I congratulate you! You are now a published author willing to share your book to the world. A site must be open to each author. Your website tells a great deal about your personality and how you want your followers to learn about you. The name of their books are used by some writers. It might work for them, but it is important to keep it under your name if you have written more than one book. Ideally, you better have your own domain name, even though I know other writers using a blog or combining the web and blog. What works for you is good as long as people would know where to find you.
The presentation of who you are is your website Select the ideas and design wisely. Choose the colors and theme that in your liking. Your brand is seen as an author on a website. Maintain your website informative and entertaining.
Your website must have the following:
- Welcome page- This is your website’s most relevant tab. The way you create this page decides whether viewers choose to access the other pages. I would recommend you to add all the key points and the new book announcements to this page. Make it easy and free. Mostly people who visit your website might stop at this page. It would be awful if you haven’t give the details here. This page must be updated regularly to keep it new and up-to-date.
- Bio- You can feature your credential here, certificates and awards you earned that you want to share in public.
- Photo- Your photo must be a professional looking, not just a random shot taken from your smartphone. Note that you are your best asset together with your bio.
- Books- The objective of your website is you will be able to display your books. By this, you will be able to get the attention of your readers with summary of your books and book covers.
- Contact Page- Provide a contact information that can be accessible for the people to contact you.
Variety of hosting sites that has templates are available online that you can choose.
Blogging Is Not That Easy
If you are already writing and promoting books, blogging might be difficult to reconcile, but authors have figured out how to keep their blogs going. Colleting three months before you launched can burn you out. Posting regularly is not necessary. I know writers who have published two or three blogs a week in advance. You can post other writers or readers on your blog when you run out of material.
Blogging should not be astonishing. However, you should be able to inform the community, entertain and ach out. Your post must not always talk about promoting, writing, or editing. You also want to attract a wider audience and portray another side of yourself. The key to promoting your blog is toad keywords. Following a list of bloggers, they are mostly to follow you back.
Blogger and WordPress are free blog sites that provide user-friendly templates. Following other people’s blog will help you to gain more information of what is happening in publishing industry.
Top Blogs That I Follow:
http://writerunboxed.com/
http://www.livewritethrive.com/
http://janefriedman.com/blog/
http://www.alanrinzler.com/blog/
http://jodyhedlund.blogspot.com/
http://www.rachellegardner.com/
http://www.thepassivevoice.com/
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/
http://www.thebookdesigner.com/
http://www.amarketingexpert.com/blog/
http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/
http://www.thecreativepenn.com/blog/
http://www.therenegadewriter.com/
http://www.makealivingwriting.com/
http://socialmediajustforwriters.com/
With the help of technology, you can and have your schedules in a virtual blog tour where in the guest are the authors. You can boost your exposure by participating. You can have your scheduled for a week or more of 7-14 blogs ahead of time with just a click of a button. The writers had to innovate and think of unconventional book startups with so many libraries closing out. A variety of promotions can be made in a blog. One way for readers and fans to know who the author is, is to have an interview from the blog host and the author.
Guest post is where the author writes an article of his choice: typically involving the craft of writing, editing or marketing, as a means of providing tips and guidance to new authors. Book giveaways and competition are common ways to keep the virtual blog tours running. Scheduling blog tours that focus on your books can be favorable for authors, but featuring in other blogs that highlight various subjects can also appeal to a broader audience.
Thousands of book reviews have read books of various kinds and written an honest review on their blogs. Some of the site reviews are Shelfari, GoodReads and Amazon. Most of these reviewers have hundreds of followers that they will spread the word to their families and friends that in return they will know about you. They still use the good old word of the mouth, which is virtually rendered just this time.
As an author, you may have other interests aside from writing, and this is your chance to demonstrate a different side of yourself. If you are animal lover and willing to write an article about your pets, it will not just a hit for animal lovers, but animal lovers who would want to read your books and tell their friends about your work. Contact the virtual bloggers ahead of time to arrange the dates.
Resources:
http://www.pumpupyourbook.com/tag/virtual-blog-tour/
http://www.virtualbooktourcafe.com/
http://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/
http://www.worldliterarycafe.com/
http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/
Virtual Book Clubs Create Harmony
Years ago a book clubs became a form of social gathering where a group of friends would meet in a bookshops, coffee shops or people houses to discuss a book they’ve chosen to read for the month. There has been a rise of virtual book clubs, where members can discuss their opinions online. GoodReads is one of the countless online book clubs that you can peruse and to get involved in social media because it has growing community that connects authors and reader.
It’s one of the most satisfying feelings to have your book chosen in a book club. You’re going to hear firsthand how emotionally involved people are with your characters. In return, your readers will be able to share books with their friends, and loved ones. This means more exposure to your books.
There are thousands of happy readers of online books, if you will be able to give them a free electronic copies of your book they will become your followers and give you their honest feedback. Or even if your book doesn’t get selected you will be able to create relationships with your peers.
Authors can continue to add a personal touch by adding an autograph of their eBooks through a digital signature that can be automatically sent to their reader’s device by the help of Autograph.com.