Standard Pages for A Fiction Website | Author Media | Growing Your Platform Online

by 

Shaney Lee

on 

July 30, 2013

Are you a fiction writer building your own site? If so, this post is for you.

Through our experience in working with dozens of fiction authors, these are the pages that we’ve found every fiction website needs.

1. Home

This is your landing page, the first page your visitors will see when they navigate to your website. Therefore, you will want your home page to make it clear who you are and what you write. Don’t make your visitors guess.

Your home page will set the tone for the rest of the website, so focus on easy-to-understand navigation, clear calls to action, and a design that reflects who you are as a writer. Your book(s) should be featured prominently.

Many writers also opt to have their blog on their home page, which is perfectly acceptable. You can also choose to keep your blog on a separate page.

2. About

This is your bio section. Don’t get too bogged down talking about all the minute details of your life story; that will get monotonous rather quickly. Instead, focus on hitting the highlights of your life, especially those that pertain to why you started writing or where you get inspiration for your books.

Choose a professional headshot for this page.


Read the rest of the article here. There is much more!


-CYM

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Launch of a Novice Fiction Writer’s Path

I am pleased to report that I have been writing thrillers for almost 20 years. It began with a daughter studying at Oxford and having to write a novel in a tutorial. She picked out an event that actually happened to us on a train ride through Switzerland. There were a few places where she needed some additional life experience to fill in blanks in the story. I became hooked.

Over the years, I have written 4 manuscripts. I never submitted them to anybody. Just  enjoyed the process of writing. I have spent almost 40 years writing professional international taxation books from prominent publishing houses. I naively hoped that success as a non-fiction writer would make climbing the fiction ladder a simple process.

 Wrong!

My sweetheart read the manuscripts and suggested that they had potential. I chose one that I thought would have appeal to readers. Since I knew nothing about the fiction publishing business and heard horror stories about authors who lose their rights to bankrupt or unethical publishers, I decided to self-publish that first book, which became Riddle of Berlin in 2008. Reviews have been generally positive. Through the social media process, sales continue at a pace to indicate that there may be potential in my stories.

Beginning about years three ago, I became serious in wanting to improve my writing and fiction marketing skills. I took an Author Buzz course from MJ Rose on developing a marketing plan. In the course of working with MJ, she suggested that my manuscript for Dust Scenario had potential. She suggested that I engage a skilled developmental editor, which is an expert on framing manuscripts to be successful thrillers. 

I then engaged a wonderful editor. She advised that her comments would be detailed if she thought the story had potential, minimal if she had little interest. I received 26 single-spaced pages of comments. I took this as a positive sign. It has taken me almost 18 months to revise the text in line with these comments.

When the development process had run its course, the editor suggested that I needed to engage a line editor to review for syntax, punctuation, style, and what not. I am in that process now.

I have now completed the manuscript for Dust Scenario. In essence, it is the story of a woman’s war after her husband has been murdered, children kidnapped, and told to be quiet. He was a Super Bowl champion quarterback, then Wall Street success, and Secretary of Treasury when his plane crashed into an iceberg with polar bears. To recover her family, Jaspar must become a warrior doing things that would have been inconceivable in her prior life.

I will post a synopsis shortly as I commence the “line editor” process.

Warms, Cym

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How to Get a Book Published: A Step-by-Step Guide...

Anne R. Allen's Blog

...WITH RUTH HARRIS

How To Get a Book Published: A Step-by-Step Guide with Links to FREE Information for the New Author

"The Interwebz can provide a wealth of information for new writers. In fact you can find pretty much everything you need to know to become a professional, publishing writer here on the Web, absolutely free.

But you'll also find a bunch of time-wasting bad advice that can lead you astray. When you’re a beginner, it’s hard to know who to listen to.

We decided we'd devote a page on the blog to some info for the writer looking to know the basics about how to get published. Thanks much to Janice Konstantinidis, the webmaster of the SLO Nightwriters for the suggestion!

This is not meant to be a comprehensive list: just a jumping-off place...."

Click for the rest of this informative article with links to FREE Information for the New Author.


-CYM

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Publish on Amazon Only? One Author's Perspective from Bookpromotion.com

News and tools for book promotion and marketing

Publish on Amazon Only? One Author’s Perspective
BY LORI CULWELL

OK, now that you know a little about getting the KDP process started, I want to give you a little perspective on authors who choose to publish there exclusively.   At BEA this year, Guy Kawasaki said that he is doing this, and encouraged authors to stick with Amazon exclusively.  This is not a strategy I personally employ, but I wanted to get the perspective of some who does (and does so successfully!).  So, today I asked one of our contributors here at BookPromotion.com, Rachel Thompson, about why she chooses to do just that.

