Amazon Discussion Boards is a great place to not only find out what readers are craving, but what also what drives them crazy when visiting author websites.
Here are the top 9 things readers are looking for in an author’s website.
How Does your Website or Blog Compare?
- Build a Website or Blog – ‘Nuff Said.
- Provide a synopsis for every book. You wrote it, so use it. You’ll use one for selling on etail sites, too, so make it short and enticing – enough to push the sale (without saying “BUY ME”.
- Offer a sample or excerpt of your book directly on your site. If you offer a downloadable sample, include in the book where they can purchase. Make the process easy and pain-free.
- Make it easy to purchase or find your book. That’s the purpose of your site, right? So provide all the links to where they can purchase your book – Amazon, B&N, iBookstore, etc.
- Keep your site fresh and modern looking. While some tout a website, I am an advocate for the Blog. Why? because it is easy to change out the temple for a new fresher design without having to re-add your content.
- Keep the Site current. Don’t just set it and forget it. Add fresh content, your thoughts, your latest WIP. Readers who like your work will come back and want more. Keep them engaged.
- Keep it Simple – Avoid adding too much technology. Not only are all the flashing elements annoying, they can slow down the page load time, especially for those with slower connections.
- Provide a Bio and picture. So your not photogenic. Hire a professional and get a photo done – they can make anyone look good ;) Besides, readers want to know about you and your work.
- Avoid uploading large graphics. Don’t upload a 3MB Book Cover design and manually resize to 200 pixels wide. First, resize the image to the size you want. Not only will this put less stress on your server, it will load a heck of a lot faster.
Thanks, Suzanne. What a wonderfully pithy set of advice!
I certainly couldn’t agree more with your observations about blogging for freshness and flexibility.
I’ve added you to this week’s Sunday Self-Publishing Round-up.
Thanks Steven. Always good to get kudos and thanks for the ping-back. Love your site BTW, a lot of great information.
— Suzanne
Thanks for the advice it worked wonders. Just to add on though I did some research and tried making a book app in my eBook promotion and it also turned on readers and sales. Taking your advice of having a good blog and website was key to this promotions success.