Authors know they need a website. But did you know there are different types of websites?
From years of working with authors, I’ve identified 3 basic types of websites, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.
The Basic Business Card
A simple online presence for authors to showcase their professional profile. It contains an author bio, a list of their books, and some social media links. These websites are often hosted on platforms like WordPress.com and may feature ads to cover some of the cost. However, due to limited traffic, they may not generate much income from ads or affiliate links.
Good for:
Very successful authors who already have a platform and who don’t want to interact with fans
Authors who don’t want to be bothered with maintaining a website, but who want to be able to say they have one
Pros:
Cheap
Easy to maintain
Can be ignored for long periods of time
Cons:
Lacks the content that helps search engines discover an unknown writer
Can lead to a false sense of security (I have a website. I’m good.)
These websites cover the basics and little else. There are three mistakes I see made with this type of website:
New authors sometimes think that this is all they need to do to build a platform. “I mean, if it is good enough for (insert name of successful author who already has a platform) then it should work for me!” No. Big Name Author can get away with it because they are already a Big Name Author. People are going online searching for their name. They don’t need to convince people to buy their books. If you are just starting out, no one knows you exist, so no one is searching for you.
Knowing that they need a bigger website, but building on a platform that can’t expand. “Since I only need this for now, I will just put something together on (insert easy drag-and-drop website builder).” This isn’t wrong, but it is shortsighted. When they get time to work on their website, they discover that they have to start over from scratch. I’ve watched the sheer frustration of needing to start over delay an author’s growth.
Authors pay for a hosting platform that would run a stronger website, but only use it for a business card. Wasted money, and they come to believe that having a website is just throwing money away.
The Blogging Platform
A more comprehensive author website that includes a blog or news section to keep fans updated on the author's latest news and projects. These websites aim to build up the author's fan base and promote their books through affiliate links and marketing efforts. However, its success depends on the author's dedication to using the website as a marketing tool. It also depends on the author's understanding of their ideal fans.
Good for:
Most entry-level authors who want to build their fan base
Successful authors who still want to keep in touch with their fans
Pros:
As a middle ground, this type of website is easy to expand or contract. There’s a lot of creativity in how you can put it together.
Fun, once you get the hang of it. This type of website is dynamic and allows you the most freedom to experiment.
Entertaining for fans.
Cons:
It only works if you use it.
Costs more than a smaller website.
Can take several years of consistent effort before you see a return. Not always, but often.
Biggest mistakes I see authors make with this type of website:
Not using it. They build it, they learn how to use it, and then they get distracted. Or they get writer’s blogging block. Some will use it diligently for 6 months and then give up. This type takes time. I’ve seen many authors give up just as the site was starting to grow. They see a small growth and think that’s all they are going to get, not realizing that website growth exponential: growing very slowly at first, but once it gets going, it can have periods of dramatic growth.
Not knowing their fans. Authors often build this type of website for themselves. They think about what they want from the website, what they want it to do, but they forget about what their fans want.
Trying to build it on unstable hosting or a hosting plan that is better suited for a business card website. Cut corners too tight, and it becomes a hassle.
The Pro Business
An author website that not only showcases their profile and books, but also offers additional products and services to generate income. This type of website requires a higher level of investment in terms of hosting power and speed to accommodate the increase in traffic and sales. When optimized correctly, this type of website has the potential to pay for itself and beyond.
Good for:
Authors with products to sell, whether books, merchandise, coaching, or other products. This only makes sense if you will use the tools.
This is great for indie authors with multiple books and a strong following.
Pros:
This site should cover its cost and bring in income.
High-powered — the industry is constantly changing. Owning a site like this lets you pivot quickly.
Cons:
Cost
Time required to maintain and run it
Biggest mistakes I see authors make with this type of website:
Building it before they have products to sell. This can become overwhelming, and if the site can’t pay for itself, you’re spending a lot of money for something that is being used like a business card website.
Building on a platform that can’t handle growth or pivots. Some platforms seem like a really good deal, but when you want to add a classroom, a wiki for your fans, or other power-tool that you’ve just realized your fans want, you realize that you can’t do that on this platform. Then you must decide if you want to disappoint the fans or rebuild your website. No one wins.
Doing it because someone told them to without considering the costs involved. “(Insert name of marketing pro who is making money through affiliate links) recommended it!”
Questions to consider when deciding what you need:
How much time do you want to spend on your website?
What do your fans want?
Look at the marketing wheel in this post (https://writersinthestormblog.com/2021/07/5-reasons-why-authors-need-a-website/). What areas do you need your website to handle for you?
How much money do you have to spend comfortably?
