Do You Have Your Own Web Site?

[Benjamin Sobieck]

Sound off if you have your own Web site (or one specifically for your book). Your publisher's site doesn't count. You must be master of this domain. Mine has two URLs: CrimeFictionBook.com and MinnesotaAuthor.com.

Twitter and Facebook don't count. Blogs, well, OK.

Following up question: How did you build it? Was it free online software? Did you pay someone to build it for you? I made mine using webs.com.

Let's hear them.

[Edward G. Talbot]

heh. That reminds of this t-shirt: http://www.despair.com/yourblog.html

[Lindy Cameron]

I've just launched a new website - designed by my WebQueen who also runs the AustCrime site. The idea behind the Clan Destine Book & Author Portal is to provide a hub for a group of Aussie genre writers. It's simple and barely 2 weeks old.
www.clandestine-books.com.au

[Grant McKenzie]

I designed my own website at http://grantmckenzie.net Right now it's focused on my debut novel, Switch, so I'll have to update it soon to reflect the upcoming release of Book 2 in the UK, while still keeping a focus on Switch since it launches in Canada from Penguin in August.

[Mike Dennis]

I have my own website, http://mikedennisnoir.com which was built from the ground up by the incomparable Leslie Michaelis. She did a fantastic job, and she was well worth the money.

[Lesann Berry]

This is really nice - fun design and simple to navigate.

[Cornelius Butterfield]

I have a dot.com web site. I'm using it to learn how to write; practice, practice, practice. (My book, in parts, is stuck in My Documents, for now.) That said, here's what I did.

Invented an AKA. ($10, GoDaddy). Clicked BLOGGER.com (Free) Got Blogger.com site. Then removed Blogger from the name, (free). CorneliusButterfield.com. Should be sufficient, and inexpensive.

[Edward G. Talbot]

I have my own web site. I do web and database design for my day job (mostly back-end stuff, not making it look nice), so my first version of the site, I did myself. For those who care about such things, I wrote it in ASP and MySQL.

About four months into the six month run of my serialized audiobook of my novel, a fan offered to help me redo the site. I took him up on it, and we redid the site using drupal. He did most of the work and it came out very well. The only problem was that it got a lot slower -not because we added more pictures or words, just because of drupal. A while later, we decided to redo the site to make it less busy, less like a podcaster/blogger site, and better able to handle future books beyond the one novel and one short story collection. The result was the site as it is now:

http://www.edwardgtalbot.com

We've still got a few performance problems, especially if you create an account and log in as opposed to just browsing. One or two other configuration problems as well. I attribute all of this to my insistence that I keep the site on the windows-based hosting service I had used for years. Drupal has more problems on windows than on linux I have discovered. Sometime in the next month I will probably be biting the bullet and trying to move the site to a linux-based host as the fan who designed it recommended from the beginning.

Regarding design, I think appropriate design can vary by author. Stephen King is going to want a different kind of site than Paolo Coehlo. I like the balance I've gotten with my site (though certainly there is always room for improvement), but a small subset of the population rails against anything except the most simple designs.

[Kris Neri]

I had someone design my first website. But it occurred to me that in the time it took for me to type updates for my designer, I could do it myself. I taught myself Dreamweaver, and I've now created a few websites. I designed and maintain our bookstore's site: http://www.wellredcoyote.com. And I recently created a new site for myself: http://www.krisneri.com. Once you get used to doing it, it's actually easy.

[John Desjarlais]

I built my own site, http://www.johndesjarlais.com, using FreeSiteDesigner.com with hosting through DotEasy.com. I learned about these through Writers Digest - hmm - quite a while ago. I have full control of the site, it's easy to update, and the cost is very reasonable. My publisher has just built a site for BLEEDER at http://bleeder.veraprise.com (it will move from that address as soon as it is finished). I have administrative access to it and can change most of the content (but not the design).

[Christopher Valen]

I have my own website designed and hosted by author John Passerella at www.christophervalen.com. I also write a blog called Probable Cause at http://christophervalen.com/blog. Jack is very reasonable and always responds quickly to requested updates and changes, usually the same day and often within an hour or two. He designed websites for Harlen Coben and J.A. Konrath among many fiction and nonfiction authors.

[KD Easley]

I have a website. KdWrites is my domain name, but I also own the domains for my name and the common versions of my name and I think at some point we're going to get it set up so any of those will lead to my website. My son is a web designer, so I paid for it, but got a nice family discount. It's been revamped many times over the years, but I think the newest incarnation is the best and it incorporates my blog into the site itself, so if someone finds my blog they can also check out the site and vice versa. It seems to be working. As I drive more readers to my blog, I'm getting more traffic to the site as well. And as that traffic grows, my book sales seem to be creeping up also.

[Beth Groundwater]

I have an author website: http://bethgroundwater.com/
I'm lucky in that my husband is a retired software engineer and dabbles in JAVA, etc. He built and maintains the website. I email him content updates about once a month and he enters them. This keeps the squabbles down to a minimum. His payment? Bottles of single malt scotch, massages, and other forms of sincere gratitude. :)
I also have a blog that I created and maintain myself. Blogspot makes it really easy:
http://bethgroundwater.blogspot.com/