Do You Need an Author's Site?

Revisiting this "promo" piece

Photo by Stephen Phillips - Hostreviews.co.uk on Unsplash

Some years ago, I received a letter from one of my publishers asking for input on a piece of promo that many authors deemed necessary: the ubiquitous bookmark, that narrow six inch piece of card, usually with the cover image of the book and the ISBN on it as well as some info for readers to order or find it.

Bookmarks…

What did readers do with this piece of dead tree? Did it serve its purpose and send folks flocking to their local independent? Or did it end up caught between pages and forgotten? Or worse, as a corner to pick at the teeth of some absent-minded reader…?

I once had a person ask me to sign their bookmark instead of a purchased book; maybe that’s when the bookmark came to hold little meaning for me.

So when the publisher wrote that note and asked for feedback on what else they might spend funds, I was quick to suggest “a book trailer please,” or “funds to pay for my website”—both of which seemed better uses of promotional dollars.

But apparently when they decided to stop making bookmarks for writers to hand out, there’d been a hue-and-cry about the matter. It’s tough to change.

• What I’ve found to be far more valuable with my most recent book is a simple card, business-sized, with the cover-image on one side and ordering/contact info on the other. I’ve distributed and handed out more of these than any bookmark. These cards fit readily in wallets and hands. And I used a number of them when assembling book info to mail out to libraries—a nice little pro-looking piece.

I’m thinking lately that the author’s website is about to go the way of bookmarks.

This past week, a friend alerted me to the fact that my www.alisonacheson.com site had disappeared... to a white blank. A couple days later, it popped up again, but this time the first half dozen or so blog posts were about dating sites and pornography. I don’t have even a vague memory of posting these pieces.

And bills…

I alerted my web person, and she went to work. A couple days later, all was back to usual and with “security” in place—and we’re all about security now. I asked what the issue had been, and long-story is that I haven’t kept to date with the upkeep, which “makes the sites vulnerable.” Two days after that, the bill came. Like many writers, I live with a budget, and I know that the revenue—in any of its potential forms—that might stem from my two sites is pretty much nil. And by that, I mean even the immeasurable of “presence.”

Online presence

Apart from my personal/professional sites, I’m online already. I’m here on Substack and I’m on Medium. Many of my personal “blog” type posts go onto a delightful Medium publication called Middle-Pause, and I’ve discovered others.

I’m not particularly active on social media, but because of the “pressures to promote,” I have accounts and check in daily—though spend minimal time.

So… do I need a site? I chose to add “alisonachesonkids” when my memoir came out because of the nature of the work (caregiving and terminal illness; I really didn’t want to post on an all-ages site).

But I post a number of caregiving pieces on Medium, where they’re easier to find, and where I’ve made some useful connections, for a price tag of $5 US/month. And then make a small sum of money from the readings of the work. Nothing to get excited about, but it pays the monthly fee.

Keeping it minimal—reasons FOR a personal site

Now if you have no online presence at all, and you—smart you!—want to steer clear of social media then you have a most solid reason to have an active web-site. Keep it up-to-date, post Q&As, photos, reviews, events and appearances, blog weekly or bi-monthly, have fun with it—it’ll be worth every penny.

But weigh all of this. In having multiple presences, you may be spreading too thin, or simply re-directing people.

Expectations of publishers

It’s now a given that a publisher expects you to have an online presence. I have to admit to resenting this to some degree. It’s time-consuming to maintain. It’s time away from writing. And unless you really enjoy promoting yourself, it can be a bit on the painful side. Yes. But it is an expectation, and when you begin to have work turned down because your “platform isn’t big enough,” then…

So choose what works best with your way to be in the world. As above, focus on a solid website. (You might want to ensure it’s flexible, and can be adapted in the event you want to sell directly from it at some point—something that never occurred to me until my earliest books went out-of-print.) Or focus on other platforms. Or develop social media, and that can be enough, if you are consistent and unafraid to reach out and actively connect.

What works with both your written work and best reflects your personality?

• A note on DOMAIN: DO purchase your domain name and hold onto it regardless of what choice you make. It’s not expensive—$35-40 year—and it means its yours. You never know when you will want it.

Oh! Here’s that trailer:

Twelve years later, it’s still on Youtube. Why? Because I had funds to hire someone to write a short piece of original music, and I broke no copyright laws. I purchased the photos I used. I did what artists do for other artists. The trailer has even outlasted the book itself which went OOP a couple years, and is now in digital format through Draft2Digital…

books2read.com/u/49kwYp

But that’s another story.

I’ve just about talked myself into getting out of my site… Though having paid the recent bill, I’ll leave intact until someone starts blogging about who-knows-what next round. Then it’s for the axe.

What choices have you made for promoting your work? What have you observed as effective with others’ works?