Where are you in your career? Do people already know who you are? Or do you need to charm the search engines so that new readers can find you?
Websites can change and grow. I recommend building on platforms that give you the freedom to move and change, but even dead-end pre-made websites can often be converted or restructured with effort. Knowing what you want is the first step in deciding what type of website you want to build.
Don’t compare your website to the websites of others in different categories. If your website meets your needs and the needs of your fans, then it is earning its keep!
What type of website do you have? Are you happy with it? Is it meeting your needs? Feel free to vent about your website woes!
AboutLisa
Lisa Norman's passion has been writing since she could hold a pencil. While that is a cliché, she is unique in that she wrote her first novel on gum wrappers. As a young woman, she learned to program and discovered she has a talent for helping people and computers learn to work together and play nice. When she's not playing with her daughter, writing, or designing for the web, you can find her wandering the local beaches.
One thing I’ve always liked about writers is that most of us tend to see other authors as our comrades, rather than our competition. We like to share ideas and lessons we’ve learned along our journeys through the literary landscape. Instead of putting others down, writers lift each other up. We’re a community.
That’s what Writers in the Storm Blog and other resources like it are all about. They’re about writers helping other writers to elevate their skills and achieve their goals. But what’s in it for us? How does helping others help us reach our own goals?
Let’s look at some of the benefits we reap by helping others.
How We Can Help Each Other
Read and Review
One of the best ways to help writers, especially independent authors, is to read their books and then take the time to post an honest review. The more reviews a book gets, the more likely it is they will be pushed and promoted by the algorithms.
Identify yourself as a fellow writer in the review. Give the author some encouragement and then give some real feedback. Be honest but tactful. Most writers would rather have honest reviews than a bunch of empty ratings, even if they are five stars.
The benefit to you comes in a couple of ways. A well written review will often catch the eye of the author and in some cases they will feel compelled to reciprocate. They may even reach out to you and ask for permission to use your words in their promotions. This can lead to wider exposure for you.
Readers also look at reviews when deciding whether to buy a book or not. A well written review may lead them to put your name in a search engine and check your offerings out as well.
Beta Reading
Beta reading for other authors is a great way to help take them to the next level. We all get blind to our own mistakes over time, so other eyes are essential to producing a quality manuscript. Offer to be those eyes. Even when a story is not in our chosen genre, we can still recognize plot holes and speed bumps that need to be delt with, so don’t limit yourself too much.
The main benefit of beta reading for others is building relationships. When you help them out, they’re more likely to help you in the future. When your next manuscript is ready for other eyes ask for them to return the favor.
Beta reading will also benefit your writing. Reading examples of different voices, genres, and descriptive language will help to expand the tools you have at your disposal when you sit down to the keyboard.
Critique Groups
Joining a critique group is a great way to help other writers. A well-run group offers the opportunity for both new and experienced writers to come together and share what they’ve learned. Unlike beta reading, the feedback is face to face (be it virtual or in-person). This allows for a back-and-forth conversation, sparking discussion and clearing up feedback that might otherwise be misunderstood.
If you are a new writer, the benefit to you is obvious—you get to pick the brains of more experienced writers. If you are a veteran writer, critique groups can expose you to new ideas and genres you don’t normally read, thus broadening your horizons. It also helps you mentally to be around others who understand your struggle the way non-writers can’t.
Blogging
Some authors choose to share their knowledge through blogs like this one. It’s an effective way to help lots of writers all at once. Blogging gives you the chance to present the lessons you’ve learned in a way that reaches a broader audience and creates an archive that can be accessed whenever needed.
Blogging helps you by extending your reach as a writer. Getting your name out there attached to helpful writing related information can push you higher in the search engines and add to your credibility. It helps you spread your brand, which in turn can lead to better sales numbers.
The research required to write a blog also helps to build your own knowledge and skill as a writer. I can’t begin to tell you the things I’ve learned researching materials for a blog. Well, actually I can. That’s what I do every time I write one! When I’m preparing a blog post I do the research, learn new things, and then share the results with all of you.
Social Media
Social media has become a big part of succeeding as an author. While it can be both a blessing and a curse, it’s something we all must deal with. Taking the time to share and interact are key to building an online presence to bolster your brand.
We can help other writers build their presence by liking, sharing, and commenting on their posts. Tagging them and adding links to their books and websites helps get the word out when they have new releases or events to promote.
What do we get out of this? Not only do our followers see the posts, but their followers as well, which increases our reach beyond our own borders. If their followers comment on our interactions, then the exposure extends even further. It doesn’t take long for a well worded post or reply to grow legs.
