All About Web Space for Authors

It's guest Monday and today Sierra Godfrey is schooling us on the often confusing waters of deciding what you want your web home to be--website, blog, self-hosted, free, etc. She's going to give us some practical tips to make it easier for us to know which direction is best for us.

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BLOG TOUR ALERT: Today I'm at Sexy Lady talking about From Blank Page to Published Book - How CRASH INTO YOU Came To Be

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Take it away, Sierra...

All About Web Space for Authors

by Sierra Godfrey

When I'm not writing, I work as a freelance graphic designer. I design brochures, logos, and Wordpress-based websites with my build partner, fellow writer Mike Chen. We opened shop on our joint project, Atmosphere Websites, last summer. In that time, we've had a ton of questions about blogs vs. websites. And funnily enough, authors seem to be the ones asking the questions. 

Roni has written a lot on the subject of author websites as she's emerged out of the chrysalis of unpublished writer with a strong blog into the butterfly of published author with a real need for a website that accomplishes many things. I've written about this at length, too, especially for unpublished writers. A few weeks ago, Anne Allen had a post about whether you need a website at all. Here are some answers to some of the more common concerns and questions we've gotten:

1. What's the difference between a blog and a website? 

Put very simply, blogs are for social interaction. They're for engaging with others. It's okay if you want to use yours as a soapbox, but remember that the basic function of blogs is for people to comment and interact with you.

Websites are more for information purposes. They don't always nor automatically feature mechanisms for you to interact. For published authors, they're perfect for marketing books.

Of course, you can market your books just fine on your blog, but if you do only that, people will stop coming around--because you're no longer having a conversation with them.

Some published authors have asked us: Do I really need a blog? The answer is no, of course not. But if you want to provide an easy to way to converse with readers and writers, then yes.

2. What's the advantage of paid services over free ones?
First, here's the breakdown:

• Blogger is free,
  run by Blogger and hosted by Blogger.


• Wordpress.com is free, run by Wordpress and hosted by Wordpress.


• Wordpress.org is free content management software that you download and install on your own server space

Server issues

Why on earth would you use your own server space and pay all associated hosting fees when you could just use Blogger or Wordpress.com's server?  The simple answer is that if they go down, so you do. 

Custom Design

One of the questions we get a lot is why anyone should pay for website design when there are so many free templates out there--for both blogs and websites. And it's true, there are free templates and some of them are really great looking. I personally maintain a blog through Blogger's free service, although I've tricked the heck out of it so it looks exactly how I want it to look. (I address why I use the free Blogger site rather than my own Wordpress site below.) Here are a few reasons for both:

With a paid web host, you:

• Have control over how it looks and acts, and can customize the graphics


• Can add customized features that a lot of free templates don't allow


• Can change it, add to it, grow it,  and you generally have a bunch more options for doing this, including account size space

Free services are great because:

• They're, well, free


• There are a lot of beautiful templates


• A company (Blogger, Wordpress) runs the server and takes care of upgrading templates and updating the interface

Domain names

"But I can get my own domain name on my free Blogger blog. Why do I need to pay for a hosting package?" You're paying for that domain name--and still not owning your blog space, and you're not getting extras like your@yourname.com email addresses, which you usually get for free with paid hosting packages. And, if you don't have a website, there's no room to add one later. But if what you want right now is a blog atwww.yourname.com. then the domain name option through Blogger or Wordpress.com is a good one.

3. So why are you using Blogger?

A few weeks ago, I was telling someone about the advantages of getting your own server space and domain, and installing Wordpress on it, and paying someone to do a custom design. And then they asked me, "So how come you're using a free Blogger blog?"

 

  

To be honest, there's no good reason--I just haven't gotten around to switching yet. I don't even have the excuse of having to buy or set up my own website, because I already have it. So for me, it's the matter of transferring my Blogger blog over to a Wordpress blog. I see no advantages in staying with Blogger except that I'll lose my blog followers; this is pretty easily overcome by publishing a post begging people to switch and leaving it up there. And I don't have the number of followers that Roni does. She's a little more cautious about losing her hordes--and yet, she's expressed to me that she worries about losing all the content she's published on her Blogger blog.

