Actually, it really is about you

I have a new client who realized she needed a redesign, but aside from the visuals (she was right! They needed work), she was less sure about her content. She was ready to simply carry it over.

I did not agree. The content did not contain enough about her, which has to be, IMO, one of the main goals of an author website. I had had to gently twist her typing fingers to get her to understand that Yes, it was about the books, but it was not nothing but the books, so help me God. She did not want to “ram ME ME ME down people’s throats.” She just didn’t believe people would be all that interested in her, per se. Of course the ego trip can be overdone, but there are ways to include enough info about oneself so that those who want it will seek it and those who don’t won’t.

It took a little doing, but I was able to convince her. And now I want to convince you. As an author (or realtor, photographer, wedding consultant, massage therapist, artist, or any other profession where much of the success of your product depends upon you personally), there is a significant level of loving the product that depends upon an emotional attachment with the person who created the product. You. In some fields such as realty, trust. In others, writing and publishing, where you are asking people to give over hours upon hours of their time to fall in love with your characters and settings, etc. That means you actually want people to develop a crush on you, or the idea of you. “Oh, I love Elizabeth Boyle, too,” was an email I recently received from someone after posting my own adoration.

Some people are experts at being adored, and for some people this is just awkward. But this is business. Give your online audience enough info to feed their crush. Definitely stop short of TMI, and and of course neither encourage stalkers nor bore your audience to death with endless mundane inanities, but if someone has just read your book and is riding that high, give them enough on your bio page to smile more. To feel that they have met you. To reinforce that crush. You are a celebrity to your readers. Throw them a juicy, meaty bone. Your website should be about your books, because selling your books is what allows you to keep writing. But your website is YourName.com — it needs to be about you, too. Because somewhere, some one is turning to the person next to them and saying, “I love her!”

And that is definitely a goal.