The Most Important Thing to Know before Designing Your Author Website

By Iola Goulton

Author websites. We know we have to have one, but how do you go about actually doing it? I’ve just finished building www.iolagoulton.com, and over the next few weeks, I’m going to share some of what I’ve learned to help those of you who are considering designing (or redesigning) an author website.

In designing my site, I learned a few things. However, this first post is more confirming what I already knew was important . . .

Know your genre

Genre informs two important decisions: colour and font. Just like on a book cover, colour and font combine on your website to show visitors what you write (show, don’t tell. Remember that fiction rule?).

If you don’t know what genre you write, you’ve already got your future book marketing off to a bad start. As we’ve discussed in previous posts, genre is important in terms of defining and meeting reader expectations.

Genre is also important when it comes to selling books, because the major online retailers all require publishers to categorise books by genre, and it’s generally agreed that books have a better chance of succeeding (i.e. selling) if they are categorised in a precise and accurate genre.

For a quick background to genre, see the following posts:

Romance 
Mystery, Suspense and Thrillers 
Fantasy and Speculative

Your genre is part of your overall author brand, and your design choices need to be consistent with that brand. Let’s look at some examples (try to ignore any names you recognise, focus on the design elements, and see if they're representative of the genre).

What genres do these websites represent?

It shouldn't surprise you to realise that Inspy Romance is an inspirational romance blog. Even without the title and the tagline, you can probably tell from the pink theme, the floral motif, and the cursive logo font. 

This has a different feel. The chunky font, grey colouring, and bleak cityscape all point to something a little more gritty: thrillers.

This is a clean blog: black, white, and a touch of red (for the email signup button), with minimal styling and easy-to-read fonts. Yes, it's non-fiction—business advice and motivation. 

The combination of a script font, denim blue and brown, along with the wagon wheels give this one away: historical fiction set in the Old West. The cross in the top right is a subtle way of saying Christian historical fiction. The look is a little more old-fashioned than the contemporary romance (below) or the non-fiction and thriller above, but even that reflects the brand. 

Spring colours give this blog a touch of whimsy, as do the hearts sprinkled around, and the informal author photograph. The words are clever in that they reinforce the brand and give a subtle indication of genre: love (indicating romance), hope (representing Christian or inspirational fiction) and hilarity (more of a focus on humour than the darker side of life).

This one is a little harder. It's got a definite contemporary feel, while the blue is reminiscent of water, and the script font again suggests romance or perhaps women's fiction—it doesn't have the obvious romance branding of Inspy Romance or Melissa Tagg. As it happens, Carla's novels are romance, but more romance in the real world, with characters with real world histories and issues. She also writes fantasy as C E Laureano, but this website is definitely all about her contemporary novels.

You can see how the colour, font and style choices inform and reinforce both genre and author brand. The two major design choices are colour and font, and I’ll be back to discuss those in more detail next week.

Meanwhile, check out my new website at www.iolagoulton.com, then tell me what you think in the comments. My brand is clear (at least, I think it is). Does my site reflect that brand?

My Top 10 Websites for Writers

By Iola Goulton

I’ve spent a lot of time over the last few years surfing the internet, learning about publishing and book marketing. This post will introduce you to what I believe are the Top 10 blogs for Christian authors to follow (although it excludes Australasian Christian Writers and my own website, both of which you already follow, right?).

Actually, these are the Top 10 blogs for any author to follow While some of them have a Christian focus, most don’t.  Some are focused on traditional publishing, while others have more of a self-publishing bent. It’s important to read both, to enable you to make an educated decision about the type of publisher you want to work with.

So, in alphabetical order:

Rachelle Gardner

Rachelle is a literary agent with Books & Such, specialising in Christian publishing. I have noticed that the quality of her posts has declined over the last year (her best posts are now just links to Books & Such), and her commenters tend to be overwhelmingly agreeable (I suspect most of them hope to land Rachelle as their agent one day). Despite these drawbacks, there is a wealth of information on her blog about writing craft and literary agents, and you would be advised to spend some time going through her archives.

David Gaughran

David is the author of Let’s Get Digital and Let’s Get Visible. Like several other bloggers on my list, Gaughran has a nasty habit of unveiling the truth about spurious publishing headlines. (Marketing hint: when responding to a controversial post, calling the other person “full of ****” means you have lost the moral high ground—and the argument).

Joe Konrath at A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing

Joe offers excellent advice on self-publishing and marketing. His vocabulary is often a little, let’s say, earthy (he’s not a Christian, and his language can reflect that) and his tone is self-congratulatory. However, he’s earned around $1m from Amazon over the last year in ebook sales and lending fees, so I think that gives him the right to say he knows a bit about writing and book marketing. Joe has little patience for traditional publishing, which makes his blog an excellent contrast to the agent blogs.

Steve Laube

Steve is owner of the Steve Laube Literary agency, and the new owner of Marcher Lord Press, publisher of Christian speculative fiction. His blog doesn’t get as many comments as some of the others on my list, but the posts are intelligent and insightful, and include weekly posts from each of the four agents.

Amanda Luedeke

Amanda is an agent with MacGregor Literary, owned by Chip MacGregor, and writes “Thursdays with Amanda”, a weekly marketing post (that I read on Friday, because of the international date line). The blog also has regular posts from Chip, from his other agents, and some guest blogger posts. These are good, but Amanda is better. Again, I’d advise you to go through the archives (or read Amanda’sbook).

The Creative Penn

Joanna Penn covers self-publishing and marketing, with a combination of blog posts and podcasts. A wealth of information, much of which is covered in her book, How to Market a Book.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Kris doesn’t post regularly, but when she does, it’s worth reading. She is especially good on explaining the business of writing and publishing, and issues with contracts (such as interpreting royalty statements, assignment of rights, and reversion clauses). Essential reading. 

Seekerville

Seekerville is a group blog featuring a range of Christian authors, and includes posts on writing craft from the Seekers, and from a range of guest bloggers, both published and unpublished. They also offer affordable online classes—I'm enrolled in the February class and am looking forward to it.

The Passive Voice

The Passive Voice isn’t a like most blogs, where the blogger (or a group of bloggers) post their own views and experiences. Passive Guy compiles interesting and relevant posts on publishing and marketing from around the internet and adds a dry comment or two. (He also posts relevant literary quotes, and the occasional promotion for Mrs PG’s new book).

Writer Beware

What’s going wrong in the world of publishing, including agents, awards and publishers to avoid (and why). Writer Beware is one of the best places to look if you think something looks fishy (see their invaluable “Thumbs Down” lists). Again, an extensive and informative archive.

If you only have time to follow one blog, which one would I recommend? Easy.

The Passive Voice

Why? Two reasons:

• The Passive Voice is run by Passive Guy, a lawyer specialising in contract law, so he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to publishing contracts and legal issues. Mrs PG is a self-published historical fiction author, so he has an interest in self-publishing. You can find his professional website here. 
• The comments are outstanding—comments on many blogs are mostly congratulatory, but PG attracts a range of readers and encourages friendly debate. For an example, see the recent post on author earnings which attracted over 300 comments.

What writing blogs do you read? Which ones do you recommend, and why?

By Iola Goulton. I am a freelance editor specialising in Christian fiction, and you can find out more about my services at my website (www.christianediting.co.nz), or follow me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/christianediting), Twitter (@IolaGoulton) or Pinterest (http://pinterest.com/iolasreads).