When I move my blog over to my own website, I'll get a better blog publishing interface (in my opinion; Wordpress has many more blog-friendly features than Blogger does even with Blogger's new interface, which strangely mirrors Wordpress's now). And all the posts I've written for the past three years will import right over, and the chance of losing them all to a crash of Blogger's doing will be minimized.

 

In the end...

Using a free blog or website vs. a paid, custom-designed one is a personal choice. Generally, you're going to want more space, freedom, and control when you're a published author, which are things a free service can't supply as well. And there's no question--a yourname.com site looks professional. 

For marketing reasons, I always advocate having your own server space. There are a number of low cost and very reliable hosting companies that offer space, email, and domain names at affordable prices. (I use 1and1.com and have four web hosting packages through them; my business partner Mike uses Bluehost.com for the same reason.)

But free blogs offer wonderful, great-looking services as well--and work just fine for lots of folks. Blogs and websites are all a part of how you manage your identity online, and as an author all those choices are highly personal. 

Please ask me any questions, or let me know how YOU plan to go forward with free or paid web spaces.

About Sierra:

Sierra has enjoyed crafting stories for as long as she can remember. She especially likes stories that feature women who grow from the choices they face—and get the guy at the end. She’s a member of RWA and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, two little boys, and two annoying cats. In her spare time she works as a freelance graphic designer and technical writer. To the untrained eye she can appear somewhat sassy, but at heart she loves a good story and is really quite sweet, especially when the lighting is right. Visit Sierra at her blog or Twitter.

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“...a sexy, sizzling tale that is sure to have readers begging for more!" –Jo Davis, author of I SPY A DARK OBSESSION

CRASH INTO YOU is now available! Read an excerpt here.

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All content copyright of the author. Please ask permission before re-printing or re-posting. Fair use quotations and links do no require prior consent of the author. ©Roni Loren 2009-2012 |Copyright Statement|

Killing the Mystique: Can You Know Too Much About Your Favorite Authors?

Last night I was reading this fabulous post over at Dear Author on Three Must Haves for Author Websites. The tips were great, but what was even better was reading all the comments from readers on what they liked and hated about author websites.

Interestingly enough, not many commenters mentioned anything about author blogs.  Most were more concerned with having a user friendly site and easily finding book information. It really was all about the books--that was there main focus.

One commenter even said that she doesn't like to have the blog on the first page because she avoids blogs--reading the author's blog ruins the book experience for her. 0.0

Now I don't know if anyone else out there feels that way, but it did get me to thinking--at what point does our open-book online presence affect a person's reading experience? Having our lives and personality so easily accessible does kind of reveal the wizard behind the curtain a bit.

It used to be that we could imagine what we want about our favorite authors, just learning about them from the occasional article or interview. So we could picture that horror writer living in some old, spirit-filled house and typing away his manuscripts in a half-lit attic. We could weave our own image that matched the type of books they wrote.

Now instead we can hear about how that super scary horror writer spent his weekend taking a cake decorating class. It's real, but it does take away some of the mystique. (Kind of like when Ozzy Osbourne got a reality show. Or when Britney Spears actually started talking to the media without her people telling her what to say.)

But beyond that, I think the bigger concern may be that we can, in essence, create a new kind of "author intrusion." I covered traditional author intrusion in your writing here, but what I mean in his case is--you know so much about an author by following them that when you read their books, you *feel* the author's presence there and it pulls you out of the story.

For instance, a romance author tweets "I wish I could eat M&M's off Joe Manganiello's abs." (A valid wish, I might add.) But then you read her book a few months later, and her heroine is eating candy off the hero's stomach. Your mind is automatically going to scream "AUTHOR is here!" and it can yank you out of the story's world. Now, some people may not mind. It might be like a little inside joke--you know something another reader who doesn't "know" the author does. But it can go either way.

