Tag Archives: literature

April 16, 2025 · 2:40 am

Tips for Building Your Author Website

Your book has been written. It’s being published or it’s already been published. Now, you’re looking into marketing to promote yourself and your book. There are many benefits to maintaining a personal website, including promotion, sales, reader engagement, and the power of working outside of the algorithms of social media. Despite these benefits, it can seem like a daunting task to build a website independently, especially if you are not confident in your tech-savvy skills. Sometimes the hardest step to take is the first one, so here are a few tips to getting started with building your website:

Creating a Domain Name:

The expense of buying a domain for a website is usually very small, about $10 to $50 annually. When choosing the name, there are a few things to keep in mind:

Your domain name be simple, easy to remember, and should relate to you, rather than any of your specific books. For example, if your name or pen name is already taken, then try adding words like “author” or “writer” after your name to narrow the options. Alternatively, you could follow your name with the genre you tend to stick to, as this will function as a keyword to help search engines find you. Try to steer clear of special characters like numbers or hyphens.

Remember, choosing a name that reflects you as an author is important because it will enable you to market yourself and any other books you write in the future under that umbrella. If you’d like to create a separate website for an individual book, then go for it!

Choosing a website platform:

There are many options available to choose from when selecting a platform for your website. Here are a few tips to help narrow down your search and hopefully find an option that suits you:

User-friendliness — your website should be easy for you to use, so if you happen to be on the less than tech-savvy side, search for pre-made templates, as this will help remove some of the confusion.

Affordability — it goes without saying that a website needs to be affordable for you. Inexpensive options are tempting, and you may be just fine with platforms where your control over customization is limited. The pricier options, while expensive, usually come with additional features and may be easier to use.

Flexibility and Longevity — ensure that whatever platform/template you use looks good on different types of devices, as some websites will look different on a laptop, phone, or tablet. Additionally, consider open-source options rather than proprietary ones, as the latter platforms are tied to the success of the companies that provide them. Open-source platforms may be more difficult to learn to use, but will help ensure the longevity of your website.

Just a few of the popular website platforms include:

WordPress — a tech-savvy option. WordPress offers highly customizable designs, as well SEO features. While it may take some effort to learn how to use, it offers broader control of your website.

Squarespace — less tech-savvy than WordPress but still requires some knowledge to utilize, offers built-in SEO and blogging tools. They offer a variety of templates to choose from.

BookBub— an inexpensive ($10/month) platform that requires less technical skill than the two above. If you don’t mind less freedom for customization, this offers a less technical route to build a website. BookBub contains templates designed specifically with authors in mind.

Wix — great for beginners, with easy to understand building tools. Like BookBub, this platform offers designs directed toward authors.

Note: When choosing a website template, keep in mind your brand. The aesthetic of the template you use will reinforce your brand. Which genre do you write in? A horror author’s website will look very different from a business author’s. Choose designs that will create a space that is both professional and will allow you to continue to grow and flourish with time.

Essential aspects of a website:

When you’ve chosen your platform and are ready to build your website, keep in mind these essential features to include:

Homepage — include your name and a blurb about yourself (ex: I am … welcome to my website!), your book covers (or select one or two), and social media links. If you decide to create a newsletter or blog, you can place the option to sign up or view them here, along with select reviews of your work.

About Me page — should contain your professional bio. You can also include other information about yourself to help readers get to know you better, like your hobbies and interests.

Contact Information page — add information on how you’d like to be contacted for promotional opportunities. If applicable, include your agent, publicist, or other professional who can be contacted in order to reach you.

Individual book pages — each of your books should have their own designated page, with an image, a description (long or short), and a link to buy the book. You could also include content, such as the first chapter, to invite readers to sample your work before purchase.

Conclusion:

Choosing to build a website can be time consuming, and it’s easy to feel daunted by it, but it is a valuable investment of your time that can eventually pay off in a boost in sales, promotion, and community engagement. Additionally, a website adds a layer of professionalism to your identity as a writer, a badge of honor for the dedication and perseverance it took to write your books! If you’d like a more in-depth summary of the benefits of building and maintaining your website, check out our Benefits of Having and Website as an Author blog post for more ideas and tips.

