I think having a website is the single most important thing an author can do to connect with the greatest number of readers. Is there anyone who isn’t on the worldwide web these days besides my stubborn father who refuses to be bothered with technology? Unless you are living in a hut in the desert, you use the internet to look things up, and most of us, I think, have an expectation that any viable business will maintain a website. Writing is a viable business.

Using a website to promote your writing is easy to do. Readers who like your book and want to know more will go online to find out a couple of things: what else have you written, and when is your next book coming out. I keep book covers on my home page, so even if a reader doesn’t remember the title or publication month, they might remember the cover. 

The trick is to keep readers coming back to your website. To do that, you have to have something than a book out once a year. A lot of authors use contests. I have never done that for two reasons. 

First, I always give books away through online bookstores and online reader communities. Second, I do not have the personal time to maintain the contest and readers lists. A really happening website is a lot of work. But if I impart nothing else in this interview, I would like to impart that the most important thing you can do to promote you and your work is to write a killer book. Readers will not bother to look you up on the web if you do not write a good book. The product is always your number one priority, and a website with every bell and whistle can really suck you in, demanding a lot of time. I envy authors that can do it all. I can’t even figure out how to set up a website, much less maintain it. Fortunately for me, there are a lot of affordable web designers out there.

I do have one bell, however, and that is the blog. I like to blog because it gets my juices going for the day. It warms my fingers up, and I can check the wit-meter before starting work. Is the wit firing on all cylinders? Pretty lame today? Should I crawl back into bed and hope a nap will fix things?

A lot of authors will blog about writing and what is happening in their writing career. I blog about everything but that. Honestly, I have never figured out the writing process and I don’t have much to say about it that hasn’t been said a million times better on a million different sites. And I don’t think that most of the world cares if I got a copy-edited manuscript in the mail that day, or if my editor loved the first draft.

I blog about things that bug me, or things that amuse me, like reality TV and pedometers and shoes and dogs. Now please don’t misunderstand—I do not for one moment believe the world cares what I think about reality TV or pedometers or shoes or dogs, but those things are fun to write about, and hey, it’s my blog. I also have invited two author friends to blog with me. That way, the burden for posting every day is reduced, because they are blabbermouths like me, and of course, three people provides different perspectives on a wide range of important topics, such as who should be voted off American Idol that week.

And okay, I do blog when I have a book coming out. Like I said earlier, I’m not a total idiot. Just half. My blog is tied to my website, but you can check it out here: http://julialondon.blogspot.com.

To website or not to website? My advice is that if you do nothing else to promote you or your book, do the website. It is the most cost effective way to reach the greatest number of potential readers.

Julia London -2 (Continue)