One word of caution—be careful when using social media to grow your audience. Make sure your interactions, as well as the people you interact with, fit your brand. It’s easy to get pulled into exchanges that hurt your reputation, so be mindful and think before you hit the ‘send’ button.
Final Thoughts
Writers really are a community. We should all do whatever we can to help each other succeed. Reach down and lend a hand whenever possible. You never know when you might be the one needing a hand up.
How do you help your writing community? How has it benefitted you? Let us know in the comments!
About Bob
Eldred Bird writes contemporary fiction, short stories, and personal essays. He has spent a great deal of time exploring the deserts, forests, and deep canyons inside his home state of Arizona. His James McCarthy adventures, Killing Karma, Catching Karma, and Cold Karma, reflect this love of the Grand Canyon State even as his character solves mysteries amidst danger. Eldred explores the boundaries of short fiction in his stories, The Waking Room, Treble in Paradise: A Tale of Sax and Violins, and The Smell of Fear.
When he’s not writing, Eldred spends time cycling, hiking, and juggling (yes, juggling…bowling balls and 21-inch knives).
His passion for photography allows him to record his travels. He can be found on Twitter or Facebook, or at his website.
You can create charming good guys and vicious villains, the hookiest of hooks, brilliant worlds, and twisty plots with the most intense cliffhangers, but if readers don’t care about your characters, they won’t recommend your book to their friends. Or worse, they’ll put the book down and never buy your books ever again. Why would they do that? Because they didn’t connect with your protagonist, antagonist, or viewpoint characters. Your reader wants to connect with at least one of those characters. They open the book wanting to love or hate your characters. But creating characters your readers connect with takes work. What makes readers not care? It could be one of several problems.
Why Readers Put Down Your Books
You’ve put a lot of work into writing your book. You love your characters and your story but your readers, be they critique partners, alpha or beta readers, or your book reviews, tell you your book was boring, or they couldn’t finish your book and put down your book, or they didn’t like it at all. It hurts. A lot. But it’s time to put aside your emotions and examine your reader and your story.
If one reader has issues, the reader is probably not your target audience. If more than one reader makes similar complaints, it’s probably something your book does or doesn’t do. Evaluate it as objectively as you can. (Ask for help if you can’t.) Does it suffer from one of these common issues?
There is no problem that matters.
The conflict happens off stage.
Unrelated cause and effect.
Your character is a stereotype or trope.
You aren’t putting your reader in your character’s shoes.
Your character didn’t earn the ending.
No worries. All authors experience at least one manuscript with faults that stop the reader. Take heart. There are ways to fix these problems in your writing. You can learn to create characters your readers will love or hate and will pay to read more of their stories.
The Problem Doesn’t Matter
If your character is happy and content, why should the reader care? Even if the story problem is a big bad guy or a world-ending catastrophe, if your character doesn’t care deeply and personally, neither will your reader. Being an altruistic superhero isn’t enough. The problem must matter to the protagonist or it won’t matter to the reader.
Remember the 2008 movie, The Incredible Hulk? Not a blockbuster. People didn’t connect with the film or the character because Banner’s needs and problems were largely unconnected to Hulk. In fact, he wanted to control Hulk. And Hulk’s limited reactions were usually “Hulk angry” or “SMASH!”
Compare that movie to the deep characterization of the 2018 movie, Black Panther. We see T’Challa as a child yearning for a place he’s never seen. We feel the trauma of his father’s murder and we know his need to find his place, his destiny, to be the man his father wanted him to be. Most people can relate to that. Watching him struggle and fail and struggle again against a foe and against himself, we grow to care about him and his challenges. The problems T’Challa faced mattered both personally and in his larger world. His personal connection to the problem became the viewers’ connection.
We human beings gravitate toward the personal.
The challenges we choose or we make for ourselves may have some level of altruism, but deep down, it is something specific and personal. Look for a personal connection your protagonist has with the problem in your story. Ask yourself:
Is this problem one that he could solve easily by doing one thing?
Does the problem challenge his beliefs, his morals, his sense of duty, or his worldview?
Does the problem test his resolve to reach a solution?
If he does not face this challenge, will it change his sense of success or worthiness?
What does he fear will be the catastrophe if he doesn’t act?
The Conflict Occurs Off-Stage
In fiction, conflict exists when some person, place or thing keeps your character from what he wants. It’s what forces your character to re-assess what he wants or how he’s going to get it.
The reader is interested in how your character struggles to get what he wants. Describing action which takes place off-stage is a variation of telling and not showing. It distances the reader from your characters and from your story.
