With New DIY Platforms, an Author Website is Easier than Ever

by Fauzia Burke

It’s surprising, but authors still ask me if they need a website. The short answer is, “Yes”. I know building and maintaining a website can sound like a daunting, time-consuming task, and if you’re still in the writing or editing process, you may think a website isn’t the best use of your time. But as I've said many times in my book Online Marketing for Busy Authors, you should start building your platform/brand as soon as you have an idea for a book. A website is the foundation of your author brand.  

The good news is that today there are many options for building a website. Gone are the days when only web designers could build a website and only webmasters could maintain them. New tools like Pub Site make building and maintaining a professional author website quick, easy, and inexpensive (more info on Pub Site below).

Not convinced? Here are five reasons why I think an author website is necessary.

1. Your readers want to know more about you

In our digitally connected world, you can’t put your book out there in the world, but leave yourself in the shadows. Your readers want to know you. They want to know your interests and values, and they want to be able to connect with you. Your website is a place where you can tell your story—where readers can find out more about you and your expertise. Your website is where you build your brand and keep your content alive in real time. I recommend building a site under your name and not in the book title. 

2. Why take a hit on your digital reputation when you can avoid it? 

Ever hear the quote, “It's not what you say, but what you don’t say that speaks the loudest?” Well, that applies to your website, too. If an interested reader does a quick search for you and doesn’t find a website, are you okay with what that says about you? Not having a website could be viewed as unprofessional, out-of-date, or not connected. First agents and then publishers may see your lack of a website as a reason not to take you seriously as a writer. If you want to grow your brand, you need to show up with a website. Better still, include testimonials on your site, solidifying your expertise.

3. Other social media platforms don’t cancel out the need for a website

While some players in the publishing industry contend that you can use a social media site in place of having a website, I couldn’t disagree more. Facebook or Twitter often change the user experience and you just have to follow along. For example, Facebook has changed its model to more of a pay-to-play platform, making it more difficult for content to appear in news feeds organically. Do you want to be dependent upon Facebook’s algorithm or functionality to determine who sees your content?

With your own website, you are in control. You get to decide what your audience sees. Your website and each social media platform are totally different entities. Knowing your readers and where they spend their time will tell you what social platforms you should prioritize, but bottom line: You always need a website.

4. Grow your email list 

A newsletter is a great way to keep in touch with your super fans, those people who have opted in to hear from you on a regular basis. Your website is the ideal place to collect these names and build a community. While you can converse on social media, your website is a home base where collecting emails and generating content meet. Your mailing list is a big asset, and you should have control over it. Without a website, it would be difficult to collect email addresses on a consistent basis or have a home base for the content you send out in those emails.

The content you’re including in your newsletter can also be housed in a blog; this blog should live on your website because it is a great way to keep your community engaged, as well as bring traffic to your site. 

5. Monetize

You may not be there yet, but if you want to sell other products or services down the road, no other social media platform (not Twitter, not Facebook, not Pinterest) can organize the products, books or services like a website. You can integrate your website with shopping cart tools, add new products, and keep them all organized and available on your site.

Pub Site is a website platform that allows every author, regardless of budget, to have a great looking, professional website. Created by the book industry veterans at FSB Associates, Pub Site is the new easy-to-use DIY website builder developed specifically for books and authors. Imagine using the same website platform used by bestselling authors like Tom Clancy, Robin Cook, Janet Dailey, and hundreds more.

 Whether you’re an author of one book or fifty, Pub Site gives you the tools to build, design, and update your website pain-free. Build your website with a 14-day free trial (no credit card required) then pay just US$19.99/month which includes hosting. We also offer packages starting at just US$499 to set up the website for you.

