I hear a website is a must have these days. They say its good to have some sort of web prescence to announce your publications and interact with whomever might be interested in you and your work.
Here's mine: www.proleary.com
Let's see some others! I'd like to get a sense of what other people are doing with their websites, because I don't know exactly what I should be doing with mine.
Good thing to check out, because I just wrote a new column yesterday. Be sure to click 'Like' down at the bottom of the page for the Facebook Page. Thanks.
I just operate out of my wordpress blog. What I do is, I write in it for 2 months, in that time I'll do 3-4 posts a week. By the end of this period there are a fair number of hits on the page, repeat views, people theoretically reading it. I mean, yes, I should spring to get my own url, I'm just not there right now, but having a website as opposed to a blog, to what end? I don't believe there is a huge need to pay for a large amount of server space when there are many viable options for uploading various files to be linked in a blog.
And of course, even a blog has a links section in case you need to keep track of your "hot items" or whatever.
After those 2 months are over then I abandon the blog for 6 months, because I suspect that all of those hits are from the CIA or DEA or something.
Solarcide is my blog/website. It's got all the links to my stories plus guest pieces and author interviews. Been a bit slow this month but I did get one new story linked up.
I've been thinking of creating my own page too... So what's the word out there on that? What's the most recommended way to go? Free site, paid site, which site? I'm quite ignorant of these things.
Wordpress is pretty good. You can either go with the free option which will have .wordpress at the end of your chosen url or can buy a .com if you so wish. The site builder is nice and easy to use. I haven't used any others to compare but I have no complaints with it.
I switched my site to wordpress a while back since my website was barely receiving any traffic considering it was rarely updated. So I switched to wordpress so I could put a blog on the opening page and write new blog entries frequently so people would have a reason to return to the site rather than just visiting it once. The design for my site is good, but the old design is better. My friend did it for me. He said if he ever finds the time, he'll redo it and while keeping the wordpress aspect of the site. This may never happen. Although if I had some money to compensate him, I'm sure he would make the time ASAP.
Here's mine. I'll have more writing stuff to put on it soon. Right now, it's mainly just my general portfolio.
I use a simple landing page, with outbound links to my (unfinished) wordpress blog, etc.
Here's the promo site that I built to help find a literary agent for my awkward kids' book, Children To Avoid.
Solarcide just underwent a pretty heavy makeover in time to coincide with a very cool development.
Mr Nathan Pettigrew (nathan here, claudelives at the cult) is now my offical partner in crime. He's going to be joining me in the quest to make the site an awesome hideout for writers. We have some cool plans for special guest content for the future. Also, Nathan's stories are linked up in the Published Work section.
Would love for you peoples to take a peek.
Would love it even more if you subscribe to the site.
I'm rebuilding the links page at the moment, you folks that have websites may very well find you way onto the list.
And please remember we are always going to be happy to look at guest content, so if you think you have something that might suit then feel free to send it over.
More info about the changes here.
@wickedvoodoo - checked out the site, very cool. Nice work there.
My site is http://www.jeffbarr.com. There are a few stories and some assorted geekery. The stories are here: http://jeffbarr.com/stories/
Hey guys, here's my website, which I adore. Hope you enjoy it: www.alwayseighteen.com
Just started building this thing the other day, mostly imported posts from an old blog.
Thanks to Basekit I was able to whip this together without any programming. http://www.dominogalaxy.com/
I have a blog of sorts, but it really is a thing in progress. And by a thing in progress I mean little progress has been made at all. I have a half-assed banner and a few poorly constructed 'things to do in writing' articles, and some NaNoWriMo Wroodling. That's about it.
But if you're interested, I'm at courtneywriteswords.wordpress.com.
Eventually I'll spruce it up, when I have time to create some better artwork and write some nifty articles and all that. For now, though, I give you... well, that.
I'm still in development, but I only work on it when I have something called "time", lol...
http://www.appleardentscott.com
The blog (link on page) has been up a lot longer. And it has some stuff.
Just aa blog right now: http://jonnygibbings.wordpress.com
And an online teaser from the publisher: http://b2l.bz/9PHKkY
Just aa blog right now: http://jonnygibbings.wordpress.com
And an online teaser from the publisher: http://b2l.bz/9PHKkY
My author site: http://michaelhodgesfiction.com/ I post a few nature images (another passion of mine) from time to time as well as where you can find my latest publications.
vertigoschism77.wordpress.com
For nude photos, click on the giant banana!
