Happy Hump Day! This week we get to ask you wonderful readers our burning questions! I'm so excited about this feedback day because I truly want to see input from a whole bunch of you this week. Please, please, if you can spare a few minutes, leave your thoughts/ideas/opinions in the comment section. I'm so curious!
About author websites...
I'm currently revamping my website and will be having a "grand re-opening" of it soon, so your feedback here is important info!
1.) Do you visit author websites?
1a.) If so, what are you looking for?
2.) What do you want/expect to find?
3.) What do you NOT want to find?
4.) Do you visit any author's websites regularly?
4a.) If so, what keeps you coming back?
About that book of faces...
Facebook is constantly updating itself, and changing the parameters of what automatically goes into your feed. (Grrrr!) I can't keep up!!!
5.) Do you prefer to friend your favorite authors or do you prefer to 'like' their fan page?
6.) Do you know what the difference is? (If so...tell me please. I have both and kinda hate having to post things twice....and if you're a friend and a fan and a follower of the Word-Whores Facebook, I assume you get tired of seeing it all thrice. But I want to cover all bases, yanno?)
Which leads to...
7.) Do you ever get aggravated with the pimpage of books/interviews/blog notices/signings, or rather, where do you draw the line between "useful information provided" and "wow, this author is a total douche bag hogging up my feed."
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Here you go!
ReplyDelete1. Yes.
1a. Book lists or events where I can find the author.
2. See 1a
3. Flashy, movable images. Sound/music. I like websites to be quiet and flash-free.
4. No.
5. Friend
6. Yes. Friends are 2-way. Likes are 1-way.
7. Yes. I tend to ignore them.
Yes! When I find an author I love I immediately look them up online and try find their website. This is usually the best place to find their backlist, upcoming releases and what they have planned. And fun stuff, the more you know about an author the more you like them and want to support them.
ReplyDeleteAuthors sites that I continually go back to have blogs attached to them, fun stuff to read or updates on their next book.
Ah Facebook, I admit I am not a very savvy user but I prefer to friend someone rather than just like their page. If I friend someone I am looking for fun posts, book updates too but here more so just getting to know them and what books they are reading (Goodreads is good for that). The authors that only post things about their books/releases...boring, and I will stop looking at their stuff.
1.) Yes
ReplyDelete1a.) What books the author has written and what the author might be working on
2.) the above info + links where I can find/buy the book
3.) cluttered websites and fancy stuff that make it hard to navigate the site
4.) yes
4a.) a regularly updated news page or blog attached to the site
5.) friend
6.) friend = interaction + shows up on my facebook homepage. Liked pages i often have to actively hunt down or add to my alerts to see if anything gets posted. I don't like setting them to alerts, because that clutters my alert page.
7.) If an author pimps reviews, events etc a couple of times I don't mind and even appreciate it. reposting the same snippet/promo/whatever day after day, week after week gets you booted off my twitter feed/etc...
Thank you Stacy, Alexia, and Sullivan! (And Amanda who commented via FB because blogger was being uncooperative!)
ReplyDeleteI guess I was hoping to hear that I could can my fan page and just work from the regular friend page, but some folks want to like a fan page without the interaction option. So. I guess I will plan to keep it and post things 2x.
I've also tried to keep the website small, 3 pages, with all the basic stuff in an easy to find manner. Hadn't thought to have a blog attached to the website. I've found that when I go to a "site" that has a blog, I get stuck in the blog and don't seem to find a site to find info in. But that could just be non-techy me interacting with actual tech-savvy stuff. :)
1. Only a few, Terry Goodkind, George R.R. Martin, Charlainne Harris.
Deletea. Upcoming books, previews, and news. No longer visit CH because Sookie series is complete. Anxious for next Martin book. Terry's site is basically where you get the most news about him.
2. See a.
3. The same stuff all the time. Keep it updated, blogs etc.
4. Only occassionally unless looking for new book news.
5. You are the only one I have friended, but one thing I don't like about liking is that often they don't let you post a message or question, which makes them more inaccessable than hollywood celebs, and frankly our books mean more to us.
