2. Build for growth

Yippee! I've got my first book and put up an Author website. It looks great!

(Good for you! Now, what's going to happen when you write the second book in the series, or an unrelated next book?)

Some of the prettiest Author websites I've ever seen are single-book sites — slick, elegant, full of moving images. That might be nice when you've told everybody “go here to read about my book”. But what about the people who go there to find your next book, or to learn more about the series it's part of? Having read that book, why would they ever come back to the site? How will you build a fan base?

Ever looked at one of those dedicated new release movie sites (Hot-Summer-Monster-Movie.com) two weeks after the release date? Pitiful.

Oh, dear…

If the book happens to be a best-seller, or something with the potential to be one, I can almost see a dedicated site for it that directs interested readers back to a central Author website. Almost.

It's a better concept to have a dedicated book page on your general-purpose Author site.  You can put everything you want there: trailers about the book, descriptions, statistics, links to retail sites, reviews, extra materials.

You can have a page for each series, too, so that a reader can easily see what else they might want to buy. Once you have enough material, you might have a page for all your mystery series, and another one for all your fantasy series. Or one for each pen name. Or both.

The point is to create a page for each publication that is the “home” for that book or story. Everything about it lives there, from the audio editions to the special signed copies, to the links to all the retailers. That's the page you refer to in your book's back matter. That's the page that the series page points to, for more information about book X in series Y. That's the page that your newsletter points to when you announce the new book. That's the page you link to when you do a cover reveal for a book in progress. (Yes, books in progress have pages, too — they just have less information.)

Every product gets its own page — each novel, short story, story collection, book bundle, and so forth. Anything that contains more than one of something (like a series or a collection) uses a brief description of each component, then points to the full page for the component for all the details.

When your inventory is small, and the books are stand-alone, you can just create a website menu link for each book. Once you have more, or once you start building a series, even with book 1, you can start creating a slightly more complex menu. It's easy to grow sites built on platforms like WordPress this way, making small menu changes as each new product comes to market.

3. How to meet & exceed user expectations

What do readers care about? Well, I can tell you what they don't care about — the issue of independent author publishing vs traditional publishing. There is absolutely no point in making that part of your website's message. I'm proud of being an indie, but why would I expect my readers to know or care about that?

Be a professional, and look like one. Your Author and Publisher websites should be an indicator of quality, even if all you've published so far is one short story.

Professional Author websites have two things: information about their books, and links to their publisher. They might also have links to retailers and a blog and contact information, but not necessarily.

Professional Publishing websites have two things: information about the books they sell and links to retailers (and direct sale).

3.1 Publisher vs Author site

Virtually every independent author begins with a single site — an Author website — even if they've created a publisher imprint. I was no exception.

It becomes awkward over time to put both the author and the publisher function into the same website. More importantly, that's not how the professional publishers do it, and it's not what bulk buyers expect. We want to indicate our professionalism by doing what other players in the industry do, because that's what readers (and bulk buyers) expect.

3.1.1 Home for the brand (publisher)

The publisher imprint needs its own home. In my case, Perkunas Press contains:

• Pages for each book, with a standardized set of details (somewhat formalized rather than all-inclusive) and detailed links to retailers
• Pages for each series or composite product, with links to the individual book pages
• Information for bookstores for how to order, discounts, and so forth
• Information about its authors (just me, for now)
• More than one email contact address (e.g., Sales@PerkunasPress, Marketing@PerkunasPress, etc.) — they can all forward to the same place
• A simple blog home page which is restricted to sample chapters and publication announcements
• A link to sign up for newsletters

It doesn't look like my Author website, in any way. The imprint has its own look-and-feel, and all the brand materials that go with that. The only people who go there are wholesalers, or anyone sent from my Author website looking for more detailed purchasing information. It's updated infrequently, just when new products are published. If my husband ever starts writing, it will have two authors. Others may join us — who knows?

There are thousands of publisher websites like this for micro-presses, and yours can fit right in. If a bookstore looks you up (as a publisher) he shouldn't think twice about ordering from you.

3.1.2 Home for the brand (author)

The Author site has overlapping but somewhat different content. In my case, Hollow Lands contains:

• Pages for each book, with an informal and expansive set of details and extra materials, links to the most popular retailers, a link to the equivalent page on the Perkunas Press website for more retailer details, and offers for products not available from the publisher, such as custom-signed print editions
• Pages for each series or composite product, with links to the individual book pages
• Information about the author and how to contact her
• A blog for readers (primary audience) that is intended to generate interest in the author and her writing, with news about upcoming events
• A blog for writers (secondary audience) that is a home for articles not expected to be of interest to readers (most Author websites wouldn't have this)
• A link to sign up for newsletters

If my husband ever starts writing, he'll have his own Author website.

The newsletter link is identical for Perkunas Press and Hollow Lands — the list is combined.

If you run sales and contests, all of that is on the Author website, not on the staid Publisher website.

3.2 What the reader wants

The prior section is about not scaring the reader away because your site is confusing or doesn't look like a professional Author website. If you do it right, your reward is that they don't notice you're not a traditional author (since they don't care about that issue).

What they want to know is:

• What have you written?
• What else can I find out about a book I've bought/may buy?
• Is the book part of a series? What are the other books, and which one's next?
• Where can I find details about each product: book, story, series, bundles?
• Where can I buy your books? What's the link for this book on this popular retailer?
• What are you like?
• How can I tell you something about one of your books?
• How can I be notified about your next book? What's the expected release date?

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