Fauzia Burke, author of Online Marketing for Busy Authors, is the founder and president of FSB Associates  an online book publicity firm, co-founder of Pub Site  a platform for building author websites, and a consultant and coach for authors who need help navigating the book marketing and publicity landscape. Before starting FSB, she worked for Henry Holt and John Wiley. Fauzia has promoted books by authors such as Alan Alda, Arianna Huffington, Deepak Chopra, Melissa Francis, S. C. Gwynne, Mika Brzezinski, Charles Spencer and many more. She is based in San Diego, CA. FauziaBurke.com

Claudia Riess On Finding Inspiration In Art

Inspiration is a funny thing. It can come to us like a lightning bolt, through the lyrics of a song, or in the fog of a dream. Ask any writer where their stories come from and you’ll get a myriad of answers, and in that vein I created the WHAT (What the Hell Are you Thinking?) interview. Always including in the WHAT is one random question to really dig down into the interviewees mind, and probably supply some illumination into my own as well.

Today’s guest for the WHAT is Claudia Reiss, a Vassar graduate, who has worked in the editorial departments of The New Yorker and Holt, Rinehart, and Winston and has edited several art history monographs.

 Ideas for our books can come from just about anywhere, and sometimes even we can’t pinpoint exactly how or why. Did you have a specific origin point for your book?

While I was looking to jump-start the third book in my art mystery series—researching artists with interesting back-stories—I came across a quote by painter and chess enthusiast, Marcel Duchamp: “Not all artists are chess players, but all chess players are artists.” I thought about conjuring up a brain-teaser centered on one of his chess-board paintings, but decided instead to look for a contemporaneous chess player to see if I could find or invent a connection between them to get the ball rolling. I didn’t have to go far to find an apt quote from World Chess Champion, Alexander Alekhine: “Chess for me is not a game, but an art.”  Sheer serendipity to discover that he and Duchamp had played on team France in the 1933 Chess Olympiad and furthermore, that his death in 1946 remains a cold case to this day. The confluence of these events was the starting point for another mystery prompted, but not dominated by history.

Once the original concept existed, how did you build a plot around it?

Alekhine’s death was the springboard.  I had to come up with something related to that event that would emerge present-day—like unearthing a letter of Alekhine’s that could rock the art world. The letter would be addressed to a person of international repute and would offer information on art looted during Germany’s occupation of Paris.  The young man in possession of the letter would be brutally murdered and his mentor, Harrison Wheatley, art history professor and Harrison’s amateur sleuthing partner, art magazine editor Erika Shawn, would hurl themselves into the dual mission of tracking down both the killer and the looted art.   

Have you ever had the plot firmly in place, only to find it changing as the story moved from your mind to paper?

Often.  I start out with 5x7 cards, each describing a scene intended to advance the plot.  I then arrange the cards in consecutive order.  Once I begin typing all bets are off.  Scenes are omitted, others added.  The driving force of characters that come alive as they interact and move through space is far more compelling than jottings on 5x7 cards.  They may come up with a new plan of action when they’re in a tight spot—or over a cup of coffee.  Sometimes how they perform in a situation demands an explanation, calling for a scene to be added earlier in the story.

Do story ideas come to you often, or is fresh material hard to come by?

It’s easier for me to come up with premises that intrigue me—a uniquely conflicted relationship, a global issue with an unusual twist—than following up with proper stories, with subplots and arcs and resolutions.  Kind of like digging into a particularly rich dessert and feeling you’ve had enough of it after only a few bites.  But how much more gratifying it is, after these false start-ups, when an idea piques my interest and then sustains it.

How do you choose which story to write next, if you’ve got more than one percolating?

Right now I’m choosing among my art mystery ideas, since I’ve just signed a contract to come up with three more books in the series.  I may choose the idea that’s most timely, or the one that I think will challenge the protagonists most, or the one that’s been gestating the longest.  Most probably though, I’ll start doing some research on the historical events and the painters associated with these raw ideas, and a storyline centering on one of them will suddenly emerge and monopolize my attention.  

I have 5 cats and a Dalmatian (seriously, check my Instagram feed) and I usually have at least one or two snuggling with me when I write. Do you have a writing buddy, or do you find it distracting?

