Today’s tip is helpful at the very beginning stages of dreaming of writing, or of actually writing, a book. Unless you are fortunate enough to own your name as a dot com URL (nope, beckyrobinson.com is not me), and unless you plan to have one author website for multiple books, you may want to have a dedicated website for each book you plan to write.
Your website is your home online, the center of your social media strategy. So as you begin to plan for writing/publishing books, you’ll want to think strategically about how you want to position yourself online for marketing your books. I’ve worked with authors who develop new web properties for every book they publish, and I’ve worked with others who choose to centralize their web presence to one website — and they they use the one website as a hub for all their books, with separate web pages for each book.
It’s a question of time, energy, attention — and money.
Do you have time, energy, and focus to create content for and market multiple websites?
Do you have money to develop and host multiple websites?
Do you view a website (and the marketing for each book) as forever investments? Or would you develop and provide content to a website for a limited amount of time during a book promotion?
If you do not own a URL or if you envision a different website for each book you write, one of the first things you’ll want to do when you think of a book idea is rush to your favorite hosting service/domain registrar, and buy a URL to match your idea (make it a dot com). This is a small but important investment in the future of your book marketing.
Tell me something! Do you buy URLs the way some people buy shoes? Are you a fan of one website to market multiple books, or do you prefer individual book websites?
I am the founder/CEO of the Weaving Influence team, the author of Reach: Creating the Biggest Possible Audience for Your Message, Book, or Cause, and the host of the Book Marketing Action Podcast. I’m a wife and mom of three kids, and I enjoy running, reading, writing, coffee, and dark chocolate.
Dear Becky:
Great post! I have one URL now. I am a fan of one central URL.
Linda,
Makes a lot of sense for you, as your next book will fit well with the first one. 🙂
I’m actually having to consider that now, since my book is soon to be published! I’m thinking… one single “hub” with unique pages for each book. So much easier to manage, with everything all in one place, and probably allows for more cross-promotion than individual websites.
Elizabeth,
Seems like a reasonable and thoughtful strategy!
Best wishes with your new book!
Becky
Love the perspectives you shared about different choices. If I were an author I would have one site with a beautiful page designed for each book. And I would hire Weaving Influence to promote it. I’m not an author, but I own a few domains. One is for my business name but the one I’m developing is for my future aspirations so I never have to retire.
Jane,
Exciting and thank you for your support. As I currently have four websites, I am not sure what I will do when I write my first “real” book. Worth considering, certainly!