Here’s Rachel, talking about her choice to have her work available only on Amazon: LINK

-CYM

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Should You Self-Publish? 15 Questions

From Orna Ross on Jane Friedman's blog via The Passive Voice:

Self-publishing is not for every writer. In order to succeed, you need to have or develop specific traits, along with certain ways of approaching the publication of a book. Consider the following questions.

1. Are you positive and proactive?

Many writers wait for permission from an agent or publisher to say they are fit for publication—or for a PR campaign to explain why somebody should buy their book. The flip side of this passivity is chronic complaint syndrome: writers moaning about the vagaries of agents or publishers, about the death of bookstores, the dominance of Amazon, etc.

Not independent authors. You must take responsibility for the risks, as well as the rewards, of publishing your own work.

2. Are you brave?

Risk is the core activity of self-publishing. You must risk time on ideas, promotions, or concepts that may come to naught. You must risk money to pay for editorial and design upfront. You must also risk, in some circles, reputation. Family, friends, and many others may see self-publishing as a second-best option. Independent authors must put themselves out there twice over, once in the writing, again in the publishing.

Link to the rest at Jane Friedman's Blog.


-CYM

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Should You Self-Publish? 15 Questions #janefriedman #ornaross #selfpublish

This great article is from Jane Friedman's blog. 

Are you self-publishing?

Should You Self-Publish? 15 Questions

By Orna Ross

Self-publishing is not for every writer. In order to succeed, you need to have or develop specific traits, along with certain ways of approaching the publication of a book. Consider the following questions.

1. Are you positive and proactive?

Many writers wait for permission from an agent or publisher to say they are fit for publication—or for a PR campaign to explain why somebody should buy their book. The flip side of this passivity is chronic complaint syndrome: writers moaning about the vagaries of agents or publishers, about the death of bookstores, the dominance of Amazon, etc.

Not independent authors. You must take responsibility for the risks, as well as the rewards, of publishing your own work.

2. Are you brave?

Risk is the core activity of self-publishing. You must risk time on ideas, promotions, or concepts that may come to naught. You must risk money to pay for editorial and design upfront. You must also risk, in some circles, reputation. Family, friends, and many others may see self-publishing as a second-best option. Independent authors must put themselves out there twice over, once in the writing, again in the publishing.

3. Are you hardworking?

If there’s one quality that all successful independent authors have in common, this is it. You must be full of energy and commitment, not only to your writing but to educating yourself about all aspects of craft, editing, design, and promotion. You must recognize opportunities and make the most of them, without derailing your writing, the engine of it all.

4. Are you entrepreneurial?

Read the rest HERE.

-CYM

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Virginia Pye, First Time Novelist, on Writing, Writers Conferences, & How to Get Your Book Published

Virginia Pye, First Time Novelist, on Writing, Writers Conferences, and How to Get Your Book Published

David Henry Sterry

      Author, activist, performer,  muckraker, book doctor

We first met Virginia Pye at the James River Writers Conference, one of the best writers conferences in America. If you're a writer, do yourself a favor, get yourself to Richmond, Virginia and go to this conference. It's filled with warm, generous, talented writers, editors and agents. When we first met Virginia Pye three years ago, she'd been writing and rewriting a novel for a very long time. It's always exciting when you see a dedicated, talented writer who keeps evolving and changing and working, then finally gets their novel published, and actually gets lauded for it. So we thought we would check in with her to see exactly how it all happened.

Read the rest of the article here.




A good read. Enjoy-
CYM

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Self-Publishing is for Control Freaks

Self-Publishing Is For Control Freaks

Jeremy Greenfield, Contributor, Forbes

I write about e-books and digital publishing

Holly Ward is the third self-published author to hit No. 1 on the DBW Ebook Best-Seller list in 2013, an incredible achievement considering that her title, Damaged, is up against big books from major publishers and established authors. For instance, the No. 3 book this week is the new Nora Roberts title from Penguin, Whiskey Beach. It’s a book that in years past would be almost guaranteed to shoot to No. 1 in its debut week.

Unlike the other self-published authors to hit No. 1 this year — Jennifer L. Armentrout and Rachel Van Dyken — Ward, who writes under the name H.M. Ward as well as Ella Steele, never published a book with a traditional publisher. She never gained the experience of what it takes to bring a book to market and make it successful from a secondary source — she’s self-taught.

Continue here.

-CYM

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A New Year

(credit)

These are my thoughts for the New Year, not necessarily resolutions, but some working thoughts to help guide me in 2011.

1. E-Publishing. Amazon Create Space is the way forward for Dust Scenario. Maybe also to put Riddle of Berlin there (in addition to iUniverse, which is a dead end I have decided vs. Amazon which has the market clout).

Just watching Miss Dale download books is convincing about the potential of offering $ 2.99 or free downloads.

