We often hear that for authors having their website is a must. Do we wonder why is it so important for them to have a website? What can be the possible reasons? The most common answers are:
- To portray a professional image
- To have a book deal
- To increase the book sales
- Someone said it is important
But there is more to the picture. People, including the authors, don’t understand the significance of having a website in the writing industry. It has several perks and technicalities that are involved. First, it is the most powerful tool for book marketing, and it works like a wheel to your book writing passion. Second, ghostwriters for hire are available in the market who can write your book and an entire book marketing plan, including the author’s website.
There are five reasons why an author should have a website, and these reasons work like a wheel in book marketing.
- Discovery: If you aim to become a famous author, you will have to give a chance to your readers to discover you. While scrolling over their social media accounts, they can find about, or some of their friends have recommended you. You can also write a blog post that can make them excited about you, and they can land on your website to know more about you. This is possible only if you give them a place to land on. This will increase your book sales or the number of people who follow you.
- Consideration: This is the stage where your website starts showing its true power. You fans are wondering how good this author is, you need to showcase your best writing style, and there is only one way of doing it through your blog post or about me section. Provide them with downloadable short stories to enhance their interest in your books. Another way of attracting them is by flaunting your creative book covers, which will force them to land on your sales page, which is the real goal in this consideration stage.
- Conversion: This is the stage where your potential fan becomes a true fan. Suppose somebody has reached the level of signing up for the mail list that also comes under the conversion stage. They show interest in your writing because they like what they read and want to know more about you. This chunk of people is your real target audience.
- Relationship: Once your fan finishes reading your first book and land on your website for some questions regarding the book, you build a connection with your fans. They want to build a relationship with you by signing up for the newsletter to get notified of upcoming releases. They will start following you on social media accounts, but never forget to add them to your mailing list. Your mailing list is the key to your success, and you have to make sure that your list is full of true fans; the size of the list doesn’t matter. A small list with true connected fans can do wonders for you. Their loyalty will make them super-excited for your new releases, and they will place pre-orders for upcoming releases.
- Retention: If you built a positive relationship with your fans, they would want to stick around you. People are busy these days, so avoid boring them with useless material in the newsletter. Instead, try to give them engaging content about yourself and your books this will help you to retain your fans, or you might lose them.
Do you want to increase your fan base or want to stick to what you have earned? Obviously, you want to increase the audience. This can be done by engaging content and interaction with your existing fans. They will start recommending you to their friends, and that’s how you will reach stage one of discovery again. As mentioned earlier, these five steps work like a wheel of book marketing. If you follow these stages, you can earn an unlimited fan base on your website.