Do any of you other unpublished authors have websites?

[stephmcgee]

Thanks, Mark. Guess the custom domain will have to just hang out without decor for a while.

[ebdavis6]

Of course we have websites and blogs-it's a requirement. Agents, we are told, want to see that a new writer has a presence on the web. They want to be able to access you, see your writing, and know that you have some marketing saavy. Some publishers urge unpublished authors to post samples of their writing, usually a short story. So far, I've managed to avoid doing that because an ezine published one of my stories and another will be in a print anthology published later this year. But-I put links on the blog to sites where they can be found. It takes a lot of time, but I guess it also demonstrates that even unpublished writers can meet deadlines and act professionally even if they don't yet have a book on the shelf or in the download que. http://writerswhokill.blogspot.com
ebdavis

[amyashley]

I have a domain and am working at building a site slowly with a web designer who is my uncle. He is a pro, although not into fancy stuff. There are many things on my to-do list at the moment, so I am taking things slowly, but I feel having a web presence can't hurt.

I think it is important to consider the audience you are writing to as well as your peers when building a site. I am trying to look at my "competition", considering what sort of theme I want to convey, and putting a lot of thought into my work as well and how much of that I want to work into the site. I really like Mark's site. I thought it was simple, personal and stylish. It focused on him and was easy to navigate and it appealed to a wide audience. An author is more than their genre, more than one book, and more than simply an author. I want my website to display that. I'll have to post a link when I'm done!

[JuiceinLA]

Again all, I have to thank you for sharing, am impressive group! I particularly like KathyBennett's site because she has really played to her genre with tiny details, like instead of naming her press page "press" she calls it her "Rap Sheet"... FUN! And like Amy, I have bought several appropriate domain names and eventually will have my boyfriend build my website (Because he is amazing at this, so nice to have a brilliant graphic designer in the house).

But Honestly, I have really been inspired by the creativity. thanks again.

[Mark]

I really like Mark's site.

Thanks! You just validated the 14 odd hours I spent on a redesign three weeks ago. ;-)
The most difficult part was keeping a restrained hand in not adding all the widgets and extras I wanted to use.

[JuiceinLA]

As far as the secret blog follower goes, I haven't had any comments by this person, and I don't even know who it is. You know how you can follow a blog publicly, or privately? This person must have chosen the "private" option, so their name never appears in my list of followers; if, for example, I am listed as having 40 followers, there will only be 39 names listed, and one "private" follower. My previous experience (and mild paranoia) are the reason I don't really talk in exact detail about my family or where I live.

Sounds harmless so far like you said! Thanks for sharing your website. I see that it is a blogger.com website, but it looks personalized. Is there a special application for that? How did you get the "book" background? very cool.

[sarahdee]

A namesake of mine has used my (maiden) name as her domain and appears to be a photographer of dead animal carcasses. Lovely!

So I have started querying using my married name.

I have three websites.

One is my old travelblog. I am having to go through and re-edit as my quick blogs from internet cafes while backpacking were full of typos etc
www.travelpod.com/members/twinkfran

One is my business website I share with my husband so although I wrote and designed it, it is irrelevant. I won't post a link as I'm in the middle of a re-write and its all gone a bit haywire when I tried to re-upload. But we bought a domain name and made the site on iweb and until I stated messing around with it last week it looked great

And I just stared a blogger one but I don't like it - I'm not finding it very user friendly and I don't really know what to do
http://sarahderengowski.blogspot.com/

I am now reading all yours for inspiration.

[JuiceinLA]

A namesake of mine has used my (maiden) name as her domain and appears to be a photographer of dead animal carcasses. Lovely!

So I have started querying using my married name.

Sarah- you and John Dillon will need to commiserate on your name situation!! Personally I am jealous that you use your married name- I want to use my boyfriend's last name- its more reader friendly than my consonant laden Eastern European surname...

So I am officially torn. My own site is being worked on, but won't be up for a month or two. I really hate Blogger.com's template options, and how their blog text box is so narrow and forces the reader to scroll early and often. Yesterday I checked out wordpress, and while they have more options, their site and "interface" is SO NOT user friendly. You have to have some modicum of html knowledge, which I don't.

STUCK!!

[TigerGray]

Yep!

http://tigergray.blogspot.com/


Just made it.

[JuiceinLA]

Consider me convinced! So I am joining your ranks- here is my official Blog, for my book More Inner Strength, Less Hallucination, which will someday morph into an actual website:

http://moreinnerstrength.blogspot.com/

if you have the time I'd love a critique! Thank you to everyone for sharing your sites and all the great ideas.


Oh- @tigergrey- you are definitely not the only one old enough to appreciate the space madness that is Ren and Stimpy.

[sarahdee]

Sarah- you and John Dillon will need to commiserate on your name situation!! Personally I am jealous that you use your married name- I want to use my boyfriend's last name- its more reader friendly than my consonant laden Eastern European surname...

I have a hard to pronounce and spell Polish married name (its not really but everyone seems to struggle). My maiden name had five letters...it was easy. Damn that photographer woman!

[AnnElise]

So I am officially torn. My own site is being worked on, but won't be up for a month or two. I really hate Blogger.com's template options, and how their blog text box is so narrow and forces the reader to scroll early and often. Yesterday I checked out wordpress, and while they have more options, their site and "interface" is SO NOT user friendly. You have to have some modicum of html knowledge, which I don't.

STUCK!!

I have a Wordpress blog and have no HTML knowledge at all. Then again, I don't try anything fancy and just use one of the templates. I also have a blogspot (Blogger) one for organising my novel's backstory. I sifted through the templates until I could find one that let me widen the reading area. It's not easy to find, but it's there in the Design View, I think. It's like a treasure hunt. Takes some getting used to. Anyway, I hope you find something that works for you.

[stephmcgee]

I finally figured out how to add pages to my Blogger blog so it almost looks like a website. I have a website, too.

Someday they'll be at my custom domain and integrated together. Someday. The next step is figuring out how to get rid of the dumb white lines through the blog background.

[sarahdee]

I finally figured out how to add pages to my Blogger blog so it almost looks like a website.

It looks really good. How did you add more pages?

[Lillian Grant]

I have a wordpress site that was designed for me by someone who knows what she is doing. I got it for a discount price but I think it looks good.

I need to do more with it as I mostly use it to blog. Once I get my book published I will add a page to show the cover and where it can be purchased.