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March 24, 2025 · 12:23 am

Benefits of Having a Website as an Author

If you are an author, you may be considering creating your own website, even if you are just publishing your first book! A website is a place for all your information to come together, a one-stop shop to collect and promote your work, upcoming projects, events, press engagements, and relevant personal achievements. It also allows you to communicate directly with your audience without the hassles of social media algorithms, while adding professionalism to your reputation and solidifying your brand on your own terms. These are just a few reasons to go ahead and dive into creating that website. Let’s look a bit more deeply at some of the benefits of a website and what you can do with it.  

Benefits of having a website:

Marketing and Sales — The first benefit of having a website is the most obvious—promotion. You can promote your books (and other merchandise if applicable) on your website, and provide a list of links to purchase all your books in one place. Websites are also a straightforward and time-saving method for journalists to contact an author for PR purposes, which helps you to network efficiently.

A Home Base — A website provides a central hub where all your information, including your promotional materials, links to your books, contact info, and other specialized content like blogs, email lists, newsletters, and more are tied together by your brand and presented to the world. Customized on your terms, a website is the place interested readers can seek out to learn more about you, an author they enjoy and want to see more of.

Visibility — This refers to the amount of traffic you are getting on your media platforms, and there are many layers related to this topic. As it relates to websites, traffic is impacted by search engines. When your name or your book title is entered into a search engine, what comes up? Is it your information or something else? Maintaining a website helps search engines discover you when your book title and/or name are entered, increasing the probability that your information will surface when searched.

Community Engagement — Interacting with your audience is essential to growing your reader community. Creating an email list, blog posts, newsletters, or other specialized content unique to the website enables a sense of community to arise as readers respond to your content.

Freedom – A website empowers you to present your work to the world on your own terms, with authenticity and control. Conducting book promotion and community interaction on social media platforms means that you must navigate their algorithms, which can often work against you by not efficiently showing all your posted content to your followers. A website ensures that interested followers can easily access all of your content relatively easily, especially those who are subscribed to your newsletters, emails, and/or blog posts.

Now that we’ve talked about a few of the benefits of creating a website, let’s think about a few of the possibilities for what you can fill it with:

What to include in your website:

Personal Stories — Along with the usual contact info and personal biography, etc., you may also decide to share some behind the scenes content. Although it is not essential to share personal life stories, readers are often interested in your unique process, what inspires you, and your writing process. Giving readers a peek into what goes on behind the curtain can help them understand your writing style and who you are, fostering deeper connections within your readership community.

A List of Your Work — Although this is obvious, your website should contain links to purchase your book, or books, along with links to any other materials you’d like to include, such as online publications or reviews, articles, research, collaborations, press, notable achievements, etc.

Engaging Content — As previously mentioned, an excellent way to interact with readers is through email lists, newsletters, and blog posts. Blogs can be filled with things you are interested in—current topics in the literature scene, pieces of news you find interesting, book reviews and recommendations, tropes familiar to your genre, lists of podcasts, books, films, and other things you like. This content can also include exclusive excerpts of your work, such as scenes that were cut from your book, but readers are still hungry to read.

Events and PR — Notifying readers of opportunities to connect with you makes you seem more approachable, helping them to feel more connected to you. Are you having a book signing? Are you engaged as a speaker, whether virtually or in person? Are you hosting an event? Promote it on your website!

Reader Reviews— Including reader reviews on your website helps to build trust and credibility, as many of us refer to the opinions of others before taking a chance on buying a book when we don’t know the author. Reviews also help to give your readers a voice, and when that is coupled with engagement from you, the author, it helps make readers feel like you are listening and accessible.

Conclusion:

It is up to you to decide if the home base offered by a website is for you. Some authors view the idea of creating a website as daunting and potentially time-consuming, especially in the midst of hectic lives filled with work, family, and other competing tasks. However, the time devoted can be worthwhile, materializing in the form of increased sales, community engagement, and publicity. As a writer, finding balance is essential. Hopefully this list will give you some food for thought as you consider building a website.