6. Yes, know the difference, and you have helped me twice by being able to message you, once with the Greek Tarot, and once with that Moussaka recipe, both mentioned in your books. Thank you btw.
7. Not really, its easy to scroll past stuff you have already seen or don't want to bother with. It's better than not getting any news, or even personality quirks that show in the posts, makes you less clinical, and more real.
And an author's work is never done...
Delete:)
Times 2 baby!
1.Yes, I visit author websites. I love learning about authors, their works, giveaways, Street Teams, and everything else. It would be great if I could find everything on ONE site, rather than having to go to 8 million sites to find it. I don't mind talking to "my" authors on FB, as well, it's simply if I'm looking for info about an author, it makes sense to have it on the website.
ReplyDelete2.I think I answered this above.
3. I don't expect to find stuff about OTHER authors, other website I need to follow, other places I need to look, etc. Anything an author wants to put on his/her website, I'm happy to read, unless it's recruitments for religious purposes. Then, bye-bye.
4. I visit several authors' websites. Usually it's to read about works in progress or for simple giveaways (not for complicated, fill out 200 things to get something giveaways), find out about new releases, etc.
5. I both "friend" and "like" authors. For those who actually want me to review their books or help them with promos, work on Street Teams, etc., it's necessary to "friend" or we can't actually talk with one another. It seems more practical to just "friend" in the first place. I understand that authors probably have a lot of nuts "friending" them, though.
6. Some authors get carried away with book-pimping, I suppose, but if I had a book out, I'd probably wear pasties and a mesh triangle and tap dance on tables if I thought it would help sell books, so I don't get offended. If I've subscribed to receive info from an author, it's almost always an author I like, so I like hearing about what's happening. Every once in a while I'll make a mistake and hit a wrong button. I can always unsubscribe. There's no excuse for people being annoyed.
Somehow I've managed to mis-number, so I apologize. I hope I've provided helpful information. Thanks for caring enough to ask us.
1. No
ReplyDelete2. Usually I see the author pimping themselves & for me, it doesn't sell the book.
3. I expect to find info on the book & the author, a lot of times I get too much info on the author & what they're doing and not enough info on the book. Thus the reason I don't go to them anymore. Or rarely.
4. No.
5. Friend
6. Yes.
7. Yes. Unless they're friends, I tend to ignore them.
as a reviewer/reader here is my checklist of what a good author website should have. At one point a few of us bloggers were going to do author site reviews and this was my checklist:
ReplyDeleteDid the site come up when the author’s name was searched in Google?
Is the site easy to navigate?
Does the author offer bio information?
Is there a way to contact the author?
Does the author offer a newsletter?
Does the author have a blog and can you access it easily from the site?
Is the site up to date with current released books?
Book cover and blurb by each book?
Buy link for each released book?
Does the author have their series in order and is it easy to understand?
Is there a printable book list?
Does the author offer any book excerpts or free chapters?
Does the author have upcoming events, signings, and releases?
Is the blog updated?
I think an author should have a official author website and a separate blog site, but they need to be clearly linked together. The author site should be professional and clean looking and where people can quickly get any book/bio/links. The blog would be where readers can connect with the author and the author can show their personality. A more casual style.
I visit author sites/blogs to get book info. I sign up for newsletters (I feel these are the most useful things an author can do) if I want to keep up with the author.
I friend authors I have a report with either personally or professionally. Fan pages are where I expect to find release info, snippets, contests, promotion of the author's friends stuff. If an author had a personal and fan page then it would be better to keep the two somewhat separate. If they only have one page then I expect it to have promotion and personal. If readers don't want the double info then they need to unfollow one of the pages. If you friend or like an author you are going to get promotional posts. Readers have to know that and I don't understand why they would complain about it.
I don't mind over promotion on their walls. It is when they start sending invitations everyday that I get a little peeved. An author should post the link to anything they have going on that day. And then a reminder when the event is about to end. Make the post clear and concise because readers will want to share it on their wall, which is what you want :)