Author websites

[sholio]

I've been trying to figure out how to distill all of this into a poll, but it doesn't break down easily into a set of poll options, so I guess I'll solicit comment input instead. :)

I want to revamp my author website (again) -- not a lot, because I'm pretty happy having it on Wordpress and generally organized like it is, but I want to do my best to present all the information that people typically want from an author website in an easily navigable format. I also want to get my various social media (real-name blog, Facebook, Tumblr, etc) streamlined into some semblance of a professional web appearance. (Not this blog. This one is for play. :D)

So what I'm trying to figure out, mostly, is what people look for on author websites. Or do you go to them at all? Personally, I Google authors rather extensively, whenever I encounter a new author in the various ways that one does (via library books, via author blogs and comments, via random mentions of Book X on someone else's blog, etc). I have realized that, of the top hits, I'm actually a lot more likely to visit their Wikipedia page than their personal website, because the things that I am mostly looking for are:

- A capsule biography of the author and what kind of books they write
- A chronological list of their books and some idea of what they're about

Basically I want the Author 101. And I can find this information much more easily at Wikipedia, all laid out in a nice standardized format.

When I go to author websites, I've concluded that I'm mostly looking for:

- Information on what other books they have and whether I'd enjoy them.
- Free samples of their writing (short stories, sample chapters)
- Any interesting posts they might have on their blog.
- Contact information (sometimes)

If I'm already familiar with an author, sometimes I'll go to their website to look for interesting extra goodies about their worlds (maps, behind-the-scenes stuff, etc), or to see what they have out that's new, and I'll follow their blog ... but that is way less of a thing for me, I think, than just wanting the Author 101 and to find out what books they have. I've maintained various, ever-evolving incarnations of my original-fic website since the late '90s, but all along, I think I've been approaching it slightly backwards and viewing it as a place for existing readers to find more stuff, rather than a place for new readers to learn a little about me.

But, well ... what do you think? How do YOU use author websites (if at all)? Do you look for the same kinds of things I do, or other things I haven't mentioned?

Do you have any examples of author websites that you consider well-designed and easy to navigate? How about ones where you had a poor browsing experience and couldn't find the things you wanted?

ETA: If you never (or rarely) go to author websites, that's a useful piece of information as well - don't hesitate to comment!

Comments

[ratcreature]

Most often I want a bibliography, in particular with series an overview of what books are in a series and which order I should best read them, especially with sprawling universes, (re-)publishing orders that obscure chronology, multi-author series and such. But even with simple series author pages are sometimes astonishingly confusing. I recently went to a mystery author page after having read one of his books from the library to simply find out which of his other books featured the same protagonist and how the internal chronology differed from the publishing order (later books are set before earlier and explore backstory), and I could find out neither! It was very WTF?

ETA: and the publisher's page was no better. Like, one of the blurbs said that a book was the third-protagonist-name-book, but it was not the third by publishing year, nor could I tell from the other blurbs which was the first, which the second, or even if a book by that author belonged to that particular group. Total fail.

[sholio]

Thank you for the info! Yeah, that seems to be the most common answer I'm getting (among people who do regularly go to author sites). And I'm always amazed when authors don't have that kind of simple info easy to find on their website, or when the site itself is so cluttered or strangely designed that it's impossible to navigate.

[madripoor_rose]

Information on what other books they have and whether I'd enjoy them.
- Free samples of their writing (short stories, sample chapters)
- Any interesting posts they might have on their blog.
- Contact information (sometimes)


This, and when the next book in their series is coming out.

[sholio]

This is helpful - thank you!

[magibrain]

I think my three main purposes for going to author's sites are generally:

1) I'm looking for something I read elsewhere but can't remember where, though I remember the author;

2) I'm trying to find a list of what the author has published, and where; and

3) I need to link a friend to something.

If it's a novelist and I'm reading books in a series, I may check to see if there are more books in the series. To be honest, though, I don't visit author sites all that often; when I do, it's often because it's an author like Kameron Hurley or John Scalzi and they've written an essay everyone I know is linking to.

[sholio]

Thank you! It's definitely looking like most people who go to author sites are looking for book lists (which is generally the case with me too) - that's definitely good to know.

[winter_elf]

I do sometimes, usually when I'm looking for series order. If it a new author, and I just read a book and I'm DYING to know if a)there's more/a series, b) WHEN!

I'll sometimes then leap around to blogs.

Another use - for some of my favorite authors, I check the 'news' section to see if they have any book signings at cons I'm attending or coming to SDCC. :)

[sholio]

Oh, yeah, news and signings, that's a good point; I'm glad you brought it up!

[acari]

I probably fall outside the focus of this question because my taste in books runs towards long dead authors (picked up Shakespeare at 13 and never recovered basically) and non-fiction (I read encyclopedias for fun, idek). I do 90% of my fiction reading in fandom.

On the rare occasion that I look up an author I want to know if they've written something about a topic I may also find interesting or if they've written essays or have a blog. I never look for biographical info or public appearances because I don't care about that. I'm much more likely to end up at wikipedia than an author's website.

[sholio]

It's still useful information! Thank you for the additional data points.

[brightknightie]

I generally try not to know about living fiction authors (or actors, etc.). Their personal lives are their business, and when I accidentally learn their private activities or opinions, almost inevitably I am disappointed and find it interfering with my ability to enjoy their work. Occasionally, I even feel morally obliged to boycott them. I couldn't bear Georgette Heyer for a year after making the mistake of reading her Wikipedia entry -- and she's decades dead! but still I was dismayed by such racism and classism being her very own twentieth-century convictions, not historical artifacts in her historical fiction. I do not follow any fiction author blogs, and visit the websites of my top favorite fiction writers only when I hear of bonuses there (such as short stories unavailable elsewhere) or I can't drag upcoming-works announcements out of Amazon.

I'm strange. :-)

[sholio]

Not strange at all! I used to be like that, actually; I think what's changed is that I've become so fascinated with reading other people's writing advice and their stories of their own journeys towards publication. But I can completely understand not wanting to know anything. There are quite a few authors whose books I can no longer enjoy because I learned too much about them.

here via acari

[sylvaine]

Generally speaking if I want to know about the author's other works I go to wikipedia. When I do look at author sites I want to know how they present themselves/their books (when I'm deciding whether I want to read their books or not) & whether there's any tie-in media & where to find it (for instance for Mercedes Lackey all of her Valdemar filk). I love it beyond all telling when authors have personal or meta-y blogs on their site - maybe it's my fannish background, but I like knowing a little about the authors of the books I read, and I certainly don't want to commit to a series if I disagree with an author's attitudes towards e.g. social justice, or if I just generally find them obnoxious for whatever reason. And particularly with unknown-to-me authors., if I've read & enjoyed their blog, I'm far more willing to buy their books & far more likely te enjoy them, because I already have a positive attitude about the author & thus by extension their work rather than just a neutral one.