I don't think it's something we need to stress out about. But it does make a case for not venturing into TMI territory with your online presence. I definitely don't want to be reading a love scene in a book and thinking that the author is writing an autobiographical scene, lol. That definitely will pull me out of a story. *awkward*

I'm okay with sacrificing the mystique because the result is that you get to know an author and see that they're a real person. But there are also times when I wish I didn't know so much.

This is why when I went to a 30 Seconds to Mars concert and they were signing autographs in the lobby after the show, I didn't want to go meet them. My husband could not understand it. He was like--but you have this ridiculous crush on Jared Leto, don't you want to meet him? And I'm like--no, I don't want to ruin the fantasy image in my head. Of course, hubs then says: "This is because you don't want to truly accept that he's shorter than you, isn't it?"

Word.

But what do you think? Do you like knowing everything about your favorite authors? Have you ever been disappointed when you found out you really didn't "like" the author once you got to "know" them online? Do you sometimes miss the mystique? And have you ever had one of those moments reading a book where you felt the author standing there in the pages?

Five Epic Attempts At Website Building & A Facebook Fail

So last week I did a post on Ten Components of a Rocking Author Website and I talked about how I wasn't really thrilled with my current author website (not this site, but my static site). Well, that little thought ending up bugging the hell out of me for the rest of the day. And then I opened up the can of worms that is attempting to build a new website. It put me into the dangerous zone which my husband kindly calls "mission mode" and I refer to as obsession.

So began the journey.

Website Attempt #1 (Homestead)


First, I went to my current provider (Homestead) and tried to mess around with the site I already had built. Well, it didn't really go so well. They have this thing where if you switch your template, you lose all of the personalization you've already done on your site. There's no feature to let you see what the other template would look like without getting rid of what you already have. (Or, if that's not the case, that's how the website read. Click this and all will be lost! Okay, not in those words, but basically that.) So I didn't want to lose all the work I've done, just to "test" out a new template. So I decided to go see what I could do somewhere else while keeping my homestead site in tact as a back-up prom date.

Website Attempt #2 (Wordpress)


So off I went to Wordpress because a) I've had a blog on there before and b) everybody and their mama seems to have their website "powered by Wordpress." Well, I ended up struggling a lot trying to find a template I could tweak enough to get it to how I wanted it. I don't know CSS and I was on cold medicine, so double whammy set me up for techfail. I got a site up, but it wasn't really what I wanted. The columns wouldn't go where I wanted them, the padding in the content window was too thick. It was a decent site, but it wasn't how I wanted it to look and unless I could learn to tweak the template at a html level, I was going to have to live it with it. So off I went again...

Website Attempt #3 (Squarespace)


You get a 14-day free trial on Squarespace, so I decided to give it a shot. I found a template that worked, but I was having trouble figuring out their system. It's seems like a lot at first. I built a basic site. Got frustrated, moved onto #4.

Website Attempt #4 (Blogger)


So after I was completely bald from pulling my hair out and my forehead was dented from banging it on my keyboard, I went back to my fuzzy safety blanket. Oh, Blogger. Me and you are like cream cheese and crackers--a perfect combination. I've been on Blogger for two years and the system is like second nature to me. So I built a nice little website over here. Well, it wasn't perfect. Blogger is a BLOG platform, not really meant to be a website platform. You can only have a certain number of pages, your landing page is your blog (not a welcome screen) and your sidebar is on all your pages whether you want it or not. BUT I was willing to do a work around. So I was happy with the site I built.

But alas...the lovely author Carolyn Jewel messaged me on Twitter and told me I really shouldn't build my site on blogger because it's not on my own host. I have no control over my content. If Blogger decides to shut me down for any reason (say someone reports the site for over 18 content and I didn't mark it as over 18 or something), they can literally shut you down and you lose everything. She then sent an email with her "pitch" on why I shouldn't do it that way. She made a lot of sense and she's had a website for many years so has a lot of experience under her belt. So then I got to thinking again. And I went back to....

