Do I need an Author Website?
The simple answer is YES!
Did you know you have 8 seconds to grab your reader's attention when they land on your author website! Yep you read that right 8 seconds.
It doesn't matter if you hire a web designer or DIY your author website, you need to have it pack a punch and grab that potential new reader's attention before they click away. How do
I do that? I hear you say..... Well here are 5 tips to make sure your author website is fresh and inviting rather than boring.
Keep your author website clean and simple. You know that old saying less is more? In this case it fits. You want your reader to be able to find the information they are looking for with no issue. Make sure the fonts you use are readable (this means no crazy script fonts) and keep to black for text colour for large bodies of text. I am a fan of colour but I have kept my colour palette to 3 to 4 colours that work well together and don't clash. Choose a few colours and stick to them. Keep them uniform throughout the entire site. These will become your band colours.
Know your target market. I say this because I see many authors choose designs they like but it doesn't fit their aesthetic or their ideal client. For example if your ideal reader is a woman between the ages of 25 to 45 who enjoys reading romance you wouldn't choose website colours of army green and big black bold fonts. You would choose romantic colours like light pastels or bold feminine colours with light easy to read fonts. Make sure to keep true to who you are and what you are about but also keep in mind who is buying your books.
Make your content skimmable and easy to digest. The goal of your website is to showcase your books and how a reader can purchase them. This needs to be done with small bite size text blocks and broken up by pictures. If there is too much to read a customer is more likely to jump off your site without really looking at what you have to offer.
Have a straightforward customer journey. What this means is when a person comes to your site, where is the first place you want them to land and what do you want them to do? You need to direct the traffic and map out the customer journey. So if you want them to know more about you, have your homepage start with who you are and what you can offer them. Next tell them all about your books by getting them to click on your book catalogue page. If you want them to purchase from you directly make sure that option is presented to them while they are checking out your book list. If you want to send them to AMAZON to purchase make sure you tell that reader where to go by adding links.
Offer FREEBIES. Everyone loves a freebie and it helps build rapport.This can be done by using a lead magnet. What is that you ask? Check out my blog post on Lead Magnets for Authors. But essentially you give them something for free in return for an email address. Think of what you can offer your readers. This can be a bonus epilogue or an alternate ending, the list goes on but make it good!
If you would like The Novel Assistant to design your author website for you please check out the packages page for more information.