Organizing Your Website

Whether you’re creating your author website or overhauling your current one, here are some things you may want to consider.

• Determine what you want your visitors to see first.

• Decide on the number of pages that you need for your content.

• Figure out what you want on each page and where you want to put them. The easiest way to do this is to storyboard your pages. Sketch out your design on a whiteboard or a sheet of paper. It can be full of stick figures. This is a way to organize your thoughts and ideas.

• Use the site-builder’s templates. There are lots of designs that are already created. You can use these or modify them to fit your style.

• Use colors to match your branding. Figure out what you want to project and represent. Do you write dark thrillers or humorous cozies? Your colors and fonts should give your readers/visitors an idea of what to expect in your writing. To get ideas, look at other authors’ websites (in your genre).

• After you build your website, make sure to check all links and forms that you have on your site.

• Check your website on a variety of devices to see how it presents. Most web services will optimize your site for the device your visitor uses. It’s a good idea to make sure all the pictures and forms look correct. People who use a computer, will see a wider picture than those on a cell phone that tend to render websites in a tall format.

What would you add to my list?

What an Author Needs to Get Started

It’s often difficult for authors to figure out where to start building their social media and internet presence. There is so much out there. It can be overwhelming. Here are the key things I think new authors need to have to get started.

Heather’s List

• Professional Headshot – Selfies aren’t the quality you want for print and digital - This is one of the first investments I made in my writing career.

• Your Biography – This should be written in third person. For your website, you may want to have a short one and a longer one that can be used when you do events and presentations.

• A Short Description of Your Book/Work – Have a short summary of what your book is about. This could be as short as an elevator pitch or a couple of paragraphs long.

• A URL and a Site to Host Your Website – You need a URL and a site to host your website. Try to get your name or penname if possible. The website is the hub of your author platform. You want readers to be able to find you.

• A Newsletter/Email Marketing Service – You will need a hosting service to maintain your list of followers and to create and distribute your ne3wsletters. Many services are free, and others have fees based on the number of followers you have.

• Book Cover Images – You will need clear images for your website and socials. If it’s the original (giant) file, you may want to think about reducing the size to make it more optimal for mobile users. Large files take a while to load.

Here are some other things you need to consider as you start creating your author presence.

• Your Budget – Determine what your budget is for your website, tools, URL, and author photograph. Start small. You can always add on to what you’ve created.

• Who Maintains Your Sites? – If you pay someone to maintain your website and socials, it can get expensive. I like the freedom of being able to update my site whenever I want without waiting for someone else to do it. Youtube and many of the hosting companies have tons of videos to show you how to create and maintain your site.

• Your Tools – I invested in two subscriptions to help me create my graphics. You will need to include a visual with your posts on social media. There are lots of free and for a fee products out there. Do your research and check to see which ones you're most comfortable with using. I use Canva and BookBrush.

What would you add to my list?

What Grover Taught Me about Writing Mysteries

I am GenX, first-generation Sesame Street and first-generation MTV. One of my favorite children’s books was the classic, The Monster at the End of This Book.

Here’s what Grover taught me about writing mysteries.

• You need to build suspense to keep your readers engaged.

• Your readers need to like or empathize with your protagonist.

• Everyone is afraid of something, and writers need to tap into fears to build tension.

• Write strong (and fun) dialog. Make it sound like real speech, slang and all.

• Use pacing correctly. Slow down the action to build suspense, and speed it up to amp up the excitement.

• Your protagonist needs a challenge or a problem to solve.

• Your character should not be perfect. Little (or big) flaws make your protagonist relatable and interesting.

• Make sure your character is not flat. He or she needs to be a real person (or monster) with all the things that life throws in the way. Your protagonist needs to stumble and make mistakes.

• When you think your character has had enough and is close to breaking, pile it on. Add more tension.

• Don’t load up your work with a lot of narrative and back story. Readers want to stay in the action.

• And most importantly, never forget that reading is fun.

Who’s your favorite Muppet?

Recent Writing Gems

I’ve attended a bunch of classes and seminars lately, and here are some of the gems that I picked up that can help writers…

Writing Dialog with Andrea Johnson:

• Johnson reminded writers that dialog is more than just a conversation. It advances the plot and establishes the tone.

• Dialog is faster for readers to process than narrative, and it’s a way to show the point of view and personalities of your characters.

• She suggested that authors avoid long physical descriptions of characters in dialog.

• Johnson also suggested that writers avoid having characters having long philosophical discussions with themselves.

Podcasts to Add to Your Favorites’ List:

• Pick Your Poison

• Dark Predators

• Murder in the Hollywood Hills

• Missing in America

• Check out Sarah E. Burr’s post on Writers Who Kill about her favorite true crime podcasts.

Book Marketing:

• Book Funnel is a way that authors can distribute their ARCs (Advance Reader/Review Copies) and book giveaways to readers.

• It does require a subscription, and several tiered options are available. Make sure you review the features available with each plan.

• Some plans have options for authors to join newsletter swaps, email builders, and book sales with other authors. This is a way to expand your audience and add followers to your email list.

Getting the ROT out of Your Writing

I finished a seminar at the day gig on document management, and the focus was removing ROT - Redundant, Obsolete, and Trivial documents from your files. I would argue that you can do the same thing to improve your writing. Print out your manuscript, grab your editing pen, and read like a critic.

Redundant - Look for:

• Places where you’ve repeated descriptions

• Overused words and phrases (I have a list that I always check for.)