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March 8, 2025 · 2:59 pm

Celebrating Female Voices in Literature – International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day is a day to celebrate the triumphs, skills, and courage of women across the world. As we look through the window of hindsight at history, we observe the terrific feats of women, their struggles, fortitude, intelligence, and sacrifices in the evolving progress of equality. In the world we live in today, International Women’s Day celebrates every aspect of what it means to be a woman, honoring the determination, innovation, strength, creativity, joy, and tragedies woven through women’s stories.

Most of us have heard of famous female authors like Jane Austen, Agatha Christie, and Mary Shelley. There are many writers whose voices have lifted and moved readers, and their work deserves to continue to be heard as time moves on. Let’s look back and review or learn something new from a few of the women who have had a profound impact on literature.

Audre Lorde

The inspiring Audre Lorde was a multitalented writer, professor, and lifelong social activist, devoting her life to illuminating and confronting issues in civil rights, feminism, gay rights, classism, and disability. As a black, queer woman in the middle of twentieth century New York City, she supported the creation of a black studies department within the male-dominated universities where she worked as a professor. She assisted in founding the first publishing press for women of color in the US, and in the formation of an organizations to assist women throughout the world, including victims of sexual assault in St. Croix, and women impacted by the apartheid in South Africa. Audre was fierce in her writing. In her poetry, she made calls for social justice and explored the dueling expectations and roles within the female identity, positing that the differences between genders, classes, and races should be explored and celebrated. Her subsequent poems inspected themes like the intersectionality of women’s lives, the celebration black identity, and rage at social injustice. Her prose was consistent with these themes, including one of her prominent works, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name. In her later years, she wrote about motherhood and her battle with cancer, which was portrayed in her books The Cancer Journals and A Burst of Light, both collections of essays expressing her struggle with illness that would ultimately take her life. Audre is regarded for her narrative bravery, persistence in advocating for equality, and the authenticity with which she conveyed her experiences as a black woman, lesbian, and mother.

Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth Taylor (not referring to the actress, who with a stroke of bad luck, rose to fame at a similar time as the author) was a British writer who focused her work on the nature of everyday life. Born in 1912, she grew up in England, working as a governess and librarian until she married in 1936. Her first book was titled, At Mrs. Lippincote’s, a humorous autobiographical tale, and was received with positive reviews and commercial success. Her publications included eleven more novels and a children’s book, along with short stories. Inspired by relationships and events in her own life, one of her short stories portrayed her correspondence with fellow writer and friend Robert Liddel, and another illustrated her disdain of living in the public eye. She was admired by her peers and the masses as an extraordinary writer for her portrayal of natural behavior with precise language through a sometimes plotless, natural setting. She passed away in 1975, and several of her novels, Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont and Angel, have since been interpreted into film.

Grace Paley

Born in the early 1920s, Grace Paley was a American poetry and shorty story writer, as well as political activist and teacher. A child of Jewish Russian immigrants, she grew up in the Bronx, and her work was heavily influenced by the city. She was inclined to write what was familiar to her, so her stories centered on portraying the authentic lives of New York women like herself in a style that was grounded and true to life. Her first book, a collection of short stories titled, The Little Disturbances of Man, gained her a following. Her stories included recurring characters as she progressively analyzed issues of civil rights, class, and feminism through her stories. Paley was an avid political activist concerning civil rights, feminism, and pacifism throughout her entire life. Notably, she contributed to the founding of the Greenwich Village Peace Center in the early 1960s, and years later traveled to Hanoi as part of a peace mission group to arrange the release of prisoners during the Vietnam War. She continued to speak publicly into the later stages of her life, maintaining her passion to create a better world for her grandchildren. Paley’s most famous work was The Collected Stories, an assembly of three books of her own short stories that became finalists for both the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize.

Female writers continue to shape layers of the social, societal, and cultural story of womanhood as the future of gender equality unfolds before us. The work of current female authors contributes to the collective of determined, ambitious, deeply feeling, and observant women who exhibit the inspiring perseverance it takes to write and keep writing. Richter publishing is proud to assist our extraordinary female authors in sharing their books with the world. A list of books written by our female authors can be found here.

Happy International Women’s Day!

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