Website Attempt #5 (Squarespace....again)


So I still had the site up on Squarespace. I opened up the program again and started looking through the help files. And OMG, their help section is SO fabulous and user friendly. I've never found a help section that was so easily navigated and that answered the exact questions I was looking for. After arming myself with some knowledge, I went about tinkering with my site I had put together. And I finally got the hang of it! I'm really happy with the functionality, the ability to tweak templates liberally, and the way the site turned out. The only complaint I have is I wish they had more font choices--but that's nitpicky.

Oh and did I mention I did all of the above in the last five days? Yeah, mission mode indeed.

So, have I got you curious yet?  Here is my brand new site: www.roniloren.com
(Warning: the pic in the header is sexy--not graphic--but make sure your boss isn't hanging out at your desk or something.)

*Alright and FACEBOOK ALERT:
I also found out through this whole process that it is against Facebook policy to have more than one account. So I have a personal account and one for my pen name and apparently that is a no-no. So no big deal until you're caught right? Well, yeah, it is. If they catch you or someone reports it, they will SHUT DOWN your accounts, BLOCK your email address, and you will LOSE all of your contacts and files on your account. So say my books comes out and I build this nice following of readers on FB. Well, then the account is shut down and I lose all that work. Not to mention losing all my personal account stuff. Gah! Now worth the risk IMO.

So if you are friends with me on Facebook or have liked my former fan page, please please "Like" my new page. There is a link in the right sidebar to click Like or you can go to the page here.

And believe me, I know the fan page thing is kind of lame and it limits me because I can't "friend" people with it, but I don't have any other option. I don't want to get rid of my personal/family account because (sadly) this is how I keep in touch with most of my family and friends who are spread all over the country. And I don't want to open up that page to everyone because it's not a place for my writing/book stuff, it's just family pictures and such. Plus it's under my non pen name. So there you go. I'd love it if you "liked" my page. If not, I understand. (And if you want me to "like" you back, email me your page link."

Okay, so what do you think of my new website? Do you have an author website and what platform did you build it on? Did you know about this facebook policy?

Ten Components of a Rocking Author Website

Photo by Benjamin Cook

I've been mulling over the whole website thing for a while now. I have a separate, static author website (www.roniloren.com). I did it myself. It's fine. Meh. (UPDATE: I've now redone my website, so that link should take you to the new one! It's still one I did myself, but I think it's a whole lot better.) But I really want something swankier for when my book releases. Unfortunately, a professionally done site is not cheap. So for now, I'm going to have to wait.

However, that doesn't mean I can't research, right? So, spurred by a question from the lovely Ashley March, I started looking into what the best author websites do right. This time I will focus on published author sites because Sierra Godfrey did a post on here a while back with website tips for the pre-published author--see that here.)

FOR AN UPDATED AND EXPANDED VERSION OF THE POST see: 13 Steps to Creating an Author Website Readers Will Love

Makings of  a Great Author Website

1. Make sure a drunk monkey could navigate it.

Please, please, please make it easy for me to find whatever I'm looking for. I don't want to have to dig. I will move on. Make the design eye-catching but clean (ignore my busy blog design, this is a do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do thing. I'm a mom, I get to do that now.) Oh, and DO NOT HAVE MUSIC that auto-plays. 

2. Make it easy to read about and buy your books.

I'm amazed at how many author websites bury the info about their books like they're some sort of prize at the bottom of the cereal box. I want to be able to see the following:
a) The books you have out now with blurbs AND covers
b) The books that are upcoming and their blurbs and covers once available
c) Buttons where I can choose if I want to buy it on Amazon or whatever.
d) If you write series, LABEL them and put the books in order so that I know which comes first. It's sometimes hard to tell on Amazon what the order of a series is. Please help your readers with this.

3. A photo of you. Not your avatar or cat. You!

Get over your I-hate-all-pictures-of-myself thing. EVERYONE except maybe those kids on Jersey Shore hates pictures of themselves. It's normal. But I as a nosy reader want to put a face with the author name. And I don't care if you don't look like a supermodel. But believe me, if you have no pic, I will imagine you as a wart-covered troll. Just sayin' Also, a bio that rocks is a necessity. (Tips on that here.)

