The Ad Man Answers #30

Thursday + Gregory Huffstutter = The Ad Man Answers

Q: How important is your website?

A:   There's nothing worse than putting together a great promotional campaign... then you turn off potential customers once they visit your website, because they can't tell if you're selling mystery novels or cheap Amish furniture.

Your website is your 24-hour storefront, and as such, should be your most important investment.  Before spending a dollar in advertising, make sure you have your online house in order.

If you’re thinking of starting an author homepage – or re-designing your current site – it’s always a good idea to step back and ask:  “What do I hope to gain by doing this?” 

In my case, I launched my website before completing my novel and querying agents.  Why?  Because my initial website served multiple purposes.  It helped legitimize myself to people I still wanted to interview for research.  It became a hub for friends and contacts who were helping provide feedback and copy edits to my manuscript.  And ultimately, it helped attract an agent by showing that I could market myself and was willing to invest in my writing career. 

For established authors, most homepages do a good job updating fans on author news and tour stops, while others provide tips, prizes, trivia, community, essays , excerpts, and media.

Whatever content you decide to include, your ultimate purpose should be to deepen the connection between your writing and your readers.  To sell yourself as a brand name.  And one of the best ways to do that is to have your website design mirror your genre and writing style, the same way your cover art ideally reflects the tone of your novel. 

If you write fun, quirky mysteries set in Florida, you site should look something like this.  If you write gothic, supernatural suspense, your site should be more in this vein.  Not to pick on someone I’ve never met, but here’s an example of a successful author’s homepage that, in my opinion, is in need of a re-design.  The site itself contains a ton of useful info and links, but the overall look and feel does not reflect the genre (true crime) the author works in.  Compare it to this site, where the design conveys that darker crime element, and the content is shorter, more inviting to the eye.

Pricing for website creation/re-design can range between $1K-$10K, depending on three factors:

1) Amount of ‘flash’ animation vs. static images.  Personally, I don’t like completely static websites like this.  But for an author site, it can be distracting to have stuff flying all over the place.  On my site, I have a brief flash intro while entering the site and flash animation for the page headers (during the photo loads and ink/blood dripping onto the navigation bar).  If you cut out that stuff, you can save budget on your project.

2) Turnaround time.  Most re-designs require at least a month or two.  If you do a rush job, expect to pay more.

3) Amount of overall pages.  If you do a completely separate page for each book in your backlist, expect to pay more than consolidating those onto a single page (which can be done very effectively like this).

Keep in mind, a website designer’s job is to come up with an overall design concept, navigation, and proper html coding.  They will incorporate images you provide (i.e. author photos, book covers) and copy that you provide (about the author, book descriptions, news, etc.). The designer will not write the site for you.  The author is also responsible for securing the domain name and paying for a web host (usually $20/month).

If you plan to continually update your site with tour dates, news, photos, etc., you should make arrangements with your web designer to pay for a certain number of copy changes per year/month. 

Where do you find website designers?  Choosing one is like finding a trustworthy wedding photographer.  Here’s two that I can personally recommend:  FizzionGraphics and Jacob Tyler. You can also google designers in your area… but remember, a designer can be three time zones away and still do a kick-ass job on your site without ever meeting you in person.  Phones and e-mail are wonderful things.  So check out portfolios, see which designers you click with, and ask your top choices to submit estimates for the job.

Next time… more keys for re-designing your website.

 

Gregory Huffstutter has been punching Ad Agency timecards for the past decade, working on accounts like McDonald's, KIA Motors, and the San Diego Padres. He recently finished his first mystery, KATZ CRADLE and is currently on submission. The first 100 pages of his novel are linked here. For general advertising questions, leave a comment or send e-mail to katz @ gregoryhuffstutter dot com with 'Ask The Ad Man' in the subject line.

Comments

[RfP]

Lots of good points, but I'm surprised by a couple of your examples.

The Laura Caldwell books page is a strange design that limits her display of books. I think she should ditch the useless "Select a book" on the right and the repeated (static) book covers on the bottom that force the user to scroll unnecessarily.

