An author, or aspiring author, website or blog plays a lot of important roles.
We can entice new readers, sell books, and generally offer a professional image of ourselves to people in the industry or readers.
Also—we can give people a way to contact us. These people could be agents, editors, journalists, book bloggers…or other people who would like to get in touch with us.
Over the last week, I’ve noticed that while many people have Facebook pages and Twitter feeds linked in their sidebar, they don’t have a “contact me” with an email address.
And sometimes, you just don’t want to get in touch with someone on a Facebook wall where their 1200 friends can read your message. Or maybe you don’t want to sign into your Facebook account and go through several steps to email the person’s Facebook inbox (if they’re even on Facebook.) And you don’t want to tweet your message to them, where you have to think in terms of 140 characters.
You want to send an email (says Elizabeth, with some degree of frustration.)
Believe me, I know that if you post an email address that you can get spammed like crazy. I’d be a rich, rich woman right now if all those Nigerian lottery spams were telling me the truth.
But still, y’all—an email address. You can get one for free if you’d like a separate one from your family account. I’m using Gmail, which I’ve been happy with so far. Yahoo and Hotmail both offer free emails.
You can download free “contact me” widgets (which offer a form service) for both Blogger and WordPress. Just Google “contact me widget.”
Or, if you like, you can type this into your sidebar: “Contact Me at elizabethspanncraig (at) gmail.com.” People know that they’ll put an @ symbol in the place of the “at”.” Or they should know that, anyway. And the spammer spiders won’t pick up on it as an email address.
What other things should go on our blogs or websites?
The Book Publicity blog recommends (for published authors) your publishing house, agent and publicist info, contact info, and press kit.
The Hey, There’s a Dead Guy in the Living Room blog recommends that we have a domain name that makes sense, buy links, buzz words, clear headers, and organized pages.
I’d say book covers, bio, interviews, headshots, list of appearances, news on upcoming releases, and review snippets.
And an email address. :)
Elizabeth – Thanks so much for these useful tips! You’re absolutely right that it’s important to be easy to contact through one’s blog or web page. I’ve run into that more than once when I’ve tried to contact someone. Your other ideas (head shot, bio, etc) are terrific, too. I would also say it’s a good idea to link to other places to “find” you. For instance, I’ve had people stumble across my blog, not realizing I’m also on Facebook, Twitter, Author’s Den and some other places. It helps people who are on those other networks to know they can reach you there, I think (at least, I think it helps me).
Some good tips and advice. There are a few blogs I’ve visited recently and I haven’t actually been sure who is writing them because I’ve been unable to find a name.
Thanks for sharing this.
If you want to be cagey on a site like Facebook, you can at least place a prominent URL for a website that has your contact info.
Good advice, thanks :-)
This is such good advice. I know I have a ‘Contact Me’ page on my website and people do use it. I’ve had interview requests and comments just from that alone. And you’re right – what’s easier than an e-mail address? :)
Totally agree (though I’ve nothing to sell yet!)
I wanted to pop in and tell everyone on WordPress that you can key in the following code on your HTML page tab and create a Contact Page for your blog.
[contact-form to=”you@me.com”]
Takes two seconds, and it doesn’t reveal your email address to the sender.
(I tested it.)
Since I’m not actually selling yet (and don’t intend to for a couple years), I’m keeping my webpage pretty basic. A welcome, poetry samples, link to the blog, lit reviews, ‘about me.’ It’s sort of a place to get a quick peek and maybe remember me for the future?
On my Contact Page on the website (not the blog), I’ve got a sign-up where people can add their email address to my private list if they’d like to be notified one day when I publish. All they do is type in their email, and it goes onto a private list I can look at one day when I sell. Ha! No one has signed up yet, but it’s an idea! :D
I pay $14.95 (annually) to have the domain for the webpage; the rest is all free.
I agree about keeping the webpage professional, but I want it fun too, so I used lots of color. Once I’ve got a book, I’ll match the webpage to the book’s theme, or find a way to ‘brand’ my name through the site.
Anyway, just sharing, in case anyone here is extremely new, without anything to show for themselves… like me. :D
I use MicrosSoft Office Life for the website because it lets you remove the ‘powered by’ link for free.