4. Provide links to all the ways I can stalk you.

Have links on your contact page with your twitter, facebook, goodreads, email, etc. links.

5. If you blog, don't phone it in.

If you hate blogging, we'll be able to tell. So if you are going to do it. Really do it. And for the love of all things good and holy, please attempt to make it interesting. And it's not about YOU, it's about the reader. I'm going to quote from a fabulous post over at Author Tech Tips: "Yes, yes, you’re a big famous author. But people still don’t care about you. They care about themselves. Think that is selfish? Take the plank out of your own eye before you can point the finger. If you offer something of value, your readers will want to come back. Photos of your kids will not bring them back." 

6. Be addictive.

Give your readers a reason to want to come back. Do you offer something they can only get on your site? Contests? Super secret snippets from your current project? Pictures of your characters? Playlists for your books? Think of takeaways that would excite a reader.

7. A website is not like a cactus--you can't water it every six months and assume it's going to thrive.

Going to an author site who has an update from months ago is like getting served stale chips at a Mexican restaurant. It makes your image feel stale. Like, wow, nothing exciting is happening with his books right now. Even if you don't blog, make sure that your release dates and such are up to date. Don't say coming soon and the book release date has already passed.

8. Be newsworthy

Are you going to speaking somewhere or did you win an award? Have a news section that you keep updated. It's a good addition or even alternative to having an active blog. Just make sure you keep it fresh.

9. Pimp Out Others

On Author Tech Tips, they quoted a survey that said a third of readers like to see what books your recommend when they visit your website. I think one way to do it is having other authors stop by your blog and do interviews and contests. You can also put a Goodreads widget somewhere on your site (like mine over there on the right) that shows what you're reading right now. That's a form of recommendation.

10. Be likable

Please do not use your site for rants or whining. It should be a positive, happy place for people to be--even if you write about serial killers. You want people to leave your site thinking that they could enjoy being friends with you.

Alright, so those are my tips. What are some of the things that you like to see on an author website? What are some author sites you visit regularly--why? Oh, and anyone know any amazing web designers that would love to offer me a discount on services, lol?

Author Websites for the "Pre-Published"

Waiting by Eye of Einstein (click pic for link)Earlier in the year, I asked you guys your opinions on writers having professional (non-blog) websites before they have an agent and/or book deal. I was debating with myself over putting one together. Most of you said you didn't think it was something to worry about yet, so I just reserved my domain name and left it at that. Then I went to a talk at my local RWA meeting on branding and changed my mind because of some of the points they made.

So I set up a simple website for myself. You can check it out here. It only costs a few bucks a month and it was point-and-click technology using a template--therefore easy to put together with no HTML knowledge needed. I didn't really think anyone was going to actually look at, but I liked having it done and up there.

Then I started the querying process. I didn't even include the address, I just included my blog. But when Sara contacted me to request my full after reading the partial, she mentioned that she'd gone to my blog and website and really liked them. (She also promised that she wasn't stalking me, just doing her homework, lol. To which I replied, stalk away!)

Then when we had THE CALL, she mentioned the importance of promotion and online branding. She said a website shows that the writer is already taking that portion of the career seriously. (And having no online presence at all is getting to the point of being a deal breaker for her.) She also sends her clients' website information with their submissions to publishers to show that the author is already out there building a name.

Now this is her opinion and if you search around the net, you'll find agents with complete opposite opinions. And if online stuff is getting in the way of you writing the best book possible--then obviously you have to focus on that first because the best blog/website in the world isn't going to make up for sub par writing. But I think it's something to think about for sure.

I think it goes back to that old adage of "dress for the job you want, not the one you have." No, we may not have a publishing deal or an agent or whatever it is we're seeking yet. BUT we need to act like this is already our career (even if we can only dedicate a small amount of time to our writing.)