Guess what? If you avoid conflict in real life like many introverts do, there’s a good chance you’ll avoid it in your story. When the confrontation with that obstacle isn’t on the page, you must tell us what happened. So no matter how difficult or heroic that fight may have been, we hear it from the protagonist, which makes any actions he took less immediate and less important. A conversation or flashback can’t make him or the reader feel the immediacy of an on-stage conflict. And it can make him sound conceited.
Keep the story problem center stage.
Let your reader see, hear, taste, smell, touch, and viscerally feel his emotional responses to the obstacle. The reader can connect with those. Make those responses strong enough and it hooks the reader. Make them personal enough and the reader will not want to stop reading.
Sometimes things need to happen off-stage. Make certain what happens off-stage is not a pivotal point for the story. Backstory is an off-stage thing—usually. The character tells us about backstory; we don’t experience it with the character. Some backstory may be necessary to include in your book, but break it up into tiny slivers of information that you tell the reader over many pages. Let your reader walk in your characters’ shoes.
Scenes that lack conflict or tension.
A common scene that lacks conflict is a travel scene. A detailed description of a character traveling from point A to point B is a usually a bore even if fantasy plants and creatures fill the forest. Should your character need to travel, don’t drag us along on the journey unless something important challenges him or changes his course or you’re writing a travelogue. Instead of a travelogue, give the reader a summary statement or a jump-cut.
To keep the main story conflict center stage, ask yourself:
How does this scene involve part of the story problem?
How does this (scene or action) make your protagonist (or antagonist) closer to or farther from his goal?
Unrelated (or poorly related) Cause and Effect
If your protagonist acts in ways that are unrelated to the main story problem or unrelated to previous actions by your antagonist, you have created a haphazard appearing plot. There’s no relationship the reader can discern between the cause of one action and the effect. Note, we are not talking about subplot cause and effect. Your main story problem must remain both center stage and be a progression of challenges of increasing difficulty.
How do you make certain you’ve got cause and effect?
For each scene in your book, ask yourself:
Do the actions of your protagonist challenge and confound your antagonist, and vice versa?
Do your protagonist’s and antagonist’s reactions show how this action intensified their emotions and or needs?
Is the character’s problem more challenging in this scene than in the previous scene?
Does the action or reaction of your character lead him to try a different, more challenging action?
Your Character is a Stereotype or Trope
A man rides an arrow to jump over the word Stereotype to illustrate the power of justice and fairness in overcoming stereotyping, discrimination and racism
Stereotypes and trope-based characters are one-dimensional characters that go through the motions to fulfill the plot. The dialogue is task oriented and the characters only care about getting this plot thing done.
There are some genres where character doesn’t matter as much as plot or location. But don’t fool yourself into thinking that character doesn’t matter at all. Your readers will respond better to your story if you give those stereotypes or tropes a little twist. Often in these types of stories, honor or duty can drive your characters’ actions. Give him a background need that motivates him. Maybe he needs to prove himself to his father. He could have done something dishonorable in the past for which he must make amends. You don’t have to, and probably shouldn’t, go deep into the emotions or needs, but sprinkle tiny doses throughout this type of story and your plot-loving and trope-loving readers will eat it up.
If you aren’t writing one of those genres, take a hard look at your characters. One or two one dimensional characters can glide through certain stories. Your protagonist and antagonist need to be more.
To make certain your characters aren’t stereotypes or trope-based characters readers don’t care about...
Ask yourself:
What about this character is like similar types in books or movies?
What about this character is different?
How does this difference change the way he acts and reacts (from the other stereotypes)?
Put Your Reader in Your Character’s Shoes
Maybe you have a meaningful theme, a thrilling struggle, and intensely personal character problems, but your readers still don’t care. That often happens when you are telling instead of showing what your character feels or why he does what he does.
To put your reader in your character’s shoes, she needs to do more than see what’s happening. She needs to feel your protagonist’s doubt, his hope, his fear. She wants to hear what he hears, smell what he smells, taste what he tastes, feel what he touches and how his body responds to the situation.
Don’t know how to do that? Learn how a human body reacts to these intense feelings. Study why people similar to your characters think and act as they do.
Do you need a degree in anatomy and physiology and one in psychology to put readers in your character’s shoes? Not unless you want to.
Be an observer.
Start with yourself. Record what you feel in which body parts and what you sense (sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing) when you experience intense emotions. Journal interactions between people you watch at the mall, the restaurant, or the public park. Save snippets of other authors’ writings you felt viscerally when you read it. Practice writing variations of those feelings. It will get easier and more intuitive as you practice.
You don’t have to create a good or likeable character. Even if your WIP is an anti-hero story or a horror story, your reader needs to connect to your protagonist or viewpoint character. Look for successful examples in fiction or (cautiously in film and television) Examples like: Sauron, Professor Moriarty, Hannibal Lector, or Shere Khan.