• Too many uses of the character’s name or too many he/she pronouns

• Dialog tags (he said/she said) that you don’t really need

Obsolete - Look for Outdated References to Technology:

• It’s rare that anyone tapes or videotapes anything. Faxes are ancient unless it’s going to someone’s email. And people with electric car windows don’t roll or wind the window down. Old habits are hard to break.

• I wrote myself in a corner one time with inked fingerprints. Most departments use a fingerprint scanner these days unless the computers are down.

• Most people use their phones these days for just about everything. It’s rare if you see a camera, calculator, or a videorecorder. It’s also a lot of people’s only flashlight.

Trivial - Look for:

• Chit chat. It’s nice to be friendly, but you don’t need a lot of the greetings and thank yous. Try to find spots where you can eliminate unnecessary chatter.

• Descriptions or dialog that doesn’t relate to the action or the story. If it’s filler, get rid of it.

• Big data dumps in your writing. These are usually detailed descriptions, too much backstory, or long narrative paragraphs. Eliminate what doesn’t move your story forward. You don’t want to take your reader outside of the story’s action.

What would you add to my list?

Newsletter Content Ideas

New writers often ask me what they should include in their newsletters. Here are some ideas that have worked for me.

• Announcements and What’s New with You

• Give-aways and Do Shout outs to Previous Winners

• Invitation to Join Your Street Team

• Ask for Reviews/References (e.g. book clubs, speaking events, etc.)

• Highlight One of Your Interesting Blog Posts

• Recipes

• Craft Projects

• Your Hobbies

• Your Pets

• Your Favorite Things

• Feature What You’re Reading or Watching

• Interview Other Authors

• Pictures of Where You’ve Been Recently

• Highlights of Blogs, Take-overs, Podcasts, and Interviews That You’ve Done Recently

• Where You’ll Be Next

What would you add to my list?

20 Ideas for Blog Posts

Does your blogging ever get in a rut or do you have trouble coming up with new ideas? Here’s my go-to list of ideas.

1. Interview Other Authors

2. Make Playlists for Your Books

3. Write about What You’re Doing

4. Write about Your Pets and Include Lots of Pictures

5. Talk about Your Hobbies

6. Look for Nonfiction Hooks in Your Books

   1. Delanie Fitzgerald lives is a Sears Catalog House, so I did some research and shared information about these types of houses.

7. Talk about What You’re Reading

8. Write Posts for Special “Holidays” or This Day in History

9. Share a Recipe and Photos and Videos of you Creating it

10. Show Pictures of Your Desk or Office, and Talk about Your Writing Space

11. Talk about Things You’ve Learned Recently

12. Go for a Walk and Document it in a Video or Pictures

13. Play Tourist in Your Own Town and Share Your Adventures

14. Share What You’ve Watched or Binged Lately

15. Share Your Favorite Inspirational Quotes

16. Go to Places in Your Stories and Write about What Inspired You to Use it as a Setting

17. Describe Your Writing Process

18. Do a Blog Swap or Blog Take-over with a Writer Friend — You write a post for her site, and she is a guest on yours.

19. Pick a Favorite Movie or Book and Write a Post about What You Learned from It (e.g. What I Learned from Nancy Drew)

20. Blog about What You Wished You Had Known as a New Writer

I'm a New Author - What Should I Work on First?

New authors often ask what part of their platform they should work on and when? Here’s what has worked for me.

Website: Purchase your domain name for your site and start creating the pages. This is the hub of all of your marketing efforts. I would create it first. If you don’t have a book to highlight yet, start with a blog and build a following. Blog about things in your book, your research, your hobbies, what you read/watch, or anything that catches your fancy. Try to have a regular schedule if possible.

Link to your social media accounts to your webpage and have a place where visitors can sign up for your newsletter. You can add pages and update the look as you add new books.

Email/Newsletter List: Start collecting names as soon as you start doing events or appearances. Have a sign-up sheet where people can register. Decide how often you want your newsletter to go out and what kind of content you want to include. I do mine quarterly with some kind of contest. I include announcements, events, photos, and interviews of other authors.

There are all kinds of free and paid email services that you can use to build your newsletter from templates and to house/maintain your list of followers. Remember, you can be banned from social media platforms, or the site can shut down. When this happens, you have no way of contacting those followers. You own your email list, and that’s why it’s important to have and cultivate.

Social Media Sites: I would also start to build a following on these as soon as you can. Agents, editors, and publishers often look at your website and social media sites to see your content and what kind of following you have. I started out years ago with three Twitter followers. It takes time to build an audience. Choose the one or two sites that you want to focus on and follow at least 10 people a day.

I write cozy mysteries. Most of my readers are on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, so that’s where I focus most of my time, but I do have a presence on a variety of other sites. Make sure your readers can easily find you. Make the look and feel of each site (photograph and banners) similar. To build (and keep) an audience, you need to be social. You need to interact with those who comment, post interesting content (that’s not all “buy my book”), and share other’s celebrations.

A business page on Facebook and Instagram gives you access to metrics and insights about your page and activity and access to the business tools. I can see when my followers are most active, and I can schedule posts during those times. Some authors use their personal Facebook accounts. There is a limit to the number of friends you can have on a personal account, and once you hit that number, you can’t expand your reach. The business page isn’t limited.

I would focus on these three key parts of your author platform as soon as you decide to start your writing journey. There is a lot of waiting when you query agents or publishers or while you wait for publication. I would use this time to work on your website, newsletter, and social media sites.

What else would you add to my list?