So What should I have on my Author Website? - Candice Gilmer Books

So What should I have on my Author Website?

Candice Gilmer

It's a debate. Should an author have a website? How important is it when you're an independant author, or a traditionally published author. I have very strong opinions on this, because I don't like the idea of letting my brand and my business to be controlled by anyone but me. 

Simply put -- you must have a website that is not connected to any social media or vendor, so your readers can find you. 

Readers want to read your books, but if they can't find you, they can't read you. If you rely on social media only for readers to find you, and that social media site decides to shut you down, then you're put in a very difficult spot. 

(And we've all heard stories about this author or that author who has had that happen.)

So it's best to always have a source that is always yours, where readers can get to your books, blog, newsletter, and any of those other things we all want to have on our site. 

Plus, in today's world, readers are just as likely to buy directly from an author to support them as they are to buy on a vendor site. So having a direct sales option is great as well. 

(If you're intiidated about setting up a direct sales shop starting out, don't worry about that yet. Just start with the basics that I'm about to tell you about)

  1. Who you are.
    1. Bios can be long or short. I personally prefer a more personal, longer one on the website, but on the press kit, keep the bio short and sweet.
  2. Where you can be found
    1. Facebook
    2. Tiktok
    3. Goodreads
    4. BookBub
    5. Etc
  3. Your books
    1. Each book:
      1. a blurb and tag line,
      2. excerpt
      3. buy links
        1. Whether direct selling or on vendors like Amazon and Apple, have links to make it easy for readers to buy from you. 
  4. Any necessary heat rating for readers
    1. Romance authors, on many occasions, write across the genre, and some books have more graphic scenes than others. It’s always good to give readers a reference for what they’re getting.
    2. Tropes are hot for readers. A list of your books by different tropes is always a plus, especially if you have a larger backlist of stories. 
  5. A Press Kit -- in RTF format, as well as PDF
    1. Biography
      1. Short, sweet. Imagine someone reading this out loud, introducing you to a crowd.
    2. Book list
      1. See “printable book list” for more details
    3. Reviews
      1. When authors give you a blip for your book.
      2. Review snipits for your books (NOT Goodreads clips, either. From review sites, and you have
    4. Awards and/or contest wins
    5. Contact information
      1. Email address, not personal information.
      2. Availability for interviews, etc.
    6. Author Head Shot
  6. Printable Book list -- in PDF and RTF formats
    1. Books, broken by series and/or genre
      1. Title, series title, and tag line (if there’s room)
      2. Also, a heat rating for every book, especially if you write across the board of the genre.

      All of these things, of course, are dependant on how complex you want to be. (FYI, certain sitebuilding options like Author Websites by Bookbub, have pre-built, or customizable pages you can add on with just a few clicks to make a press kit or event calendar.) 

      A simple site of just your books, a bio, your social media links and a newsletter sign up, (that's a whole other discussion -- but a necessity. Again, a contact list you can control of your readers), is absolutely necessary for any author.

      Having something that you can control is imperative in today's world of sites exploding and then disolving or restructuring. Because let's face it. You can write an amazing book, but if readers can't find you or know anything about you, they still won't read it. 

      So make it easy on them. 

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