©Stina Lindenblatt
Websites. It’s something we constantly hear that we need, even if you’re a pre-published author. I mean, how else will our adoring fans know when our first or next book is due to be released?
But websites cost money and take time to set up. So we stall. We come up with excuses why we don’t need one yet. We come up with excuses why we can wait until next week, next month, next year to create one. We just plain come up with excuses, period.
That was me, until I decided it was time to create one. So I researched websites of authors that write similar books to me, and was shocked at the results of my informal study.
First, I studied the websites of my favorite YA authors (e.g. Simone Elkeles, Katie McGarry, Jennifer Echols) to see what I liked and didn’t like about them. Next, I studied the websites of my favorite New Adult authors (e.g. Tammara Weber, Jessica Sorensens, Cora Carmack).
But wait, the majority of New Adult authors don’t have websites. They have blogs and they have Facebook author pages, but no websites. Most of them used Blogger and create Pages to represent each book or series. Just like a regular website. Most of them talk only about their books in their posts. In all cases, they had a low number of blog followers but a high number of Facebook author page ‘likes’. And it didn’t matter if they were traditionally published or self published, the results were the same. Also, most of the ones I looked at were on the New York Times Bestseller list. So what does that tell you?
This is when I did a happy dance and crossed ‘create a website’ off my to-do list. It’s not like I usually check out an author’s website. As long as I can find out when the author’s next book is due out, I’m happy. And most of the time I get this info from Goodreads.
What about you? Do you have a website? Are you planning to create one this year? Have these findings made you rethink whether you need one?
(Remember, these results are based on my research on New Adult authors. The findings might be different if you write a different genre).