Why You NEED An Author Website

If you’ve ever wondered, “Do I really need an author website?” I’m here to tell you, the answer is yes, and here’s why.

Build Your Audience

Your website provides a platform to connect with your readers. Don’t have any readers yet?

Then build a website.

I built my website before I had any of my writing published. Okay, that’s not entirely true. My high school’s literary magazine published three of my poems, but they also spelled my name wrong in the index so it doesn’t count.

However, after I started this site, my daily visits and subscribers grew steadily. At some point, I realized I was published—my writing was out there in the blogosphere. My email subscriber list grew  steadily to over 200 before I’d written my short story lead magnet (Sign up to receive A Garland of Cedar and Snow ) or had any of my fiction published.

Think an audience doesn’t matter until you’ve been published? Think again. Having an author website shows agents, editors, and reviewers that you’re a professional who takes their writing seriously.

Reader Analytics

Once you have a website, you get an insight into who your audience is. Analytics are fascinating—they tell you how your readers found you, what they’re reading, and even what country they’re from. After I post a new article, I’m able to track how well it did via the hits.

A Website is a Tool for Self-Promotion

Author websites are venues to showcase personality, taste, and voice.

The choices you make in the design of your site—fonts, colors, layout, tone, and site content—are foundational for your brand.

Your website provides you the opportunity to highlight your writing—books, articles, shorts, essays, poetry. No character limit restrictions, no moderator censorship on your posts, no follower jail.

Your creativity, your personality, your words are out there, on your terms. Well, mostly on your terms if you’re willing to find help or learn some html code and css along the way.

The visual expression of your thoughts and opinions differentiates you from everyone else.

Your site becomes the content hub for information, news, and updates about you and your writing. On your site, there’s no fighting with social media algorithms for space or visibility.

Your website also holds space for your writing.

So far, I haven’t published my short fiction on my own site, because I regularly get hits from the short fiction and essays I’ve had published elsewhere. Each short story or essay has a link back to my site, and via analytics, I’m able to see how many people find my site through my published works.

I also haven’t recycled any of my older posts, because the search engines recycle my relevant content for me (thank you SEO!). Right now, the most-read post on my site is an article I wrote 8 months ago.

Your website evolves with you

When I started my site, I began with the blog and the 2 “required” pages; an About Me and a Contact page. As editors selected my short fictions and essays for publication, I added a My Writing page. Now, with Oil and Dust nearing publication, I’ve added a Books page.

Your Website Sets Your Writing Intention

I started my website three and a half years ago, after I finished the first draft of Oil and Dust. I’d blogged on free sites before, but I created this site with intention.

My writing would no longer be a secret, shameful thing.

Even the act of maintaining the site, writing new content, and upgrading the design was a way to recommit to my writing dreams and refocus on my goals.

Over time, I built skills and knowledge related to html, copywriting, and SEO, which I found empowering.

This website also kept me accountable when I’d lost faith in myself and my project.

What you’re actually doing is advertising. You’re reaching more people, you’re raising awareness. Understanding that gave me a whole new idea of the shape of copyright and of what the web was doing. Because the biggest thing the web is doing is allowing people to hear things. Allowing people to read things. Allowing people to see things that they would never have otherwise seen. And I think, basically, that’s an incredibly good thing. ― Neil Gaiman

Whether you buy a website package, hire a freelance designer, or DIY it, you need a website to further your writing goals.

Do you have a website? Post a link to it in the comments!

Header Photo by Striving Blogger on Unsplash