Friday, September 16, 2016

To Website or Not to Website


I mean, I have this blog. I can add pages to it to list books and share excerpts. I have nine years of blog posting history and that's nothing to sneeze at.

I have a website for the book series, but should I, as a (soon to be) published author, have an actual website?

As a reader, I don't go to other author's websites. I don't check out author's Facebook pages either. I don't follow authors on Twitter. I don't sign up for their newsletters.

Many of the authors I know have websites, Facebook pages, a Twitter account they use, newsletters, and several other types of social media platforms. There's a lot of hype in my author circles about networking and supporting one another. And I get that. I really do. But it's so much work juggling all that, and I dunno, but isn't another good book a better selling tool than just about anything? Plus, this is a fun adventure, and anything that makes it not fun isn't happening. :)

But all those platforms are generally for reaching out to readers. I understand that writers are generally big readers, and if a writer wants to follow a favorite author then by all means he or she should. But sometimes I feel...bad, maybe? about not being part of this huge chain of authors. The reason I'm not is simple...

My writer friends are not my target audience.

Now they may enjoy the genre I write and like my books too, but they are under no obligation to follow me on Twitter or Facebook or anything.

I'm not doing a newsletter either. Too many of my author friends gripe about that chore. I blog three times a week, it'll do for getting out whatever upcoming news I might have. I'll set up a notification list, though. Submit your email address and get a quick email about the latest release when the time comes. That's it.

But back to the question of a website... I was recently turned onto AuthorPage.com which is what it sounds like--a platform for author websites, no domain names necessary. It has themes and many cool features, and I think between the blog here and that there, I'm good. Both are free, too. So bonus.

If you're a huge reader, do you actually visit author websites?


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