What Annoys You About Author Websites?

Zoë Sharp

These days, just about everybody has a website. The only thing that varies is the quality.

I recently came across an excellent article by Thomas Umstattd Jr on Author Media about how author websites can irritate readers. It makes illuminating reading.

 

Thomas lists in his piece the eight points that are likely to most annoy visitors to your website. As he explains, if you’ve ever tried to find something on a website that’s not intuitive to use, you don’t tend to write to the webmaster with advice, but instead you go to the next competitor on the list and buy from them instead.

 

So, the importance of a well-designed, easy-to-navigate site is really important. It’s an author’s shop window, after all, and you can’t expect to gain customers if they can’t find what they’re looking for.

 

First up is if people can’t find an easy way to buy your latest book. Visitors are used to being able to click on a book cover and go straight to a sales page or sales website. Occasionally, clicking on a book cover simply produces a larger version of the image.

 

Thomas suggests that if your book is available only on Amazon, that you link directly to the book’s page on that site, with a smart link to take them to the store in the correct territory. But, if your book is available from a selection of outlets, then provide suitable sales links for those who are Amazon adverse.

 

Second is if people can’t find the status of your work-in-progress. He suggests using a plugin that will add a progress bar to the website, according to how far through the project you are. This sounds terrifying to me. I think I’d rather stick to the occasional blog post about how the latest book is coming along.

 

Number three on the list is if readers can’t easily contact you. I confess that if I’m deep in a book it can take me a while to respond to messages, but I do try to get to all of them. Thomas suggests several methods of contact, including a PO Box mailing address, a contact form on the website, social media profiles, and even a phone number. I was surprised to see this last one, and I would not willingly give out my phone number on the internet.

 

At the same time, he advises turning off notifications from social media and your email program, to give you the headspace to write.

 

The fourth irritation is if people can’t find your website on Google. Getting the site optimised for search engines is vital. If you don’t have the skills in SEO yourself, then hire a professional. Thomas points out that each book should have an individual page, and anything written on the home page of your website should be in third person, so it mentions your name rather than ‘I’. The same goes for your author biography. It’s very exasperating, if you’re doing a piece on an author, to have to go through their biog, changing every first-person mention to third.

 

Not being able to browse your backlist is at number five on the list, and particularly if people can’t look up the previous books in your series and work out what order they should be read. It’s also a good idea to have a printable list of your backlist books, in order.

 

Number six on the irritation list is if visitors to your site can’t find a good quality image of you, your book covers, or any maps that form a part of your story. Particularly relevant for novels set in a specific location—real or imaginary. As Thomas reminds us, people often read or listen on their phones, where it would be difficult to see the detail of a map on the screen.

 

He advises putting a large resolution image of any maps on the book page of your website, so readers can study them more easily, or including the maps related to a particular book in a blog post. And, of course, having hi-res author photos available for press or PR use.

 

Seven is pop-ups. They can be great and serve a useful purpose if you want to grow your email list. But, it’s the timing of pop-ups that is usually the problem. They appear before you’ve had a chance to read much of anything, and before you’ve decided that yes, you would like to sign up, then are never around later when you want them. Thomas reckons corner pop-ups are less irksome than centre ones, and delaying their arrival tends to work better.

 

Lastly, these days many people will be visiting author websites on their phones rather than via a desktop or laptop, so making sure the website has responsive design that will alter to display to best advantage on a mobile screen is really important.

 

What irritates YOU the most about author websites you’ve visited—or any other websites, for that matter—and what features did you think were really cool? I’d love to know.

 

Meanwhile, if you want to read the full article by Thomas Umstattd Jr, go to Author Media.

 

This week’s Word of the Week is bibliosmia, meaning to smell a book for pleasure, or the aroma of a good book.

 

Events

No events coming up for me, but I do have one book just out, another about to come out, and a third on pre-order for October.

 

TRIAL UNDER FIRE: Charlie Fox prequel, is just out. It tells the story of Charlie from a few years ago, when she was still a young soldier in the regular Army, serving in Afghanistan. ‘The last thing she expected, when she headed out on routine patrol, was to end up riding into a firefight, on horseback, with the Spice Girls…’

 

Available for pre-order and out August 16 2021 is FOX FIVE RELOADED: Charlie Fox short story collection. An extended edition of the original FOX FIVE collection, this now has nine stories, set across the globe, from Lancashire in England, to swanky Long Island, exotic Casablanca, and the hotspot of the Middle East.

 

And finally, a brand new set of characters, THE LAST TIME SHE DIED is the first of a new series, and will be out October 20 2021. ‘She came back on the day of her father’s funeral, ten years after she vanished. But she can’t be who she says she is. Because we killed her. Didn’t we?’