Great post, Elizabeth! :D
(my webpage)
That should say ‘MicroSoft Office Live.’
Great advice, Elizabeth. thanks
Sometimes it’s the simplest things we forget. Good advice. Now I’ve got to go check for an e-mail address. :)
Mason
Thoughts in Progress
I agree–many times I’ve wanted to get in touch with an author or blogger and can’t for the life of me find a contact button.
Boing! You are so right, Elizabeth. Hadn’t thought about it, but it is frustrating not to be able to contact someone thru email that you’ve found online. Thanks, as always.
Karen
Yes! Will do immediately. OK another question but you definitely don’t need to dedicate a posting to it! As you undoubtedly realize – my blog – Crazy Jane – is not entirely about writing. It is about all sorts of things with more of a focus on writing than anything else. Also, it has the name Crazy Jane which is not immediately relevant or even understood by most readers. If I were to start a NEW blog that was entirely devoted to the writing craft how would I keep all my contacts, my followers etc? Or could I change my current name of blog – I suppose that is the same thing. I would continue to blog on Crazy Jane I think? Any ideas? Sorry for such a huge question but you have made yourself the BEST in this department so…if you’d like me to drop by and embroider you a shirt I’d be happy too – or cook you up some enchiladas – whatever!
First of all, you’re all going to think I’m talking about *you*! But I’m not–the person I tried so hard to reach this past week hasn’t commented on my blog–but they do tweet and I needed to talk to them about something to do with Twitter. :)
Margot–Yes, that’s a BIG help. Sometimes I want to tweet someone’s post and I don’t know if they’re on Twitter or not, so I can’t include an @reply to them.
Charmaine–You’re welcome. :) Thanks for coming by.
TK –I get emails all the time and have found it really helpful. Journalists, in particular, don’t want to hunt down contact info…I think it’s a good idea to have it visible. I’ve got a tab at the top of the page and contact info in the sidebar. My website has a whole contact page, too.
Corra–Thanks for giving us the WordPress widget link! I appreciate it. And I agree…if you don’t have anything to sell (and that includes a manuscript to an agent or editor), then just a professional looking website with basic info works out really well.
Cassandra–Now that’s a personal pet peeve of mine. Occasionally I’ve run into blogs that are group blogs…with no member profiles listed, or individual blogs that are *completely* anonymous with no indication if the person is male or female, human or animal. It’s fine to be anonymous–that’s what I’d want if I were out there selling books. But at least come up with an avatar and a pen name and a pithy profile that still keeps your identity secret.
The Daring Novelist–Absolutely! Because Facebook doesn’t care about our privacy one whit.
Teresa–You’re welcome! :)
Mason–Didn’t know you didn’t have one on there! See, now everyone is going to think I’m talking about them. :) No, it’s the Twitter person I was trying to reach.
Jan–I think you have 2 options with that, that I can think of. You can 1) use your existing blog (keeping your followers, etc) and just write a “Changing the Focus of the Blog” post and then start using it as a writing blog from that point on (and start a new blog that you can use for your other interests), or you can 2)start out with a whole new writing blog…and then you’d have to start over with the followers because there’s no way to transfer those. BUT–you could write a post sending everyone to the new blog, run a contest to have people follow your new blog, subscribe to your blog, etc. And–you have the Facebook page in place, so you can send an invite to your current friends–on Facebook’s Networked Blogs app–to follow your new, writing blog.
Yum! Enchiladas! Wish we lived down the street from each other. :)
Thanks Elizabeth – think I’ll do the first of these – less hassle plus I have way more writerly followers than any other ‘category’ of people. I’ll just change the sub-title to something more writerly.
Which I can’t do now as I have to go to WORK! I was just in the garden for forty minutes. What heaven…
When you think about it there’s not much use in raising your profile, if people can’t get in touch with you!
Good advice. I think people are way too paranoid about giving out information on the internet. To me, that’s letting the terrorists win. We become afraid, isolated, and shoot ourselves in our own feet keeping that info from people that we want and need to connect with.
I include an email address on my blog. My website is another story. Sigh.
Great advice! I’ve had a fair few people contact me because my profile has my email. It isnt’ on my first page because as of yet, I am not selling anything specific, but it is pretty easy to find.
