As I said in the last post, you don’t have to have a fancy website. The point of an author’s website is to have a place where readers can go to find out all about your books and you. There is no need to spend hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars to have someone design a site for you. Blogger and WordPress both have free templates that can be adjusted to fit your needs.
We’ve already covered the importance of creating your site to represent the genre you write in and you as an author. Another thing to consider is, feel. If you write sweet romances, then having a dark website doesn’t make sense. If you write horror, then having a light-hearted design doesn’t work. Keep that in mind when considering your color scheme.
One thing do stay away from, even if you do write horror, is a black background with white lettering. It’s hard on the eyes. You want readers to visit your website and stay for awhile. If they can’t read it without getting a headache from eyestrain, then they’re not going to stay very long.
Which takes me to my next point. Not everyone has perfect eyesight. Make sure your font is large enough for everyone to read, or at least the majority of people.
Pick a font that is easy to read. Fancy fonts might look pretty, but they can be hard to read. I would suggest using them only for things like headers or quotes. The rest of your website should be using a legible font. That doesn’t mean you have to use Times New Roman or Arial, there are a lot of legible fonts out there.
Another thing to consider, while those moving or flashing graphics might look cool, they can also cause problems with some medical conditions, like epilepsy.
In part three of author websites, I’ll talk about things every author website should have. If you have a question, please feel free to leave a comment on this post or contact me directly by email at lynleywayne(at)gmail(dot)com.
Lynley was a 2014 Lambda Literary Awards Finalist. She published her first book in September of 2012 and hasn’t looked back. When not writing she can found reading or coming up with creative ways to avoid housework. While Lynley Wayne may be a pen name, the woman behind it is very real and believes everyone is entitled to their own version of happiness. She looks forward to the day when who, or how, we love is no longer an issue.
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