You don't have to be insane like me and have a website, blog, twitter, facebook, and goodreads A website can be static, so once you have that up,  it's not any work. And then if you like to blog--blog. If not, then just do twitter or facebook (I'd recommend Twitter over Facebook if you're only going to do one--it's more effective IMHO). But do whatever works for you.

All I have to say is I'm happy I got these things off the ground before this point. Otherwise, I'd be scrambling right now, lol. (Although, I'll be changing my last name soon for a pseudonym--when I choose it--so I'll have to go through and adjust domains and such.)

So what's your opinion? Do you have an author website? Do you feel pressure to be out there doing all these thing now or would you rather wait until the agent/deal comes?

**Today's Theme Song**

"Don't You Know Who I Think I Am" - Fall Out Boy

(player in sidebar, take a listen)

Pre-Branding Yourself as an Author

A few weeks ago, I debated on here whether or not I should start up an official (non-blog) website before I've sold a book.  Opinions were mixed, but most people seemed to agree that it really wasn't something to worry about until you got "the call."  So, I decided to reserve my domain name and then put the idea of a website on hold until later.

However, this weekend I attended my NTRWA meeting and the topic was marketing and promotion.  And although most of the talk was on how to market and promote yourself once you have sold your manuscript, there was also information for the not yet published.  And lucky for me, the authors who were giving the talk, Nikki Duncan and Misa Ramirez, provided just the answers I was looking for.

They interviewed marketing and publicity people from a number of different publishers (both print and ebook publishers) and asked them the pros and cons of pre-branding yourself as an author.

On the pro side, each person seemed to say the same things:

--It is not necessary to have an online presence before selling the book BUT "there is little advantage to waiting."

--Having an established presence/professional website shows the editors you are serious about your career because you have put forth time, effort, and a little money to put together a website.  It also in an indication that you "understand the importance of branding yourself" and are committed to helping in your own promotion.

The cons these professionals outlined were ones we have complete control over:

--Don't put things out there that will hurt your image.  We talked about that here.

--And don't let it interfere with your writing because obviously the most important thing is that you write the best book.

So after the talk, I made my decision.  I went ahead and created a basic website for myself.  I was a little intimidated by the thought.  My technical savvy is relegated to putting widgets in my sidebar, but I went to homestead.com and found the site very user friendly.  I was able to find a template I liked, then replaced the pics and info with mine.  Everything is drag and drop; you don't have to mess with html if you don't want to.  The only thing I have left to do is transfer my domain there.  But I'm waiting on that to make sure I like homestead for my format (I'm on a free trial right now.)  So for now, www.ronigriffin.com will get you there, but isn't the official address.

In addition to my basic info, I have my queries up for both my completed novels.  So, go check it out and let me know what you think.  I truly value your opinions.   

So what do you think about what the industry professionals said about pre-branding?  If you have your own website outside of your blog, feel free to leave the link in the comments.  


 
 

**Today's Theme Song**

"Just a Girl" - No Doubt

(player in sidebar--go ahead, take a listen)

Must Give Good Blog

Most aspiring authors have heard that they should have an online presence.  I learned this last year when I went to the DFW Writer's Conference and everyone was abuzz about blogging, facebook, and twitter.  At the time I was on facebook and had a family blog, but nothing that said I was a writer.  The group of writers I was hanging out with at the conference also didn't have anything, so mild freak outs ensued.  Why were we so behind?  How did we not know this?  When are we supposed to write if we're supposed to do all of these other things too?  


I let the panic pass, then came home and started working on creating this here blog.  Great.  So I write about whatever I want and all is good in the world.  Well, not so much.  As I learned more and more, I realized you have to be vigilant about what you put out there on your blog.  Talking about rejections?  A bit risky if an agent stops by and sees no one else wanted your stuff.  Whining about the publishing industry?  Dangerous because you'll insult the very people you're trying to get "hired" by.  Badmouthing a book in a review?  Potentially burning bridges all over the place.


So is all that vigilance worth it?


After reading this article by Ellora's Cave editor Meghan Conrad over at Redlines and Deadlines, I would say the answer is a resounding yes.  I tweeted this article a few days ago, so for those of you that follow me, you may have already seen it (and for those of you not following me on twitter, why the heck not?  Go click that lovely birdy button in the upper right.)