On your site, sorry, but splash screens often make me click away. If there's some content in the splash, that's one thing, but an intro that I can't skip or interact with is a big turnoff. Splash screens especially prevent me from being a repeat visitor--if I've already seen the splash once, I don't need to see it again. I'm not a short-attention-span browser, BTW; I'm happy to linger at a site and read excerpts. But in my mind those are "content", whereas most splash pages are "non-content" time wasters that stand between me and the content.

[gregory huffstutter]

Re: Laura Caldwell design... you are correct that she *could* ditch the scrolling bar and show all her book covers at once.

But sometimes less is more. Her design concept is very clean, with lots of open space. That makes it easy on the eye, and brings focus on the few things on the page that pop with color, ike a red couch in a white room.

In Caldwell's case, it's her initial four book covers, with a hint of the next two books underneath, which leads you to scroll down and see all the novels under her belt.

I've yet to read a Laura Caldwell novel, but from her website's overall look and feel, I can tell she writes in a clean, economical style, with a feminine sensibility.

As for my own website, I agree that a non-functional opening splash page is uninviting for repeat visits. And I would totally change that if I had a book on the shelves, and my website traffic consisted of fans interested in tour stops, bonus material, etc.

But this goes back to my point of knowing what you want to get from your site. Because my novel is currently on submission, right now the only people I REALLY care about reaching are acquisition editors evaluating my manuscript. So this is my job interview, and I'm not looking to drive repeat visits until the book is sold.

[RfP]

Thanks for responding. That is a different focus; I see your point.

[Lisa Hendrix]

While you raise a lot of good points, I had to laugh when I clicked through to your "bad" example. Ann Rule has logged over 1,165,000 visits to her forum. Why on earth would she want to redesign a site that successful? A smart person doesn't fix what isn't broken.

[sesgaia]

Facinating! I am curious what you would suggest for a writer who is switching genres/styles. I have published two non-fiction books about Christian spirituality. I am now writing my first novel, which will (hopefully) be categorized as mainstream fiction (think Anne Tyler or Ann Patchett) about a single mother struggling with the toxic influence a wealthy family exerts over her teenage daughter. For my website, I want to show that I understand the publishing biz and that I can successfully pull off a finished product, (which I might achieve by highlighting my two nonfiction books) but while my book mentions religion it's certainly not a major theme, and I am not trying to promote myself as a "Christian" author. Should I just make that part of my writing career a minor part of the site?

[gregory huffstutter]

Sesgaia: If you are switching genres, my recommendation would be that your website focuses on branding yourself in somewhat generic terms. Here's a good example of an homepage where the author is the focus, and the genre is secondary:

http://www.patryfrancis.com/index2.htm

Ann Patchett's own site is similarly vague about the genre, and uses soft colors, lots of white space, and a nice graphic treatment:.

http://www.annpatchett.com

I would use those two sites as your guide, then find the best image of yourself -- something distinctive, not a boring studio portrait -- to use as your dominant image. Then have your designer build a graphic treatment and color palette around that one image.

As for your work in Christian non-fiction , I would briefly mention them in your bio and put the covers on your "books" page, similar to how Patchett does here:

http://www.annpatchett.com/books.html

But I wouldn't make them a central focus, since that's not where you are trying to make your current sale.

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Lisa: Coming from someone who's personally worked on the McDonald's business, I can attest that popular does not necessarily equate to well-made.

If I were sitting across the dinner table from Ann Rule, I would congratulate her for her bestsellers and long writing career... then humbly suggest that if her website did a better job of branding herself, she might increase her repeat visits and future book sales. I don't believe her website is 'broken', just in need of a make-over.

[sesgaia]

Thanks Gregory- very helpful! I'll nudge my photographer husband to take a "distinctive" photo of me :)and, when I get the site up, I'll send you the url...

[gregory huffstutter]

Lucky you having a photographer in the family.

I'd be happy to take a look at your site once it's up and running.

Good luck!