For the first part of this series on authors, author sites and author blogging, go here first.
When approaching an author site, what I find least interesting is a sort of bland, safe, risk-free aesthetic, a headshot with links and the sense that I’ve been handed a corporate resume. It just looks like you didn’t try. Just because Apple assures you can do the site yourself doesn’t mean you should (unless you do know or have time to learn how to do these things). If you’re not interested in a web design sideline, set aside part of that advance and make yourself a site with a professional’s help. And with that person, make something that’s fun for you and your reader at the same time. What I want as a reader is to be, well, fascinated. And with fiction in particular, I don’t want to see the writer’s face first—I want to see something else. I believe that writers of fiction are people who are deeply uninterested in themselves and are much more interested in other people. I think readers of fiction are people anxious to be transported, taken away from the world they know. The best sites understand that yes, of course, something of the author’s personality is involved in making the sale, but they do not make it like a facile job ad or personal ad. Unless of course, it is somehow hilarious and satirical.
Some more of my favorite author sites, that I found instructive also:
- Samantha Hunt’s site allows you to move through information about her two novels in a way that is visually engaging and clear at the same time.
- Porochista Khakpour’s site is a matchbox, a visual pun on her debut novel, Sons and Other Flammable Objects.
- Ed Park’s site is constructed like you’re seeing into his inbox.
- Hugh Ryan’s is blog-like and personal, but is in actuality a series of lead paragraphs to his publications online.