Here is some of what Ms. Conrad says:

"I’ve rejected one or two good books because the author behaved so badly online, we decided we didn’t want to work with her. I’ve rejected a great many more books I was on the fence about after the author’s online presence ultimately convinced me the author probably wasn’t worth the effort."

I was surprised by that--not that they want to reject someone behaving badly.  I mean, peeps, learn to hide the crazy.  But by the fact that a weak online presence could be the deciding factor when they aren't sure about you.  Wow.  No pressure, right?  Although, I will note that Ellora's Cave is primarily an e-publisher so online presence probably holds more weight there than in a traditional house.


So what are they looking for?

"In general, we’re looking for signs that you’re relatively normal, literate, and reasonable, which is admittedly sort of difficult to quantify. A well-written blog is a great sign, or a Twitter account with hundreds of followers.  ...having followers is an indication you write well enough that people find your posts interesting and useful—points for you!"

Okay, I was alright with that one.  Followers are good, that makes sense.  But here's one point that scared me:

"Also worrying are blogs—or, worse, short stories or writing samples—with horrible grammar, punctuation, and spelling. No one expects you to be perfect, but I do tend to assume that the writing on your blog is a representative sample."

That one threw me for a bit of a loop because I'm a grammar nerd, but don't worry about it when blogging.  My blogs are written as streams of consciousness most times and in a conversational tone, which means lots of incomplete sentences and dashes and parentheses.  I do make sure that any excerpts I post are up to snuff in that area, but otherwise, I'm not really watching for it.  I could see if a lot of things are misspelled.  We do have spell check on here, but grammar?  Really?  Gah.  (See I just totally went all non-grammary again.)


So, be warned, fellow bloggers.  THEY, the they that we want to eventually work with, are watching you.  Make sure you want them to see what you're putting out there.  And if you do want to rant about the industry or do brutal book reviews, a pen name or some level of anonymity might be in order.  I highly recommend checking out the original article because she outlines additional things she doesn't like to see.


So how about you?  Do you have certain lines you don't cross in your blog?  Do you worry what agents/publishers/other authors will think if they stop by your blog?  Or, do you blog without worry because it's supposed to be a personal forum?

**Today's Theme Song**

"Best of You" - Foo Fighters

(player in sidebar--go ahead, take a listen)

WIP Wednesday: It's Been a While

 

Today: Updates on my WIP, writer websites, and fighting vile spammers.

WIP

Okay, so you know when these WIP Wednesdays start mysteriously disappearing over here that I'm struggling with a draft.  I have two story starts with the same characters.  One has about 18k words, the other 6k.  I like them both and hate them both, if you know what I mean.  In the first I'm having trouble nailing down believable motivation for my heroine.  I know her backstory, I know where I want the story to go, but I have to come up with the thing that gives her enough motivation to make the decision that starts the plot.  I've agonized over this piece of the puzzle but I haven't landed on the "fix" for it yet.

The second story start, I like, but I think the story would need to go down a steamier path than the first book to make the most sense.  I have no issue writing an erotic romance, but this book is supposed to be the second in the series and Wanderlust is a sexy/sensual romance, but not erotic.  Here's the difference from Passionate Ink, in case you're wondering what the difference is:
 

Erotic Romance: stories written about the development of a romantic relationship through sexual interaction. The sex is an inherent part of the story, character growth, and relationship development, and couldn’t be removed without damaging the storyline. Happily Ever After is a REQUIREMENT to be an erotic romance.

Sexy Romance: stories written about the development of a romantic relationship that just happen to have more explicit sex. The sex could easily be removed or “toned down” without damaging the storyline. Happily Ever After is a REQUIREMENT as this is basically a standard romance with hotter sex.

So there is my quandary.  And this has paralyzed my writing, which is driving me nuts.  I'm wondering if I should just work on some completely new idea and come back to these--although I hate doing that.  So, I dunno.  Maybe I'll throw out both to my crit group and see which start grabs them more.