I’ve always had pets—cats and dogs—to keep me company, but now that I’m living in a small apartment in Manhattan, I only have my fictional dog, Jake, a loveable chocolate Lab, to vicariously snuggle up to.  He’s my protagonists’ (Erika and Harrison’s) old pup and come to think of it, when I’m writing a scene in which Jake plays even an incidental role, my pace slows down as I engage, with the characters, in a stroke of affection, a tender word. I suspect that Jake has the same effect on my blood pressure that a real dog would.

Samuel Moore-Sobel On Writing About Intense & Deeply Personal Experiences

My name is Samuel Moore-Sobel, and I am the author of Can You See My Scars?

My book is about the day that changed my life forever. I was 15 years old and a week away from starting my sophomore year of high school. A man in my community hired me to move boxes and furniture for him. Eager to pocket some spending money before the start to the school year, I agreed to take the job. After moving a box as instructed, a glass jar of sulfuric acid exploded, leaving me with second- and third-degree burns on my face and arms.  

The accident sent me on a journey that lasted longer than I could have anticipated. In the years that followed, I had more than a dozen operations. Along the way, I discovered I had emotional scars in addition to my physical scars. A psychiatrist diagnosed me with symptoms of depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and I spent years in therapy learning how to work through my emotional scars.

I learned a lot about myself in the process. For instance, my psychiatrist introduced me to a concept that I’ve carried with me ever since. He encouraged me to assemble a figurative “toolbox” that I could use in confronting the symptoms I was experiencing. For example, I could share my story with those I trusted, and also keep a detailed journal about my experience.

The more I shared my story with others, the more I came to understand that we all have scars. Not just physical scars, but emotional ones, too. Some of us have deep emotional scars that affect our lives in various ways. My story is a human one. We all know suffering, to one degree or another, even if the circumstances behind our scars differ.  

Early on in my journey, I decided to write my story. I spent years writing and re-writing, aiming to get the words exactly right. In some ways, writing about my experience was cathartic. It helped me understand my experience in a new light. I also found the process painful. Writing about the worst experience of my life brought back a lot of memories and caused me to re-live parts of the experience.

I also struggled from time to time with doubts about the viability of my book. I wondered if anyone would want to read my story. I pressed on, guided by a singular purpose – I thought that maybe, sharing my story could help others feel less alone as they faced their own adversity. I wanted to give others what I lacked in my experience: the opportunity to hear from someone else who had gone through deep pain and trauma, with the hope that it is possible to survive whatever we face.

I also felt that my story wasn’t just confined to my experience. I saw the commonalities inherent in the human experience. Even if readers aren’t burn survivors, they can likely relate to feelings of isolation, loneliness, shame, and self-loathing. Most of us can relate to experiencing grief and the questions we ask at every stage of life (but especially during our teenage and young adult years): Who am I? What is my purpose? What is the meaning of my life?

I wanted to write a book that others could relate to, while also keeping the chapters short enough to encourage people to keep reading. There are parts of the story I didn’t include due to space constraints or privacy concerns. I also had a wonderful editor (my girlfriend at the time, now wife) who kept pushing me to be more concise and to cut when necessary. It was fun collaborating on this project with my wife and that made the publication of my book all the more special.

My book was published on the eleven year anniversary of my accident, September 1, 2020. It was right in the middle of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, and I worried that sales would be affected. Despite my worst fears, I’ve been grateful that my book has continued to sell despite everything going on in our world, and that others have graciously chosen to read my book. I’ve heard from people across all stages of life who have been impacted by my story, which makes all of my effort worth it. “It was like I was reading my own thoughts at times,” a reader shared after finishing my book.

Samuel Moore-Sobel is the author of Can You See My Scars? His book is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Mascot Books. For more, follow him on Twitter and Instagram or visit www.samuelmoore-sobel.com