TL ; DR
As an author, your social media is very important. From targeting your ideal readers to creating videos and reviews of your book you social media presence holds a goldmine of information for you. These same social media platforms are a danger and are all fun and games until that platform shuts you down leaving you without a place to market your books. It’s not cool BUT you clearly lost. Social media is created for you to be social not your business home base. This is why it is important to have a website on a server that you own with a way to capture your visitors by collecting email address.
Now your website doesn’t have to have all of the bells and whistles to jump off your web presence but there are some essentials you should have. The following are a list of those pages:
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An About Page
Your readers will find this page of most importance. This page will be the one to receive the most hits so make sure you give some fun tidbits of info about yourself. People want to know the author and this is a great opportunity to give a peek into who you are. Don’t forget to include a picture. Leave a little bit of info about your business and where you see your body of work leading you.
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A Contact Me Page
Another important item for anyone looking to build a following is to have a press release for upcoming books, appearances and more. In order for agents, book clubs, and others to book you for events, they must have a way to contact you. A form embedded on your website sending inquiries is the way to go and this page allows for ease of communication, as well as filter out who really deserves your presence.
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A Work With Me Page
Even though you are an author, there may be other services you provide and your visitors should know you are open to receiving requests. Here is also where you can include the links and how people can purchase your services/products.
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Blog Page
Here is your true opportunity to show your writing chops. A blog page is two-fold. You are able to establish credibility here by speaking on your books, appearances, and skills but secondly, you are able to use your posts as traffic drivers. Your blog can showcase your podcast showings, videos, or any type of content. Another bonus of blog content is you can choose to show it chronologically and use it as a historical perspective
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Reviews Page
Here is where you take advantage of owning your reviews. Sure having a review on Amazon is great but those reviews should still be captured on your own website. Remember some of the people visiting your website for the first time would find reviews very interesting. Seeing that others viewed you in such a positive light will only further entice others to buy.
[click_to_tweet tweet=”Check out 5 Pages Your Author Website Needs. ” quote=”Don’t allow social media to own your content, drive traffic to your website.”]
With the above list, you can follow and plan out your website. You are the owner of the content you create, do that by owning your website. Are you ready to have a custom website created? Visit the Author Branding page. Let’s get started on your new website today!