Websites

Alright, moving on to websites.   Last week I asked your opinions on pre-published authors getting websites. Most seemed to agree that waiting until you have an agent or book deal is your preference.  I still haven't decided what I want to do.  But I did (based on commenters advice) reserve my domain.  So now, if you type in www.ronigriffin.com, it redirects you here to Fiction Groupie.  (For those of you interested, you can do this at godaddy.com.  It only costs like eleven bucks to reserve your domain for a year.  So not bad.  And that doesn't mean you have to have your website with them, all you're buying is the use of the name.  You can point that name to whatever site you like.)

Vile Spammers

Lastly, spammers.  I know we all get them.  It's unavoidable.  Some of us use the dreaded verification word as a defense (although that doesn't totally fix it) and some of us require comment approval to help with it.  I'm not a fan of either--the first because it slows things down, the second because when the comment has to be approved first, you can't see if your comment came up right and it hampers the commenting conversation.

So, what I've done is set up that comments require approval only if the post the person is commenting on was posted more than two days ago.  (You can do this in your blogger settings.)  This has helped tremendously because most spammers (sneaky bastards) go and comment on old posts so they can slide in without you noticing.  Changing the setting prevents that because those comments then need your approval before posting.  Just thought I'd share since it's helped a lot with my spam issues.

Okay, that's it.  I know it was a bit of a random day, but every blogger needs those once in a while, right?

How's your WIP going?  What do you do to deal with spam?  And for those of you who didn't see last week's post on websites, what's your opinion of having an official website before you have a book deal?

**Today's Theme Song**

"Unwritten" - Natasha Bedingfield

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Face Off Friday: Will Blogging Sell Your Books?

I'll admit that I first started blogging because I heard that the omniscient THEY said that all aspiring authors should be on the internet building a platform. So off I went with the goal of building an internet presence, which lasted about two seconds. As soon as I started meeting other bloggers and discovering all the helpful information out there, I forgot about the whole platform thing and just kept blogging because I liked it.

Now I don't know if this whole blogging thing has built me any kind of platform, but it's definitely improved my writing because I learn something new every day from you guys and from researching the posts I do, so it's been worth its weight in gold.

However, I'm still curious, do you think THEY are right? Does someone having a blog sell books when they eventually get published? If you've never read a romance and I get published, are you going to go out and buy it because you "know" me or feel invested in my journey because you watched it unfold?

My own opinion is that, yes, it could sell a few books. For instance, blogger and about to be published author Jody Hedlund, writes inspirational/Christian fiction, which is far from my typical genre. I have no issue with the genre, it's just not something I gravitate toward. However, she's a great blogger and I have followed her journey over the last few months, so when her book comes out, I'll buy it. I want to support her. Same goes for all my bloggy friends out there, I can't wait to buy your books whenever they are out there.

And what about established author websites? Are you more likely to buy an author's book if they have an interactive website like a blog or tweet regularly or offer free writing workshops online? When authors do those blog tours, are you more likely to pick up their book?

I will say that when I ran across author Stacia Kane's website, which had loads of information on writing love scenes, I did go out an buy one of her novels. I liked her voice on the website along with the fact that she was offering helpful writing advice, so it sold me on picking up one of her books.

But if I just run across a standard author website with no updated information, it probably won't coax me into buying a book. Or if someone blogs solely to sell their books--i.e. every post is a promotional plug--I'm not that enticed either.

**Also, quick apology. I haven't been on your blogs in the last two days. That partial of Shadow Falls that I sent out like 3 months ago came back with a request for a full. Woo-hoo! So I've been buried in my manuscript the last two days--going through it to make sure that everything looked alright. I've learned a lot in three months so there were a few things that needed tinkering. I'll hopefully be finishing it up today and sending it off. I promise to catch up on your blogs over the weekend. :)**

So what about you? Do blogs sell books? What online can make you buy someone's book?

**Today's Theme Song**

"Popular"-- Nada Surf

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