When you’re getting ready to launch a new writing endeavor there’s a ridiculous number of things you need to take care of before you hit that publish button for the first time. Domain names to register, social media accounts to secure, websites to create and get online, connections to make, and much more. Not to mention a little thing we authors refer to as actually writing. It’s all for naught without books to publish and share with the world, after all.
Creating a New Website
This particular (first) post relates to the website part of the equation. I’m lucky enough to have done a few websites in the past, enough to at least be proficient with WordPress. It’s not something I especially enjoy doing, I’d much rather be writing. In this day and age though, an author’s online presence is a necessity, not a nice extra. A functional website that’s easy to navigate and at least decent-looking. It’s something that absolutely must be ready to go before anything gets published.
Back to WordPress. I’ve used it a number of times over many, many years, and it’s amazing how far it’s come. There are plenty of purist (or snobby) web designers that won’t even give someone credit for making a site if it’s done with WordPress. I can see where they’re coming from, to a point. It does make it much easier to put something up you might not be able to figure out otherwise. Add in the loads of plugins and themes made by the community, and you really can do anything with it.
WordPress might be free, but a lot of the good plugins and themes are not. I’ve put a good bit of money into some of the things driving this site, not to mention the cost of the hosting itself. Again, it’s not optional in 2018. Where an author may have spent money to travel to meet publishers or agents in the past, today that money is spent on building an online presence.
OMG It’s Done
I think. Yay? It even does all sorts of cool rearranging when you use different screen sizes. Pieces of content move from top to bottom, left to right, anything to fit the screen. Something the kids apparently call “responsive design.” In my case, that means picking themes and plugins that claim to do that for me.
I’ll forever be adding new books, writing new posts, adding reviews, posting sales, and all of that. But the torture of trial and error and constantly reloading the site to see what I broke with the latest change should be over. Mostly. If you happen to be poking around and find something that doesn’t work, looks wrong, or you just think it’s stupid, feel free to Contact Me and let me know. I won’t be offended. Unless you’re a real asshole about it anyway.
I’m so glad it’s done. Now I’m going to write a really outrageous sex scene to congratulate myself. Til next time…