Kerry Allen

I have laboriously collected from the internet a list of reader advice for creating an effective author web site. I have tried to implement as many of these qualities as possible into my beta site. Feel free to visit anytime and find fault. Anything that can be improved (broken links, poor visibility, tooooooo slooooooow, whatever) before it becomes important is a good thing.

Following is the reader advice I have collected. If you have additional suggestions, please share them in the comments section.

Technical

• Searchable plain text. At the top of the page, something like “This is the official web site of romance author Kerry Allen” not only makes sure the reader knows what she’s looking at but helps search engines locate the site.
• Ease of navigation. I assume this means links are obvious in meaning and readily accessible from every page.
• Keep it narrow. Not everyone has a wide monitor, and having to constantly scroll from side to side is too much of a hassle to bother with. If you must go wider, put the link sidebar to the right so it’s the only thing cut off and requiring scrolling to see.
• Update regularly. Always have the most current info about new and upcoming releases. Blog at least twice a month. New “bonus” material every month or so.
• Google Analytics. Less obnoxious and more informative than a hit counter, runs in background, and free. Keeps track of what links are active, where visitors are located, etc.

Appearance

• Dark print on a light background
• Solid color background or minimal design
• No funny fonts (difficult to read)
• One font (too many look sloppy)
• No tiny fonts (also difficult to read)
• No flash (animation is distracting and slows loading)
• No splash page (get visitors right to the meat of your site, no introduction necessary)
• Links neatly arranged in a sidebar
• Most recent available book (all info) featured on home page

Page suggestions

• Biography. Picture often encouraged. (Tough luck!)
• Book list. Call it a Bibliography if you want, but don’t put the link right next to Biography. Section should include cover shot, release date (and reprint date if applicable), publisher, retail price, ISBN, description, excerpt, reviews, quotes, links to sellers. If part of a series, make chronology clear. Provide a printable list for taking to the bookstore. Make the most of this page in particular! Don’t show a bunch of covers and expect the reader to click one to get that book’s info, then go back and click on another one to find out about that book, etc. A lengthy excerpt can be opened with a click, but everything else should be right there.
• Excerpts. Make them substantial, 2-3 chapters, 50 pages.
• Event calendar. Include book release dates, guest blogging appearances, interviews, book signings, anywhere you’ll be in person, on the web, or in print.
• Contact. E-mail, mailing list signup, RSS feed.
• Blog.
• Contests. Everybody likes to win free stuff.
• FAQ.
• Trivia. Commentary on inspiration for story, deleted scenes, foreign covers, interesting research, mention works in progress to whet the appetite for future releases and get the buzz started early.
• Links. Sites you think READERS might be interested in.

Known issue: Most open-this-document documents are in .rtf because they were hastily thrown together for demo purposes on the Vista computer, on which WordPerfect doesn’t work, necessitating the use of Word, which will not save to a .pdf file as WordPerfect will. That’s an easy fix when I have some free time.

The lack of amazing content in said documents is no accident. I just wanted something to click on for link-testing purposes. By the time I get around to converting to .pdf files, they’ll look a little more interesting.

Known issue: The excerpt has some bizarre font error and flips between Times and a sans serif font. It’s readable, but incredibly annoying. When I figure out the problem, I’ll rectify it.

Known issue: Loading is choppy. This is the result of “selecting all” and “pasting” onto a template page, so everything was assigned to the same layer. When I get all other kinks ironed out, I will reform the template page with the proper layers. There’s not much point until then because if I have to copy and paste again (which I probably will), the same thing will happen, and it’s too tedious of a fix to do with every revision.