We have an author friend (to protect her identity, we’ll call her, hmm, Jill) who recently asked us how she can win friends and influence people via her website. Naturally we had many thoughts on the subject, and we think we scared Jill with our enthusiasm. Jill realizes the importance of an author’s website, and she realizes the importance of an interesting author’s websites. Readers who have been online for some time are fairly sophisticated — they expect more from an author than a marketing brochure; they see through publisher-driven efforts. The best author sites offer community — some authors do this via frequent updates or blog entries (Jennifer Weiner comes to mind). Fresh content and communication brings readers back…and, putting on our cynical marketing hat for a moment, keeps your name in front of people. Interesting and provocative posts (we really do recommend that authors have blogs or blog-like areas on their sites) are shared and bring in other readers. The best part of this (perhaps you can see why Jill backed away slowly from our blatherings) is that this type of interaction is what writers do. They write and publish. It’s such a perfect fit. We simply don’t understand why more authors don’t take our advice. We really do know everything.
- Meet the author – in her cyberspace chamber of secrets (note: there are some peculiar terms in this article…what, pray tell, is a blether?)
- Meet the author (our source for this posting; they offer a great daily newsletter)
- SnarkSpot (Jennifer Weiner’s blog)