Author Websites: what would you like them to say?

Zoë Sharp

This blog was supposed to go up last Sunday – December 6^th. That it didn’t was down to some bloke called Desmond, who walloped the northwest of the UK. He huffed and puffed and blew down if not my house, then at least my local electricity substation. Flooding, power cuts and much chaos ensued. More about that at a later date.

Last time, I wrote a blog about author photos, and what they say – or don’t say – about the author involved. I think I’ve now got something sorted that says what I want it to about me and the kind of books I write. But more about that at a later date, too.

Meanwhile, I’ve been working on upgrading my website to a WordPress site, which is currently a work-in-progress. Getting a new look and feel is high on my list, as is making it easier for me to add to in the future, rather than having to rely on an expert. This is a bigger problem than it sounds when you consider that I approach anything computer-related with all the self-confidence of a novice bomb-disposal officer …

Just about every author has a website these days, although a few still rely on author pages provided by their publisher. You may think they’re missing out, but in reality, what does an author website do?

It provides information about the author and their books, of course. It usually has extracts of the books for the visitor to browse, or links to online sites such as Amazon, where there’s a Look Inside feature. The books will probably have reviews and blurb quotes to show what the pros think. There could be a News and Events page, to announce where the author is next appearing or the fact they’ve sold their latest epic to Hollywood. There might be a press kit of photos for journalists to download and a brief and witty biog that might have some small basis in fact. Many authors also have a blog. Some of them even contribute to it more than once every few months.

Does that about cover the basics? If the author is more au fait with technology there are often video interviews too – featuring him or her either interviewing someone else, or being interviewed. There might be a new release or special offer mentioned somewhere prominent, and a sign-up page for an e-newsletter.

The site may rank highly on the search engines when that author’s name is fed into Google or the like. It may be packed with entertaining information and reflect that author’s personality and style. But, when it gets right down to it, other than vanity, what is the real purpose of an author’s website?

It’s there to sell books.

Not in a ram-it-down-your-throat crude and obvious kind of way, but that’s the bottom line. It’s exactly the same reason authors go to events like Bouchercon, or appear at their local library. We may or may not enjoy the process, but we hope to gain readers and, ultimately, to sell books.

Bottom line: If nobody buys our books, we don’t get paid. If we don’t get paid, we can’t write.

So, the most highly stylised and polished website, if all it does is tell you how wonderful the author is and has their attractive face splurged across the homepage, is useless if it doesn’t make it equally attractive for the visitor to take some kind of action while they’re on that page.

What kind of action? Well, the first one could well be subscribing to a newsletter list, perhaps by taking advantage of some kind of incentive special offer. The second is following the link to a bookstore and buying a copy, or deciding to turn up at an event and maybe buy a copy there, or checking out one of the author’s books from their local library.

If your website gains you a new reader, one who has stumbled on the site by chance and has never heard of the author before, that’s a huge success. If the website enthuses an existing reader to pick up a copy of the author’s latest offering, then ditto. Or if the visitor happens to be involved with a library or bookstore, and their visit leads to an invitation to appear, guest blog or be interviewed, success again.

So, how does someone stumble on your website if they’re not looking for you by name? That all depends on what they are searching for. Are your books similar to someone else’s – someone who sells far more than you? In that case, should you be trying to ensure that your website comes up on the first search-engine page for that author so you can tempt them in? Making sure your keywords correctly reflect the fact that your books are in a series rather than standalones, for instance, or that they feature a strong female main protagonist. Or they’re set in a particular field, location or sphere. All these things may help you lasso a new reader who happens to be passing by.

So, what I want to know is, what do YOU want to see on an author’s website?

What’s the most important feature for you of the first page you land on?

For a series, do you want a précis of the characters’ stories so far?

Do you want:

·    to read an opening chapter, or an excerpt from later in the story?

·  competitions and chances to win prizes related either to
the books or to books in general?

·  opportunity to read advance copies of the next book?

·  special offers, e-boxed sets and two-for-one deals?

·  bonus features like snippets behind the writing?

· insights into the writing process?

Any advice or suggestions welcome! Also, if you can cite any examples of websites you think are particularly interesting from a design and use point of view, please let me know.

This week’s Word of the Week is anthropodermic bibliopegy, which means the covering of books in human skin. One of the few surviving examples in the UK is held by the Bristol Record Office. It was made from the skin of John Horwood, who was hanged at Bristol Gaol for murdering Eliza Balsum. Another is of the Red Barn murder of Maria Marten by William Corder in Suffolk in 1827.