I wrote before about author bios and a need to have one. If people like who you are, they are more likely to purchase your book. But can they get all that from a bio?
"Hi, I'm Sonja from Pennsylvania and I write books with my dog."
I know, it's not my real bio, but does it capture your attention? Not really. I could embellish it and make it more interesting but...
But that would require someone to invest their TIME and I'm not sure a paragraph or short story about you, the author, will invite them to look further into your creative endeavors.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words and I agree. Think of your website landing page as a photo. What will someone passing by remember about you from seeing it. Let's look at a few famous authors and their sites. Which ones do you like?
Google your favoirte authors and view their websites. Be critical about what you do and don't like, then emulate that on your own website. Chances are you'll be copying genre specific "looks" without even realizing it.
This one catches my attention because of the color and the big text with the bomb.
I found Stephen King's website to be under-whleming. I was thinking we'd see horror pics, maybe Carrie dripping blood in a corner. ha ha ha
Debbie MaComber's site is just like her books. Muted colors in the background but a definite theme to the page which will tell you what's in her book.
I like John Grisham's landing page. It's simple, it shows he's a prolific author with the books in the background, he has a great portrait image, and he announces his newest book.
J.K. Rowling's landing page, at first, the beads and string, and little angel made me think it was a crafting page or one of those "Find the objects" photos. But I guess if you are that famous, it wouldn't matter.
I am so disappointed in this website landing page for Danielle Steel. It looks like a Wordpress blog and no effort was put into it to make it look inviting. I certainly don't want to be reading all that the minute I see it?
The landing page of Nora Roberts is a bit better. The colors are inviting, you can clearly see it's about a book, but there is so much wasted space in the white sections below the header photo.
Of course, the next one is my favorite. I took a cue from Janet above.
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