Read each page of your WIP and ask yourself:
Does the character use as many of his five senses as possible on each page? (Hint: five on a page are the ideal.)
What physical feelings are on this page?
What internal reaction is on this page? Or, What emotions are on this page?
Am I using the same senses, physical feelings, or internal reactions over and over, or are they varied and different in intensity?
Your Character Didn’t Earn the Ending.
When you create situations and conflicts that your protagonist does not or cannot solve, the reader will feel your character didn’t earn the victory or the tragedy at the end of the story. Even in a story with an ensemble cast, there has to be at least one member of that team with whom the reader connects on an emotional level.
I get it. You love your characters so much you don’t want to hurt them that badly. That is what Janice Hardy calls “the Nice Writer Syndrome.” That can be deadly to your readers’ interest.
Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.
HELEN KELLER
Throughout your book, your protagonist must make tough choices and do things that he doesn’t want to but feels he must or the antagonist forces him to do. Embarrass him. Set him up to make bold choices that frighten him. Make him fail even when he tries his best. Make him try harder. Create a situation where your protagonist must do something awful, so bad he can’t see a way to redeem himself. Make your character give in to temptation, then make him pay the consequences for his actions. Prey on his weaknesses. Break him. Make him claw back toward redemption. Make him avoid learning or improving until he can’t help but learn. Hint: the lesson learned is the theme of your story.
For most stories, the character’s pain and the way he deals with it are the emotional frame of your story. Your reader recognizes it and relates to it even when your protagonist is a superhero or alien.
One way to increase your character’s pain is to brainstorm different outcomes for each scene.
Ask yourself:
What would he believe is the best possible outcome?
How could that hurt him?
What makes him change his mind?
What challenges the way he thinks right now?
Is what comes next the worst thing he ever imagined could happen?
What would break him?
Do You Need to Hurt Your Protagonist That Much?
Yes. You need to bring your protagonist to the edge of destruction. Bring him to a disaster that has the real potential of breaking him beyond repair. While some genres demand the disaster be a world-ending trauma or event, it doesn’t have to be. But your protagonist needs to think and feel the wrong outcome will destroy his world.
Making a horrible thing happen to your character isn’t enough. Why? Because horrible things happen every day. Horrible things happen to many of us. But none of us are who you’re writing about. You’re writing about someone specific. If the disaster you have planned is equally horrible for any of your characters, you haven’t found the right horrible thing yet. Why does it matter to this character? Root the disaster in your character’s greatest fear, his misbelief. For example, one of T’Challa’s misbeliefs was that his father never failed him. Yet his father killed his brother and orphaned his own nephew, who became “a monster of our own making.”
Every decision your protagonist has made during the story has led him to this moment, to his dilemma. Meaning it’s all his own fault! Without that disaster, without his self-indictment, the reader doesn’t cheer for the character when he finally overcomes the disaster.
Learn to hurt your protagonist in the feels. No, not necessarily a bodily injury or even death. Start with something small but vitally important to him. Dangle it in front of him, then snatch it away. Pretend you’re just teasing until you can take writerly pleasure in torturing your characters.
Having trouble getting to that point?
Here are some questions to ask yourself:
What choice would make your character find it nearly impossible to make?
What forces your character to feel powerless, hopeless, unredeemable, alone?
How does this disaster make the character blame himself for the disaster?
How does it make him face his fear and misbelief?
Parting Thoughts
We humans suffer various degrees of challenges every day. Friedrich Nietzsche said, “To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.” We can say the same of reading fiction. Our readers read to see how story characters react to suffering and what meaning those characters find in their suffering to escape or cope with real life. If you deliver a character journey where the protagonist suffers and survives and finds meaning, your readers will pay to love and hate your characters.
How have you made characters in your WIP suffer and find meaning?
About Lynette
Lynette M. Burrows is an author, a blogger, a creativity advocate, and a Yorkie Wrangler. She writes thrilling science fiction about women who make courageous choices.
Her Fellowship Dystopia series, My Soul to Keep and If I Should Die, takes place in an alternate 1961. Miranda, the daughter of America’s premier preacher-politician, breaks the rules and discovers the world beyond privilege is far darker and more dangerous than she knew. The third book in this trilogy, And When I Wake, will be published in 2024.
Lynette lives in the land of Oz. When she’s not procrastinating by avoiding housework and playing with her dogs, she’s blogging or writing or researching her next book. You can find Lynette online on her website, Facebook, or on Twitter @LynetteMBurrows.
Images displayed in this post were purchased from DepositPhotos.com.
