You have an idea. You find blank sheets and fill them with your joy, solace, and faith. You feel that ethereal moment – a flicker of light, a midnight howl, a cold chill that breaks a spine, and soft echoes in the loudest silence, and you decorate it with words. An author lost in time, crafts pages entranced by the magic, and slowly these pages shape into a heartfelt novel. It’s you, dear author who creates a world within a world for your reader. Your readers giggle and roll on the floor, or drown in tears by the midnight lamps. That is the true magic of your writing.
But how does your reader find you and your magic? How does your most treasured pages find their way to a reader’s bedside table?
As an author, you need to have a strong digital presence and a website that provides a professional online presence. It gives you authority and huge networking opportunities. As a book marketer and a writer, I’m sharing the secret benefits of having an author’s website.
- Lets your reader find you: Having a website is as important as social media presence for a book’s successful journey from the printer to your reader’s hands. A website is an ultimate marketing tool. Readers always want to know more about the book and the author before they purchase. A website is a great place to talk about your book in detail. You must not wait for your book to be published. Get started now and start creating hype in the digital space. Figure out where your readers spend their time online and share the link of your website there. In other words: go where your readers are. Don’t wait for them to come to you. Share your website link everywhere.
- Gives you a digital identity: Your website design, colour, font, pictures, content, everything shows who you are. Your website should be an extension of your author brand. Your website is more critical if you are a self-published author. Keep the voice and tone of your website distinctive and consistent, so people immediately recognize the relation to your work and increases your website’s visibility. Test it for yourself- type Stephen King on google and see what comes up. In the top 3 options, you will find his website. Select a creative domain name and hosting platform and you are all set.
- Helps you create an email list: Your contact us page helps in collecting the email ids of the visitors. So, every time you want to share something new, you can mail the newsletter to them. It provides networking opportunities and builds confidence among readers. Making your site more compelling will help in creating loyal fans. You can also manage your fan base using your website easily.
- SEO blog to improve your website’s ranking: You must have a blog page on the website. This space can be used for a regular inflow of SEO content related to your books, or your interests. Blogging keeps your website fresh and current. SEO researchers have found that long-form blog posts tend to perform better than shorter ones – the average first-page result on Google is nearly 2,000 words long. A blog gives you opportunities for internal linking and in turn, improves the website’s ranking.
- Make a big Announcement: A website is a solid platform to make all big announcements. You can announce a book sale, testimonials, upcoming events, book events, and special days or fundraisers. You can also do surveys, polls, etc. through your website. While creating these announcements remember to keep it interacting. It should be a 2-way street otherwise you are missing out on the opportunity. Refer to the best author websites to curate ideas for your digital nook.
Your website need not be fancy. You can do it yourself with platforms like WordPress. If you need any technical assistance, then we can help you with end to end website development and maintenance. You can just focus on creating art and we will focus on increasing your book’s visibility.
