Arctic Light

My M/M romance novel "Held For Ransom" is out! aka "the one with the ridiculous pun in the title" (Ransom is the name of one of the two main protagonists; I couldn't help myself)

Dreamspinner Press ebook and paperback
Amazon ebook and (hilariously out of print for absolutely no reason considering NO COPIES HAVE SOLD as far as I know) paperback
B&N ebook and paperback

There are a couple of (not particularly graphic, but definitely nsfw) sex scenes, just so you know. And because it is me, there is also a large ensemble cast, a whole lot of family stuff, and some hurt/comfort.

There is also one of those awesomely doofy romance covers with the floating heads above a basically unrelated photo; behold:



.... Which is exactly what I asked for and exactly what I got. I feel a need to point out that in the request sheet for the DSP art department -- who are, by the way, wonderful to work with -- one of the questions has to do with, basically, how much manflesh you want on your cover: clothed? shirtless? totally naked? THEY AIM TO PLEASE.

I'm having a release party today over at my Facebook and my LMW blog. In particular I'm giving away my ~custom art services~ (you could win a custom-drawn bookmark or small art piece on the topic of your choice!), and anyone here is welcome to enter to win, of course. Giveaway post on Facebook - Giveaway post on Wordpress.

(The post says I'm going to do a drawing at 3 p.m. and then run another contest for basically the same thing, but since the response has been light so far, I'll probably just hold off, collect all the entrants on the same posts, and do two drawings in the evening.)

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!