The topic discussed by MAP Group members at the March
meeting was author websites, which are the most
important book promotion tool for any author. Always make sure your website
address is printed on everything you hand out or mail out, such as press
releases, stationery, business cards, fliers and post cards. You want to drive
traffic toward your website because it is your main information source for
potential book buyers, as well as newspaper and magazine editors who might want to write an article about you.
The basics that all author websites should include are:
- A photo of your book
cover, as well as yourself.
- The sales pitch for your
book that will entice your website visitors to buy.
- Your author “bio”: a few
paragraphs about your background and credentials for writing the book.
- Reviews or reader comments
about your book.
- A schedule of upcoming
events, such as speaking engagements, book signings or workshops and
classes.
- Ordering information:
either a link to an online bookstore like Amazon.com, your own “buy
button”, and/or order-by-mail
instructions.
- A monthly newsletter or weekly tips that make readers want to return to your site.
To
set up your website, the first thing you’ll need to do is register a domain
name (i.e.: YourName.com or YourBook’sName.com) and then decide on a hosting
service. Two sites to check for registering your domain name are:
There
are hundreds of website hosting companies from which to choose. Many of these
also offer to register domain names for you. You can also create a free blog
on-line for your author website with sites like www.blogger.com , which is owned by Google.
The second issue with your website will be making sure that potential
readers can find it. MAP Group member, Neesha Hosein, author of I of the Storm,
stressed the importance of adding “Key Words” to your website, such as your
author name, the name of your book, the topic of your book, the genre of your
book, etc., so when these words are typed into a Search Engine by the general
public, such as Google, your website will appear on the list. Choose these Key Words
carefully, because they can make a big difference in the amount of traffic you
get on your site. 
Gloria Lyons (www.gloriahanderlyons.com)
also mentioned that Search Engines, such as Google, use “web crawlers” to
search websites, so you need to make sure that the Key Words you entered for
your website also appear in the text on your site. Your website also gets
better ranking when it is considered to be “content rich”, with lots of information
related to your subject. Another method to increase your ranking with Search
Engines is to have “Reciprocating Links”. This means that your website includes
a link to a website similar to yours, and that site also includes a link back
to yours. Trading links with other authors in a similar genre can help both of
you increase your web traffic. 
If you have any marketing or
publishing tips to submit to the MAP Group blog, send them to Gloria Lyons: gloria@gloriahanderlyons.com