2. E-Marketing.  In addition to Amazon Create Space for Dust Scenario,  I need to devise a marketing plan, including how to get cover art done. I paid the designer about $ 5,000 for the covers done to date. I think the covers are too complex. We should explore the Create Space approach or the designer that Joe Konrath suggests, Carl Graves.

It will take time for me to devise a marketing promotional campaign on the internet, as well as beginning to attend meetings where on-line marketers gather.

3. Agent and Standard Publishing. I still think we should pursue AgentFest and contact other agents that come across our sights using the manuscript 30,000 Camels. I have re-written much of Harvest of Gold, but it needs serious attention to make it far more riveting. I need to cut about 60,000 words to get to 100,000.


Happy New Years-
Cym

Dust Scenario
Riddle of Berlin
30,000 Camels
Harvest of Gold

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On Writing Fiction and a Request for Your Thoughts

In our travels in these weeks, I have thought about writing fiction. I suspect that all of you do as well, or you would not be interested in book review blogs.

I have been writing thrillers for about 15 years now. Initially, with my daughter Whitney when she studied at Oxford. We finished that work into a novel entitled The Phoenix Scenario. It involved a young woman struggling to be a lawyer married to a long estranged assassin; her boss is kidnapped by the German Fourth Reich which was ready to emerge and try again as the political pendulum in Europe swings to the right; he, and she, knew too much; Europe and the free world are imperiled by a form of evil that could not be imagined to establish defenses.

I then wrote Harvest of Gold, which involves a woman who is the beneficiary of a trust holding the long lost “Jewish Gold.” She leads life in a small East Texas lake community, which, unbeknownst to her, has been prepared for military assault as the trust comes to an end in 2000. She has spent a lifetime wondering who she is. Surrounded by death and kidnapping of her family, Molly solves the mysteries of her life as her side is branded enemies subject to attack by the U.S. military. I believe it is ready for publication. Agents have expressed interest in this story, but it has not yet been sold.

I wrote a manuscript entitled Everyman, which this title was used by Thomas Wolfe a few years ago so I had to find another, The Riddle of Berlin. I self-published this one in 2008. The story is set in Paris and along the Danube River. It has received interesting reviews, averaging about 3.5 on a 5.0 scale. As always, I learn from each review.

30,000 Camels is a sequel to The Riddle of Berlin. One of the heroes, a Vice President in the prior book, Lucius Alcorn, becomes President 10 years in the future. He has made the United Nations the only serious military force in the world and there is war with Iran. The bad guys discover that Alcorn has a daughter that even he was not aware of (and interesting story in itself), who they kidnap. Alcorn must address how to care for his personal interests (his daughter) as he undertakes his public responsibilities as leader of the world. The story is set Washington and Israel.

Most recently, I wrote The Dust Scenario involving a woman who has the secrets of the economic collapse of the past few years and is hunted by governments not wanting the truth to be revealed. She is aided by an assassin. The story is set in Rome and Tuscany. At the ThrillerFest in July 2010, I hoped to find an agent interested in this book. So far, nothing concrete.

I have also begun two other stories. One could be entitled My Child, which is story about a russian adopted boy living happily in America when a Russian mobster determines that the child is biologically his and will stop at nothing to obtain the boy.  My wonderful blogger, Beachbrights, and I have been working on this one. Lastly, one of my last novels could be Dad on the Shelf, which is a story about my feelings for my father. His ashes are still on the shelf.

As I have thought about all of this, I know that I love the process of writing and improving my skills. Each discussion group, agent discussion, reviews, and other event adds to my knowledge base. I am avid, persistent student. While commercial success has not yet arrived, enjoyment has been a bountiful harvest. I love it!

On the other hand, each dead end is frustrating. When hopes are dashed, it is only human to wonder if the cake is worth the candle. Should I give up? I always end up smiling at this, knowing that persistence will pay off, as it always has.

My question to myself is simple: how shall I proceed?

All of the reviews that we have published in the blog, and other places, have been instructive. I find that I enjoy the most reading books addressing emotion and life, and the least stories full of gruesome murder, violence, or seemingly endless chases with characters that seem flat as boards. I think of myself as a thriller writer. In each of the stories I have written, I know that I have tried to blend a thrilling story with characters having emotional issues that each of us face in our lives. I have thought that this makes the stories real, not escapist (like James Bond stories, to me at least). Some writers are able to do both, write a thrilling story with characters that are real. I have found this in Lon Land’s books about Kaitlin Strong, which I have reviewed.

I sometimes wonder if I bite off too much. Perhaps, I would be best advised to either write emotional stories or thrillers and not both. Hmmmm?

As I look out over the ocean from this lovely perch on the cliffs of Amalfi, I know what my path should be:

• Keep writing, reading, and reviewing.

• Seek an agent who is excited about my work and investing time and effort.

• Find a suitable self-publishing venue to get the stories out there.

~I know that many of you face these same questions. I would be fascinated with your thoughts~

Warms, Cym

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