YOU SHOULD TAKE THE PLUNGE AND CREATE YOUR SITE NOW
Launching an author website signals a strong commitment to your writing career. It indicates that you believe in yourself and your writing. Start one now, so you have time to refine it as you progress in your career, and so that it’s ready when you hit the big time—whatever that means to you.
You might be surprised to discover the psychological boost your site can provide. As writers, we receive rejection that we must take in stride. Your website can serve as a reminder that you exist in the world as a writer, and that you are living your dream.
Still need convincing? Think about it. As you attempt to establish your name in the literary world, people need to have a place to find you. I recently met a literary agent who said the first thing he does when he considers a submission is to conduct a google search on the author. There is social media, but above Mira mentions its transient nature. Jane Friedman also cautions against its short-term appeal.
ADVICE FROM JANE FRIEDMAN ABOUT AUTHOR WEBSITES:
“I’m often asked why an author website matters—why not just use Substack or some social media platform? Why would people visit my site in the first place? When you focus on social media instead of an author website, you favor the short-term over the long-term. You invest time and energy in a platform that may lose its effectiveness or disappear in several years. In the meantime, your author website remains unfinished, and people who don’t use social media may become frustrated at the lack of authoritative information about you online. Perhaps most important, you can never control what any social media platform does or how it evolves—in terms of design and functionality, user interface, or your likes/followers/relationships. And make no mistake, the companies that run these platforms are concerned about their own needs, not yours. Establishing a website is one of the surest signs, for me, that a writer is really committing to a professional career.”
If you want to try your hand at creating an author website, check out Jane’s “How to Build an Author Website: Getting Started Guide.”
For those of you with existing author websites, on September 12, 2024, Jane is partnering with Writer’s Digest to offer “Improve Your Author Website—From Home Page to Contact Page with Jane Friedman.”
And for those of you who are interested in going the professional route, check out: mira t. creative. You can also contact an author whose website you admire and ask who designed it.
Be sure to study author websites to get a feel for what you want to project. At a minimum have an “About” page that contains what you want the world to know about you and your writing. Submit flash fiction, poetry, and short stories to contests and journals so you can begin to build your “Writing” or “Publication History” page. And be sure to include a “contact” area to receive messages and to gather email addresses for a mailing list.
Now, get busy and good luck!
P.S. Thank you to Mira T. Lee and Jane Friedman for contributing to this article.
- Consider an Author Website an Investment in You - August 28, 2024
- Setting: Take Your Character Reinvention Story Abroad - May 30, 2024
Sign up to our newsletter to receive new articles and events.