*note to self to buy domain name* hmph. I keep delaying, but I know I should move on that…
I’ve had that same frustration at not being able to find a contact address so I do have that on my blog. However, from your list I can see I still need to add some additional information. Guess I now have a new weekend project.
I didn´t include contact information in the beginning because I wanted to avoid spam, but I could see that if I want e.g. review examples of books, a mail address is indeed useful. And of course it is a must for a writer. (I just used yours, in fact :D)
Thank you for this sage advice. Just this morning I saw an email with the (dot) in the line and wondered what the deal was. Now I know. :0)
Good advice again – thanks Elizabeth!
Well, shoot, I went and looked and I don’t have an Email Me on my blog. Got just about every other way to contact me, but not that one.
Thanks!
Helen
Straight From Hel
Yeah, I haven’t got around to putting my contact information on my blog yet, but after reading this, I will for sure.
CD
Good advice, as usual.
I confess my email is not on the main page of my blog, but it’s there if you click on my profile.
And I have it at the bottom of every page of both my YA series and speaker websites. Plus on the main page of my Deviant Art site.
But I understand your frustration. Especially with sites where you want to contact the owner (for a blog stop or review or something) and you can’t find their email anywhere!
Jan–I think, in the long run, that’s going to be the easiest way to go!
Terry–That’s the worst!
Mary–I think you’re right. That’s not to say I haven’t encountered a few strange people and a few spammers—but considering the number of regular people that I’m interacting with and the number of regular emails that I get, the percentage is really small.
Karen–It can be. It’s like “they’re so close, but so far away!”
Hart–I think it’s pretty easy to find. A lot of profiles don’t have emails on them. :(
It doesn’t cost much to have a provider sit on your domain name for you. I use Go Daddy and it’s pretty cheap.
Jane–I’ve had people contact my agent about things for me that way, too. So an agent number could be helpful, as well.
Kathi–That works well, too. I’ve seen those addresses around.
Elspeth–So true! And I get emails every day from either my blog or website…think of what people could be missing out on!
Helen–Just a little tweak. :)
Carol–At least it’s easy to correct!
Clarissa–Well, but you have a brand-new site up! It does take a little while to get things set up.
Elizabeth–Thanks! :)
Diane–But people don’t have to dig very deep to find yours. For this particular person, they were determined to hide it. For one thing, they had no actual name on their blog…just a blog name. No profile. They had no FB page, but they were on Twitter–and Twitter just linked back to the blog. Arghhh! I finally just gave up. Too bad, because their link had gone viral and I wanted to let them know. :(
Going over to add it now… :0)
Very interesting advice, which has certainly set me thinking. Thank you.
My email is in my profile – should I put it on my blog?
Great advice as always! I have been telling everyone I know who writes to read your site. =)
Dorte–Yes, just got your email. :) Thanks.
Thanks, Jemi!
Martin–Thanks for coming by. :)
Alex–I think *most* people can find it off a profile, but some folks might not be able to. At least you have it linked to your profile–so many people don’t seem to.
Professor Stacy–Thanks so much! I appreciate it. :)
Great advice, thank you. I will go and make sure I can be contacted on my blog.
All good advice. I’ve thought about doing the “contact me” widget; but I think I’ve decided that posting my e-mail on my profile works well enough while I’m unpublished.
Hmm, corramfeydon’s you@me tip looks pretty good. I could put that under my “about me” blurb.
Interesting post Elizabeth. Thanks for the thoughts.
……dhole
Great advice, as always. I’ve gotten some wonderful leads through the “Contact Me” button on my website.
I think a “Buy the Book” button is essential for every writer’s website, and should be on every single page, easily visible.
You’re right. It would be a good idea to have an email address posted somewhere on my sidebar, even though right now, not many people know me. It will come in handy eventually, if only for my core of author-friends to be able to reach me.
Kristen–Great!
Lisa–And all sorts of good things can happen when you have a way to be contacted. :)
Donna–I appreciate Corra’s WordPress tips since I’m a Blogger blogger. :)
Jaleh–And sometimes it’s something completely random. I get contacted a lot by schools, teachers, that kind of thing.
Ingrid–You are so right. “Buy” buttons are what it’s all about if we have a book on the market! :)