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If you’re an author in 2021, you still need a website. It’s as simple as that. Yes, social media is great for self-promotion, paid and free, and yes, you can sell a lot of books on Amazon with the right marketing and with plenty of reviews, but still there is a strong need for an author website. Here are five reasons why.
- Your website is the beating heart of your online presence
Every author these days knows the value of social media and marketing in general, but when every author has a Facebook page and an Instagram page, is it enough to stand out? Can an author really create a brand from social media alone? No, they can’t. You need a website as the beating heart of your branding and marketing. Unless you simply reshare other people’s content, what use is social media without a website? To build an audience, you need to post your own content, and the best place to do this is on a news page or blog, so that you can then share the article link on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.
- You need a website if you have business cards
Every author needs business cards or leaflets of some sort to hand out to anyone that might be interested in their books. If you pop into a bookshop to introduce yourself, you will need to give them something that they can contact you via in the future. And if you have a business card, you really need a web address on it – it would look odd without one!
- You can sell your books directly and make more profit
One major advantage of having an author website is so that you can sell your own books on them. As long as you have printed your book in bulk and not via print on demand, you can bypass Amazon altogether and make far higher profits per book sale. And even if you do only use print on demand, it’s still worth advertising your books on your site with a link to Amazon. It all helps people find you and buy from you.
- You need a website to impress publishers
An obvious reason for still having an author website in 2021 is so that you can give the right first impression to prospective publishers (and agents). If you approach a publisher via an introductory email, you will want to be able to signpost them to your website so that they can find out more about you. Don’t overload them with a super-long email to compensate for a website, as this will put anyone off, especially publishers. These are very busy people – they will be turned off instantly by a 1,000-word email saying how wonderful you are and why they should sign you up. Instead, pen a concise but informative email and include your web address so that they can read up more about you if they want to. Authors without websites will come across as part-timers who don’t really take the profession seriously – another instant turn-off for publishers and agents.
- You need a website for maximum online visibility
An often-overlooked factor these days that many authors probably don’t even think about or know about is search engine optimisation (SEO). SEO is the process of maximising your website’s presence by increasing search engine rankings. An author who appears on page 1 of Google for a term such as ‘crime thriller authors’ will get many, many more visits to their website than someone on page 2, for instance. It’s not easy to get to page 1, of course – you need to do many things such as add your website URL to genre-specific directory sites such as www.kidlitworld.com. You also have to post regularly on social media, among other things. But if you don’t have a website of your own, you will never be on page 1 of Google for any search term, or even page 100 for that matter. You will be relying forever on platforms like Amazon to get your books seen, so once again, getting yourself an author website is a real no-brainer, even in 2021.
If you are an author without a website, I can help. I run Full Media Ltd, an editorial agency and publishing company that offers specialist services to authors, and one of our specialities is website design for authors. Get in touch today for a quote!