I have a couple of shoddy freebie websites (ahhh, struggling hack writers with no $$):
Novel out now, Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat - http://tobaccostainedmountaingoat.weebly.com/
Novel I'm currently working on, One Hundred Years of Vicissitude - http://onehundredyearsofvicissitude.weebly.com/
I am presently working on a couple of serials that fall under a single umbrella I have called, Clandestine Tales. Please feel free to click "like" on the facebook button if you do like what you see and any commentary would be appreciated.
I'm using wordpress, mainly because I've found it can do most anything I need with minimal tinkering on my part. I don't really 'blog' as such, though. It's more a running scrapbook of my writing life - pub credits, artwork, podcasts, and the like. Oh, and recently I finally settled on the design, so that was pretty rad.
Just redesigned my website about a week ago, with new custom artwork, a sweet background, and an attention to detail that I can be happy with for years to come: www.alexjkane.com
I blog about the craft and business of writing, the publishing industry, the science fiction, horror, and fantasy genres, and other random areas of interest, like film, philosophy, and art/culture, etc.
Looks good, Alex.
i just started up an author page/blog. literally. not much content yet, but it'll surely get filled in the weeks to come with news, screenwriting/short story writing methods, how i apply what i've learned in screenwriting to short story writing, writing resources and basically stuff having to do with writing and art.
i also have another blog called Domestic Lobotomy where i post gluten free recipes and all other domestic shiz.
anyhow, check them out if you like. they are just babies. :-)
cheers,
nikki
Thanks, Laurance!
Just thought I'd plug my blog seeing as it's newly installed on my website...
I'm really happy with it; redesigned it a couple years ago. I used to blog a lot under the umbrella of a site called Medialysis, but I think the posts were just too varied for most people. It was a lot of pro tips about video and audio/music production and creative techniques to do with writing and designing and all that renaissance stuff. I incorporated the most relevant blog posts into the current site up at the top by topic, but these days it's mostly self-promotional to keep up with events related to my writing and music. It's got a lot of content.
EDIT: Also, I gotta say—and not just because he's my friend—that Caleb J. Ross has one of the best author web sites I've seen. It's SEO'd to the max, and even though it's very comprehensive and he changes the layout quite often, it remains clear where everything is; with the way he tags all of his stuff, it stays organized. He's also constantly experimenting with new methods of engaging his readers through it, and writes a ton of helpful posts about marketing and all that good stuff, as well as being self-effacing and entertaining. One of the keys for him, I think, is tapping into other authors' audiences by being very reciprocal/altruistic about helping to promote them.
@cdregan: Love that book title. Though I'm predisposed to, I suppose, seeing that I eat kids for breakfast and spit out the yucky parts like the Chinese do.
@wickedvoodo: Clean site, fantastic images.
Alex Kane: Gorgeous background. Site visually pops.
I'm at http://www.architecturetravelwriter.com, or @NicholeLReber, for those who prefer quickies.
I hope somebody checks it out. It's costed me a fortune so far.
There are a lot of good-looking sites here. It makes mine look pretty bland. But it does what I need it to do, for now.
My new site with my actual name in the domain:
@Bekanator, your site background reminds me of the old (70's? 80's?) CBC logo.
@Jeffrey: Not what I was going for, but I totally see it now. Awesome.
I also just posted the first "sexy hipster graphic" promotion of my new short story that appears in Martin and Nathan's Nova Parade anthology!
Um. What exactly is an author website?
It's where Charlotte spins web adjectives about pigs.
"It's where Charlotte spins web adjectives about pigs."
Most amazing answer ever.
www.bryanhowie.com Not much of a site, but it does have a picture I took as the background.
Edit: I just realized I wish my last name was Jones so that on the top of my page it would say, "No time for love, Dr. Jones."
No you don't. Jones is the lamest fucking last name of all time.
Chavez Jones is going to my alternate name.
I just built one, there isn't much on it right now, and I don't know exactly what I am going to put on the blog, but here ya are: www.reneeasherpickup.com The header is a photo I took on the corner of Bleeker and Bowery, outside of CBGB a couple weeks before they got kicked out.
Just joined up with Litreactor, came to the forums, saw this. So this is my author website. In fact, I just switched to blogspot (from wordpress. WP is a pain in my ass) not long ago and it is amazing. Tell me what you think. I'm still in the process of adding more to it, but in my own opinion, I think it's awesome-sauce.
I have a stupid videogame-related web-comic blog, with some interspersed writing here and there.
And before you judge me, allow me to judge myself. Yes, I am a manchild.
@Marius I see we have something in common! Nice background image.
