A Writer's Life ... Online

Everyone who's anyone in today's high-tech society is online. And 99.9% have websites of some type, whether it's a personal domain, a Flickr account, a LiveJournal, a Facebook page ... something somewhere tells others who they are, what they like, and what they're doing. Now while your grandmother might not be online (or, if she is, might not do anything more than send you all those annoying e-mail forwards she gets), any public persona has a website today. Celebrities, athletes, writers ... even the president has his own blog now! So if you're trying to build a presence as a published author, then you definitely need a place of your own online!

But is a personal domain right for you? Do you need to get a page at www.your-name.com or can you promote your work through free webhosts and social networking sites?

Having your own website isn't as daunting as it sounds. Domain names sell for as low as $5/year these days, and you can find web space for about the same cost each month. Even if you don't know basic HTML, free programs such as Wordpress can generate a fairly low maintenance website and blog for even the most inept web user.

In choosing a domain name, be creative. If yourname.com is taken, try the .net version. If neither are available, try adding a dash between your first and last name. Or add a descriptive word to the end of your name, like "writes" or "author." I would caution against picking a URL with the title of your book in it, unless you're writing a series which you intend on continuing for some time. Otherwise you're stuck with a domain name for one book only, and if you write additional ones, where will you list them?

Once you have a website up and running, be sure to include an author bio, information on your books, and links to any free stories you might have posted online. Readers love freebies, whether free fiction or free promotional items, and how else will a new reader know if they'll like your writing if they don't sample it first? Published books should include buy links ~ don't link to eXcessica's homepage but rather directly to the page where readers can buy your book. Otherwise they might hit the front page and forget what they were looking to buy in the first place. Give them as few clicks as you can to get them to your book.

When your site is live, be sure to link to it everywhere you can to help promote it. In your email signature every time you post to a Yahoo! group. In your profiles on all those social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter). On your author pages maintained by your publisher. On any forum posts you might make, and any blog comments as well. Pimp it everywhere. Once readers can find you online, they can find your other stories and hopefully become fans of your work!