Author Website Options

Happy Friday, good people of the blogosphere! Welcome back. If it's your first time here, be sure you poke around. I have tons of tips, tricks, and advice for authors. Today, we'll be talking about website options. I know a lot of you already have a site, so today is about where you might want to go to level up or start anew. We'll also be talking a bit about design, so hang in there with me.

Ready? Grab that notepad and a cup of coffee, and let's dive on in.

We'll start with: Hosting Options

Wix

Wix is the host I use, and I find it simple because it's an add, edit, drag WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor. It can be expensive if you opt for the higher tier packages, but most folks need the Pro plan. That gives you enough storage to upload book cover images and link them unless you have 5k+ books. If you want a shop, it costs more, and if you want an email, that's monthly (they have no way to bill it yearly) on top of the site cost. They have some cool features I really enjoy, like the slider on my homepage. Be sure you catch them on a sale weekend because you can get a whole year for half off.

WordPress

This is one I have zero experience with, but I did try WP one time for my blog, and I found all the little apps and buttons crazy confusing. That being said, I do know several people who have beautiful WP sites, and the prices are fantastic. Not a ton of storage space, but there again, do you have 5k+ books? No.

GoDaddy

I've used their builder in the past for clients, and it's similar to the one on the Wix platform. Their prices go up fast depending on what you want and if you're a renewing customer though, so keep that in mind. It's extra for a custom domain (like anywhere else), but their basic plan includes a website chat that syncs with your inbox. That's pretty cool!

SquareSpace

I've built a site here, and their interface is complicated, IMO. It's not the drag-and-drop editor most sites give you, but the pricing seems pretty fair, and from what I hear from others (don't quote me on this), they do a bit of advertising on your behalf. I believe that's only about a Google rank, but I'm not sure. I didn't end up moving forward with them because of the interface, but their pricing isn't terrible if you pay by the year. Something to consider.

Author Websites by BookBub

This is NEW. Now, because I'm me, I'm all about being able to brand myself as I'd like to. I did dive in and check it out because that's what I do, but I did find a few issues in the beta version: I could NOT get it to load all my books OR allow me to highlight more than one on the homepage. Their editor is clunky and hard to figure out right now. Do I see a lot of promise with upcoming features? Yes, I do. Price wise, they're amazing, but I believe that's because it's still in beta. I've been giving them feedback on my experience, so I'm hoping they take it and run with it. It's free to try, so if you're looking for something new, check it out.

Now we'll dive into: Design

First of all, you need to brand yourself with colors and an icon of some kind. This can be a logo, a wordmark, or a lettermark, but it needs to be consistent across all of your everything. When you stumble upon me elsewhere on the web, you'll know it's authentic because of my color scheme and look and feel. Any host that won't allow me to customize that is off my list right away. You can think about how you want to do that by reading my free PDF. You can download and print it from here.

Keep it clean and consistent. Assure people know they've gotten the real you when they come upon your page.

There's a second section in that PDF that goes over websites. It tells you everything you need to know, but if you don't feel like wading through the other stuff, I also posted about it here.

Because of course I did. :)

Printing it, however, will give you somewhere to write down all your observations as you go through the process.

Did you learn anything from this post? I strive to bring you all the most relevant, up-to-date information I can, so I hope I'm doing a good job!

Thanks for reading, and if you find yourself interested in all the stuff I do here, visit my Linktr.ee to follow me on socials. I do try to always share my posts there.

Well, that's all for today, folks!

Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Bookish Gifts, Merch Trends, and the Rise of the Sprayed Edge

Howdy, y'all! Welcome back to the blog on this nasty, rainy Wednesday. It's kinda chilly here in Georgia (soon to be Florida!), and I'm hating on it hard. I love warm weather and warm rain, and I despise the cold. Yuck. Anywhooooooo... Today, we're talking about things. All the newfangled bookish gifts, merchandise, and how the sprayed edge has taken over the special edition. Why that last one? Because I feel like it goes with the others like mushy peas go with fried fish.

