When to start an author website?

[arianne]

I'm in the process of self-publishing my first novel, and I'm just wondering, when should I start up my author website/Twitter/Facebook? Should I start it up now or should I wait until the book has actually come out? Should I buy my domain now and just not put anything on it yet?

And what sort of thing should I put on my Twitter feeds/blog posts? I've heard some people say that I should go for personal everyday stuff, but others have said that it should only be author-related, writing-related stuff. Does anyone have any personal experience or advice? Thanks in advance!

[LizW65]

I can only speak for myself, but I got the domain name and started building my website a couple months before I was ready to bring the book out. That gave me ample time to figure the software out and design the site; thus I was able to launch it within a few days of the book's release.

[The Deposed King]

I got a free blog over at google before completing book 1.  I got a grand total of about 20 visitors of six months.

After Book 1 lit up and Book two was just about ready to come out, I transfered to a real blog.  My current website.  So you don't 'have' to have anything up to make a winning move.

That said there are some authors out there with killer websites.  Updates on their books, pictures, exclusive content, e-mailing lists.  I think its like the 80/20 principle.  80% of your money will come from just plain writing the book.  The other 20% is from value added stuff like the website and such.

But I can't claim to be an expert yet.  Still just getting started since april last year.




The Deposed King

[Dresdenus Prime]

The first thing I did was make a twitter account and immediately started talking about writing my book. I've heard from a couple different self published authors that Twitter is the place to promote. I commented on other author's tweets and made some general tweets of my own about writing and what genre I was looking towards.

Then I started a blog. I personally used wordpress and I like it well enough. I began by posting book's from other author's I knew on twitter, did a book review, but also generalized it by talking about movies and games as well. I've been slowly revealing more about my novel in the hopes of building anticipation. (The book cover should be done this week!)

The last items on my list before the book's release is to get active on facebook (I just created my author page yesterday), make an account on goodreads, and dive into Google +. From there I will start promoting my novel and trying to drive people towards my blog. I've actually had a couple people compliment me on it.

As to a main website, I have been tempted to buy the domain name I want just so I have it, but I probably will not worry about putting one up until after the book is released. I don't expect my book to fly off the shelf, but I want to build a base of reader's first before I put up a full blown site. Until then, my blog is my main site.

[Quantus]

I have no experience from the Author's side of it, but as a member of the Audience, Id recommend having it up and running before the book comes out, so that when new readers are become interested in the book and you as an author, they have some place to get information that is established and looks professional.  Id say focus it on your author/writing  news and activites, rather than flooding it with general/personal information, for the aforementioned Professional feel of it;  it's not just for fans, it can also be a good tool if and when interested publishers come looking. 

What Liz said about making it a good ways ahead of time to work out the bugs is probably prudent advise as well. 

[Dresdenus Prime]

And what sort of thing should I put on my Twitter feeds/blog posts? I've heard some people say that I should go for personal everyday stuff, but others have said that it should only be author-related, writing-related stuff. Does anyone have any personal experience or advice? Thanks in advance!

I meant to give my two cents on this question - This is from a reader point of view. There is an author on my twitter feed that has released 4 books on amazon, and she promotes heavily. Here's the problem with the way she does it - I think she uses some sort of automated service that tweets for her, because everyday I see the exact same posts, once every couple of hours. When I see this, it really turns me off as a reader and I get tempted to ignore her posts or stop following altogether. There's nothing wrong with having a main "template" tweet to promote with, but you should really focus on being versitile in your posting.

As to what to put on your blog posts and tweets, I took the middle ground between only writing related stuff and personal. I don't make posts about my family or specific events that took place in my life, but at the same time I take my interests (writing, movies, games, etc.) and make posts about them, so without divulging to the reader my personal life, they at least get to know me through what I like to do and see.

[Quantus]

As to what to put on your blog posts and tweets, I took the middle ground between only writing related stuff and personal. I don't make posts about my family or specific events that took place in my life, but at the same time I take my interests (writing, movies, games, etc.) and make posts about them, so without divulging to the reader my personal life, they at least get to know me through what I like to do and see.

That strikes me as a good balance. 

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

If you're thinking in terms of traditional publishing, the advice I've had is; don't do anything until you've sold something, or you look indistinguishable from any other wannabe.  And even then, don't do anything that treads on the toes of your publisher's marketing people; this being what they do for a living, odds are they are better at it than you.

[Quantus]

If you're thinking in terms of traditional publishing, the advice I've had is; don't do anything until you've sold something, or you look indistinguishable from any other wannabe.  And even then, don't do anything that treads on the toes of your publisher's marketing people; this being what they do for a living, odds are they are better at it than you.

So I guess the question becomes are you looking to stick with the Self-Publishing Model, or are you trying to use it to attract traditional Publishers?  If you are looking to attract a Publisher, be prepared to abandon any and all of this once you get a contract.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

So I guess the question becomes are you looking to stick with the Self-Publishing Model, or are you trying to use it to attract traditional Publishers? 

Self-publishing attracts traditional publishers maybe a tenth to a hundredth of a per cent as often as it repels them; those are not odds I feel worth playing, myself.

[The Deposed King]

So I guess the question becomes are you looking to stick with the Self-Publishing Model, or are you trying to use it to attract traditional Publishers?  If you are looking to attract a Publisher, be prepared to abandon any and all of this once you get a contract.

Lilona Andrews and Jim Butcher are both published authors, there is also the Hurog site for Patricia Briggs and the Mercy Thompson were-wolf series.  I'd say look at what they do on the published author front as it regards websites and content and such.



The Deposed King

[Wordmaker]

My publisher coached me on how to build my online platform. Get a website up. You can buy a domain if you want. I use a free Blogger site and it's serving me well. The main thing you want that website for is online visibility. Pick topics to blog about (and Tweet about) besides your book. Generally speaking, people are turned off by authors posting constant "buy my book!" messages. Talk about the writing process. Give updates on your progress towards your release. But also pick some personal topics to discuss. Comment on the writing industry. Post book recommendations. Blog about topics related to your book.

In my experience, I've gotten more followers and had more people buy my book because we've connected over something entirely separate to my writing.

One thing to keep in mind is that if you're self-publishing with a view to making a name for yourself and attracting a publisher, the odds are extremely slim that they will take on anything you've already published on your own, unless it's already selling very well. You would still likely have to send queries for new work you've completed that you don't intend to self-publish.

Whatever you do with your website, make sure it's published in your name. What I mean is, name your blog after yourself, or buy your own name as a domain, rather than coming up with a catchy website title or buying the domain of your book's title. You're creating a brand, and that brand is you. You want people to associate your name with your work.

[Shecky]

If you're thinking in terms of traditional publishing, the advice I've had is; don't do anything until you've sold something, or you look indistinguishable from any other wannabe.  And even then, don't do anything that treads on the toes of your publisher's marketing people; this being what they do for a living, odds are they are better at it than you.

There's a huge gap between what the publisher does and the author's personal presence. Many readers appear to like at least the appearance of a personal touch, the thought that you could actually "speak" to the author. Personal websites/blogs/social-media presence (or, more to the point, POSTING on them) go very far towards that and are not something a publisher's marketing department could do. Nor should they; it's not their job. Being yourself, putting yourself out there, that's yours.

As a reader, I can say with certainty that there are a number of authors I would never have picked up without that personal presence, no matter the publisher's marketing work. In fact, publisher-initiated marketing is usually on a non-reader-oriented scale, anyway; getting your book to distribution points and suchlike is the way they contribute most.

[Wordmaker]

Also, in my experience, publishers are usually very open to authors trying out all kinds of promotion methods. The only thing likely to need to be cleared with them is anything that may touch on areas covered by your contract.

For example, my publisher holds all rights to publish Locked Within and has first refusal on any works based on it. So I would have to clear it with them to post an excerpt on my website or release free short stories like Jim has done for Dresden.

[arianne]

I recently found the blog of a self-published author who had sold maybe a couple hundred copies of her novel. She was posting things about "how to write a bestselling novel" and "how REAL writers write" and it just turned me off. Good advice is always good advice, but selling 200 books does not make anyone a bestselling writer by anyone's standards and they shouldn't say they are.

It's things like that that make me very wary of posting writing related stuff on a blog. I don't want to come off sounding very arrogant (especially as I haven't published anything yet).

I would like to see my stuff published by a traditional publisher, but I think it usually takes about six months to a year to find an agent/publisher (and I'm being optimistic here and then maybe another year to actually see the book in stores after all the paperwork is signed (and still being optimistic here.... I don't know if my work would still be "current" after that long.