Top Reasons Every Author Needs a Website

There is more to becoming a successful author than just writing.

You don’t get to the top and stay there if you don’t treat your writing as a serious career. Seeing yourself as more than just an average, run-of-the-mill writer, but an author building a career makes it easier to begin to see what tools you need to position yourself as a voice in your field of writing.

Having a website is one of the best tools every author should have at his or her disposal, and here’s why:

1. A website positions you as an expert in your field, with your credibility rising as your site evolves. When an author both writes and maintains an online presence, that author is taken seriously as it becomes obvious that you take your writing seriously.
2. Your website is your very own billboard, announcing your talent and genius to the world! Outside of that space, you are inundated with stiff competition in other writers vying for the attention and pockets of your readers. But on your website, you are the Master of your Art and the Toast of everyone who clicks that url. You can blow your trumpet as loud as you want and have people listen!
3. You are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. Well, not you exactly, but the website. And as long as your website is accessible, then so are you. Forget time zones here!
4. Owning a website is NOT as expensive as you think it is when you weigh in all the advantages and the reach against what you may have to spend to set it up and keep it running.
5. You can showcase all the other sides of you on your webpage. Are you a public speaker, a consultant or business mogul? Then, your website is the best medium to sell your brand as an author and an expert. Oh! Be careful not to become ‘all things to all men’ though, as it may hamper your credibility in some other areas.
6. Maintaining a website also helps create a hub for your fans, readers, and even other clients. People who love you and your work can get the chance to “meet” you through personal emails and even phone calls, if you so desire.
7. Ever done a Google search on your name or your book’s title? Well, if you have a properly built and professionally managed website, you become easier to find online and even become newsworthy. Once you make your website the best source of information about you, you will not only control your narrative, but over time, will become newsworthy too.
8. What is the one thing every writer craves? Readership. I mean, why write if no one will read, right? Well, having a website and attracting traffic to it is a huge step in acquiring readership. It gives them access to you and vice versa. And you’ll be amazed at how much your readers can offer in value when they feel like they are a part of your writing process.
9. Global reach is another reason you most certainly should have a website. In a universe that has become a global village, why restrict yourself to your locale when you can have the whole world eating out of your palms? Are you ready to become an internationally recognised author? Then get a website.
10. Remember, with your website, you control the narrative, and I mean literally. You can project your brand, your books, and whatever image you desire. You can create a site that makes you look like the girl next door, or you can have a ‘take on the world’ outlook. Whatever sells your books better, connects with your readers better, and keeps you on the best-selling list, can begin with how you portray yourself to the world through your website.

BONUS TIP

Your competition is doing it and getting noticed. You should too.