Videos in this Series (so far)
- Why Author Websites Fail (Introduction)
- Curious Cathy (Author Website Visitor #1)
- Book Buying Betty (Author Website Visitor #2)
- Reading Club Rhonda (Author Website Visitor #3)
Video Transcript
The fourth kind of reader who visits author websites is Impatient Irene.
She wants to read your next book now and can’t wait until it comes out, and she wants to know when that will be.
I am an Impatient Irene.
The number one reason I go to an author’s website as a reader is to find out about the status of an upcoming book. So I feel very close to this particular Web site visitor.
She likely came to your website directly.
She typed in your Web site URL, or clicked a bookmark on her computer, or typed it in from an address in your book.
The other option is she may have come from Google, and specifically, she Googled your name.
This is why it’s so important to rank on Google for your own name because she may be typing it in and coming to your Web site, hoping to find the progress of your upcoming book.
The easiest way to thrill Irene is to have a progress bar on your website showing how things are going.
Even if you’re making slow progress, the fact that she can see that you’re making progress keeps you top-of-mind and helps her wait until your book comes out.
So few authors have the status of an upcoming book on their website that I got irritated.
This is the number one thing I look for and so rarely would I find it.
In fact, I was so bothered that I had my team make a free WordPress plugin, MyBookProgress, specifically so that authors could easily add a progress bar to their Web site that was geared just for authors.
This is what it looks like, and it has a “get book updates” button that visitors can click, where they then subscribe to find out more by email about your book.
We also put in a dashboard so you can track your writing over time.
You can put in your word count and it helps you know what your progress is.
It also helps you stay motivated to keep writing every day if you’re doing National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).
This is an invaluable tool because it will help you stay on track as you write your book.
I very briefly though would like to talk about that “get book updates” button and about email newsletters specifically.
Impatient Irene wants to join your newsletter.
If I am coming to an author’s website, I want to join their newsletter so I can be emailed when their book comes out.