When I first started writing my trilogy four years ago, I
thought the biggest challenge was actually conquering that 60,000 word limit of
the first book and creating a cohesive and well polished story. I’ve since
learnt that is the easy part (I use the word ‘easy’ within a scale of
relativity of course). The next thing I discovered was just how hard it was to
edit and revise (boy did that come as a shock)
After these step learning curves I came to understand that the hardest
part of the novel process is actually finding a readership.
There are many things I wish I’d known three years ago that
I know now. But then again, the indie writing movement was still quite new to
everybody, and Twitter, Facebook and Blogging were all relatively new and niche
– things that only really technically savvy people did. And don’t even think
about the scary alien idea of creating a personal website – surely you had to
have a degree in ICT to do such a technical thing.
What a difference a couple of years make:
THE SINGLE BIGGEST THING I WISH I HAD KNOWN before
I published my first book / submitted my manuscript to agents WAS THE
IMPORTANCE OF WEB PRESENCE. Regardless of whether you are going to
go the Traditional route or Indie route you need to invest the time you are
drafting your manuscript also building your web presence.
The two easiest ways to do this are a BLOG and a WEBSITE. (I’ll
save blog discussion for another day because I’m still not convinced that I do
the blog thing that well.)
Three years ago I had very few ICT skills and the thought of creating a website to support my books was well out of my league. Then I discovered WEEBLY. Weebly is a system that allows you to create a FREE Website through a template and click & drag system. Within one afternoon I managed to set up a basic website. I’m not saying that Weebly is the only or the best (many people swear by Wordpress – but I find that very technical and complicated for a novice) but it did the job I needed it to and it’s REALLY, REALLY EASY to update, add and play with. CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE
STEP BY STEP GUIDE.
LAYOUT AND STYLE:
Choose a layout from the templates –
there are lots of to choose from. Ignore the images, you’ll be getting rid of
them and replacing them with your own. I went for a simple black one with a top
banner because I knew this would be easier to customise with my own colour
choices and images.
COLOUR: Think
carefully about your genre – go and nose around other writers’ websites in your
genre and look at what colours work and which ones don’t. Try and select a
colour scheme that supports your genre.
TYPE / FONT: Don’t
go crazy – I know it’s tempting to try out all the lovely curly, whirly script because
it looks so pretty, but it just makes it irritating for your readers to read.
Keep it simple, tasteful and linked to genre.
PAGES: To start
with you need a WELCOME PAGE (sometimes called HOME page). This is your
attention grabber. Lots of people don’t ever go past your front page so make
sure that it is as exciting as possible. Get straight to the point with an
introduction of your work and an exciting supporting image. Include a blurb
(you can always change it later) and a chance to read the opening chapter. When
you have actually finished your book you will update it to include Amazon
widgets and other toggles taking readers straight to sites that sell your
books.
USE IMAGERY to
support. You don’t need to have created your book cover just yet (you might
only have written three chapters) but select an image that you think conveys
the theme / genre or concept of the story you are writing. You must be very
careful about copyright. One of the best things you can do is sign up to a
stock image site where you can buy the right to use images (and there are loads
of freebies too) on your website, bookcover and promo material. I use
Dreamstime stock images but there are others. You can use your images straight
or if you are more ambitious you can use programs like photoshop to alter and
play.
PICASSA is a
brilliant basic image program which will allow you to crop, edit, effect and
add text to images very easily. AGAIN NOVICE FRIENDLY.
INSERT A LINK TO YOUR
TWITTER PROFILE and FACEBOOK PAGE.
You can just download a button by going to google images and then inserting a
hyperlink – Weebly takes you through this step by step.
CREATE AN AUTHOR PAGE: Don’t clutter your first page with details about yourself. Save that
for your author page. Include a photo of yourself and a short introduction.
Keep it both personal but at the same time professional. You may also want to
add a link to your blog on this page. THINK YOURSELF AN AUTHOR and DO NOT put
yourself down. You are not aspiring – you are doing!
STOP. At this
stage early stage this is all you really need. You will build onto your site as
you carry on writing. The closer you get to completing your book, the more you
will want to add. It’s quite a nice idea to have a TEASER PAGE in which you
post your opening chapters to entice readers into your world before you’ve
published.
MAKE SURE YOU POST A LINK TO YOUR WEBPAGE IN YOUR TWITTER
PROFILE. It allows new followers to find out more about you and where you are
coming from.
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