So, grab something awesome and warm to drink, strap in, get those mouse fingers warmed up to scroll, and let's get to it already!

***NOTE: Nothing here is an affiliate link. We don't do that on this blog. I may add a donation button at some point, but I'm still thinking it over. WDYT?

First up: Bookish Gifts

There are a ton of bookish items on shelves nowadays, and I feel, with all the books by Hoover now being made into movies, the stock and options therein have exploded. Let's look at a few I happen to just love.

Storiarts is a super cool site that offers book-themed merchandise at a nice cost. Link here. They have fingerless gloves (I own the ones with lines from The Raven on them), scarves, tees, headbands (I have one of those, too), baby stuff, blankets... There's too much to list here, but all are quality. I've given them as gifts, too.

Of course, there's always the bookish things on Amazon, but CafePress is amazing if you're an author who wants to create their own gear. Link here. Before they got serious about their licensing abilities, I made an Emancipation Monopoly game there. It was hella cool. Kinda wish I'd kept one. hahaha 

Anyway, dive on in and see what you can make! These would be awesome gifts, and there's a wide array of stuff to customize. Wouldn't you love to be wrapped in Tobias's face at the beach? *evil grin*

Next: Merch Trends

This revolves around influencers, mostly. I don't know if you're up to speed on this, but a lot of times, new release ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) are being sent with items around the book's theme. Historically, we sent ARCs for reviews, but now, it's become the norm to send items alongside to help the promoter do his/her/their job.

This also includes coloring books, which we did with our War and Pieces ~ Frayed Fairy Tales series. Feel free to download, print, and color this one. :)

Is this a good idea in this new world we find ourselves in? Well, I will say that several of the items sent cause quite a bit of discussion to start, so maybe it's genius.

On the other hand, when you have a book like Emancipation, what the hell do you send? Rope, Duct tape, and perfume that smells of murder? I'm not sure that would go over so well... I may be wrong, of course, but it seems to me this would make romance, sci-fi, and contemporary a much easier sell. 

Thoughts?

Last: The Rise of the Sprayed Edge

You can find a TON of books with sprayed edges over on Etsy. Link here. Some of them are mouthwateringly beautiful, and some have custom covers rather than sprayed edges.

I see special editions in the bookstores all the time, and if there's a decorative edge, I'm all over it (usually only if I don't already have it, but there are a FEW exceptions). I also may, or may not, have a few pretties of titles I already owned because they came out with a special one that made me swoon. Lightlark was one of those. haha I mean, have you seen it? It's gorgeous. No clue if it has sprayed edges because I haven't removed it from the box. Yet. :) Hey, I'm waiting on my library to be finished, okay?

All that being said, I have a theory on why the sprayed edge became a thing. Wanna hear it? I know you do! I'm gonna tell you anyway. :P

You know all those designers that put the books on the shelf so the spines are to the wall so there's this weird, white, lined aesthetic when you look at it?

I know you can see where I'm going with this.

I think this is what started the sprayed-edge craze. No one wants their book on a shelf so the title is hidden. Not only is it terrible for the book (they're meant to be taken off the shelf by the spine), but it crushes all advertisement for the title. Do you browse someone's bookshelf at their house to see the white edges of the pages? No. You do it to see what titles they're reading and if you might want to read any of their stuff. Plus, hours are spent agonizing over the cover and assuring series are numbered correctly on the spines.

Enter the sprayed edge. It's like a huge screw you to those designers. hahaha! I love it.

What do you think? Have you come across unique bookish gifts, to-die-for merch, or a sprayed edge that knocks all others out of the park? Tell me about it!

I hope this post was educational and fun for you all. My fingers are starting to hurt from all this typing, so I'm gonna go! Thanks for reading. :)

Well, that's all for today, folks!

Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo